Opinion ID: 2427974
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: voluntary remittitur

Text: Alternatively, Presidio asserts that it is entitled to a remittitur of the damages the Court found excessive. Because the Court did not affirm the court of appeal's judgment, Presidio offers a voluntary remittitur of the amount of the actual fraud damages the Court found to be excessive. Presidio requests the court of appeals judgment be reformed and affirmed as reformed. Alternatively, Presidio requests the judgment be reformed and remanded to the court of appeals. Presidio argues that the Court, for many years, has accepted voluntary remittiturs from plaintiffs. See Redman Homes, Inc. v. Ivy, 920 S.W.2d 664, 669 (Tex.1996). Formosa responds that the Court should not grant Presidio a voluntary remittitur because that relief from error in awarding damages unsupported by legally sufficient evidence is unavailable through the office of voluntary remittitur. Formosa relies on Redman Homes in support of its argument. In Redman Homes, a unanimous Court recognized that the Court has accepted remittiturs from plaintiffs in the past. See Redman Homes, 920 S.W.2d at 669. In Redman Homes, the Court also said that our decisions involving voluntary remittiturs are limited by the rule that this Court can consider only questions of law. The Court observed that the plaintiff's offer in Redman Homes presumed that the Court could conclusively ascertain from the record the amount of damages untainted by what the Ivys conceded was inadmissible testimony about market value. In Redman Homes the Court concluded it was unable to ascertain the damages untainted by inadmissible testimony. Redman Homes, 920 S.W.2d at 669. I submit that such is not the case here. First, in its response to Presidio's request for voluntary remittitur, Formosa neglects to state, but Presidio points out that in Formosa's application for writ of error to this Court, Formosa asserted: Presidio's actual damages are excessive as a matter of law to the extent they exceed $467,000. The minimum relief to which Formosa is entitled for that error is excision of the excess and rendition of judgment for only $467,000. Larson v. Cactus Util. Co., 730 S.W.2d 640 (Tex. 1987). In my view, asserting to this Court that the actual damages are excessive as a matter of law to the extent that they exceed $467,000 is an express concession that Presidio's actual damages are proven as a matter of law in the amount of $467,000. Be that as it may, the facts here are distinguishable from those in Redman Homes. Here, the Court could and did conclusively ascertain from the record the damages untainted by inadmissible testimony. The substance of the Court's damages finding in this case is that Presidio's evidence about profits it might have earned is inadmissible testimony because it is hypothetical and speculative. The Court held that Presidio's damages testimony does support an out-of-pocket damage award of $231,000 or a benefit-of-the-bargain damage award of $461,000. What the Court concludes amounts to a conclusive finding of damages under either measure that the court holds is permissible for a fraud in the inducement claim. However, the Court declines to render judgment for Presidio for a lesser dollar amount because Formosa contests the damages issue. Based upon the Court's finding of specific damages under either measure of damages that applies in a fraudulent inducement case, my question is what is there left to be tried? It seems to me that the Court has conclusively ascertained the damages untainted by what it holds is the inadmissible testimony and that Presidio's offer of a voluntary remittance is entirely in order. See Redman Homes, 920 S.W.2d at 669; see also Larson, 730 S.W.2d at 641; Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. White, 129 Tex. 659, 107 S.W.2d 360, 361 (1937); Baldwin v. Haskell Nat'l Bank, 104 Tex. 122, 134 S.W. 1178 (1911).