Court Opinion

ID: 9672546
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:56:56.711761+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:17.054147
License: Public Domain

ON APPELLANTS’ MOTION FOR REHEARING
Nance has filed a motion for rehearing urging, among other things, that this court erred in failing to award him attorney’s fees in the amount stipulated in the trial court, and in holding that the trial court did not err in denying leave to file his post-verdict trial amendment.
Nance pleaded his entitlement to attorney’s fees in the court below, and the amount of those fees was stipulated. In the prayer for relief in his original brief to this court, he requested that we grant him the attorney’s fees stipulated below. Because we held in our original opinion that Nance is entitled to recovery for breach of contract, we also hold that he is entitled to attorney’s fees in the stipulated amount. Our judgment is reformed to so provide.
With regard to the post-verdict trial amendment, Nance contends that Greenhalgh v. Service Lloyds Ins. Co., 787 S.W.2d 938 (1990), requires us to hold that the court’s refusal to permit the trial amendment was an abuse of discretion. Nance’s reliance on this case is misplaced. The specific holding of the court in Green-halgh was that “a trial court must allow a trial amendment that increases the amount of damages sought in the pleadings to that found by the jury unless the opposing party presents evidence of prejudice or surprise.” Id. (emphasis added). The court went on to state
*335a trial court has no discretion to refuse an amendment unless: 1) the opposing party presents evidence of surprise or prejudice, ...; or 2) the amendment asserts a new cause of action or defense, and thus is prejudicial on its face, and the opposing party objects to the amendment.
Id. at 939 (emphasis added). The type of amendment sought in Greenhalgh, increasing the amount of damages pleaded, falls within the first category because it does not assert a new cause of action or defense. Thus, the trial court has no discretion unless the opposing party shows surprise or prejudice.
Nance’s trial amendment did not seek to increase the amount of damages, but sought to add an affirmative defense that had not been previously pleaded. It therefore falls within the second Greenhalgh category. Nance argues in his motion for rehearing that Alamo failed to present evidence of surprise or prejudice, but he does not address the fact that his amendment asserted a new defense, was prejudicial on its face, and relieved Alamo of the burden of showing surprise. See id. at 940 n. 3. The trial court had the discretion to refuse the amendment and, for the reasons set out in our original opinion, that discretion was not abused.
The other issues raised by Nance in his motion for rehearing have been addressed in our original opinion.
The motion for rehearing is granted in part and denied in part. The judgment of this court is reformed to order that Nance recover attorney’s fees in the amount stipulated in the trial court.