Court Opinion

ID: 9681796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:56:36.758934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:35.907299
License: Public Domain

(dissenting).
This dissent is respectfully submitted.
Leon Griffin brought his first suit to recover the balance claimed to be owing under the contract and for foreclosure of an alleged mechanic’s and materialman’s lien against Holiday Inns of America. Holiday Inns filed a cross action to recover damages from Griffin for breach of contract. The trial court rendered judgment that both Griffin and Holiday Inns take nothing. The court of civil appeals affirmed on the basis of its holdings: (1) that the evidence supported an implied finding that Leon Griffin had failed to substantially perform his obligations under the contract, and (2) that there was no evidence showing the amount of damages sustained by Holiday Inns. The court of civil appeals in that case, Griffin v. Holiday Inns of America, 452 S.W.2d 517 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1970, no writ), pointed out that Griffin’s pleadings would not support a recovery in quantum meruit.
Griffin then filed the instant suit against Holiday Inns in quantum meruit to recover the “value” of labor and materials furnished under the same contract involved in the first suit. The trial court sustained Holiday Inns’ motion for summary judgment and the court of civil appeals affirmed. Both courts held that the judgment in the first suit was res judicata of the quantum meruit claim. Griffin v. Holiday Inns of America, 480 S.W.2d 506 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1972, writ granted).
The majority opinion of this court now concludes that res judicata does not bar the instant action, the result of which would dictate reversal. The cause is affirmed, however, by application of the compulsory counterclaim rule, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 97(a).
No party to this lawsuit has ever argued, however remotely, to this or any other court that Rule 97 has any application to this case, much less should control it. It cannot be inferred that arguments centering on the common law doctrine of res ju-dicata fairly raise the applicability of a quasi-statutory rule of civil procedure. That is especially evident in that neither Griffin’s brief nor Holiday Inns’ brief so much as mentions the vital fact of Holiday Inns’ counterclaim in the first suit, to which counterclaim Griffin’s quantum mer-uit claim is now held to have been a compulsory counterclaim.
In Flaiz v. Moore, 359 S.W.2d 872 (Tex.1962), this court took a significantly different stand. The trial court initially overruled defendant’s first “plea to the jurisdiction” based upon the fact that no party to the suit was a resident of Texas. *540Some two years later the trial court sustained a second “plea to the jurisdiction” based upon the dissimilarity of the applicable law (South Dakota) to Texas law. The trial court dismissed on this second plea and plaintiff appealed. The court of civil appeals affirmed, holding that while dissimilarity of law (second plea) was no basis for dismissal the nonresidence of the parties (first plea) was. Tex.Civ.App., 353 S.W.2d 74 at 78. The Supreme Court assumed that either residence-of-parties or dissimilarity-of-law would be a ground for dismissal under forum non conveniens, yet held the court of civil appeals was not justified in affirming upon the residence ground, the first plea. The Supreme Court then reversed both lower judgments which, for all that appeared, were quite correct. Flaiz was an even stronger case for af-firmance than the instant case because in Flaiz the litigants there had the opportunity to develop the relevant facts (nonresi-dence) in the trial court with full knowledge of the significance of those facts. Here the fact of Holiday Inns’ counterclaim appears in the record only incidentally, and there can be no doubt that no party in the trial court was aware of the significance of that fact. See also Lone Star Gas Company v. Sheaner, 157 Tex. 508, 305 S.W.2d 150 (1957), wherein the court refused to pass upon a theory of affirmance (sufficiency of property description) which was only raised on oral argument before the Supreme Court and was not briefed.
The very basis for the opinion by the majority of this court has not been tested by argument of counsel. The petitioner’s first opportunity to deal with Rule 97 will be on motion for rehearing. Absent fundamental error, this court should be reluctant to enter into the business of briefing cases for the parties, even when the object is to affirm both lower courts.
We should not go so far beyond the briefs. We should say nothing regarding Rule 97. The judgment of the trial court should be reversed.