Court Opinion

ID: 9774748
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:32:31.18167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:15.111303
License: Public Domain

BISSETT, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority’s opinion which holds that “plaintiff did prove presentment of its claim,” and I further dissent from that portion of the judgment which awarded plaintiff $10,500.00 for attorney’s fees. In my opinion, neither the letter of January 1, 1980, nor the notations on the back of the check dated February 1, 1980, constituted a presentment of plaintiff’s claim, as required by art. 2226.
The majority relies on Ashford Development, Inc. v. U.S. Life Real Estate Services Corp., 661 S.W.2d 933 (1983); France v. Anniversary Indemnity Co., 648 S.W.2d 283 (Tex.1983); Jones v. Kelley, 614 S.W.2d 95 (Tex.1981); Huff v. Fidelity Union Life Insurance Co., 158 Tex. 433, 312 S.W.2d 493 (1958); and National Life and Accident Insurance Co. v. Dove, 141 Tex. 464, 174 S.W.2d 245 (1943). Such reliance is misplaced since those cases are distinguishable on the facts from the instant case.
In the Ashford case, supra, Ashford sent a letter “requesting a refund of its $11,-000.00 commitment fee.” The Court held that “this was a sufficient presentment of the claim to meet the requirements of art. 2226.” In the case at bar, the letter from plaintiff’s counsel to. defendant’s counsel did not request a refund of any of the monies paid under protest.
In France, supra, “... [T]he uncontro-verted evidence establishes that the medical bills were promptly forwarded to American Indemnity’s adjuster-representative who had handled this claim from the outset.” Moreover, the evidence further showed that “France contacted the adjuster by telephone regarding payment of the bills.” The Court held that under these facts, “American Indemnity is not in a position to *845assert that no demand for payment was made,” and, consequently, “the trial court erred in not permitting France to offer evidence of reasonable attorney’s fees.” Here, plaintiff never sent defendant a bill for a refund, nor did it ever contact defendant regarding a refund or payment of the monies paid under protest.
In Jones v. Kelley, supra, Jared L. Kelley and wife, Olga Kelley and the Texas Veterans Land Board sued Eugene Jones and wife, Della Mae Jones, for specific performance of the earnest money contracts for the sale of a tract of land. According to the opinion,
“The Jones couple later refused to convey the property. On September 7, 1977, the Joneses sent a letter to the Veterans Land Board advising them that they would not go through with the sale. The Veterans Land Board replied, by letter to the Joneses, that the Kelleys intended to go through with the sale. Further, an uncontroverted transcript of a telephone conversation appears in the record between Mrs. Kelley and Mr. Jones in which Mrs. Kelley repeatedly told Mr. Jones of her determination to go through with the sale.”
With respect to the question of whether there had been a presentment of the contract claim in order for attorney’s fees to be awarded, the Court, on page 100 of the published opinion, said:
“... A necessary requisite for the recovery of attorney’s fees is the presentment of the contract claim to the opposing party and the failure of that party to tender performance.”
The Court held that “the letter sent by the Veterans Land Board to the Joneses and the transcript of the telephone conversation between Mrs. Kelley and Mr. Jones established presentment as a matter of law.” The transcription of the telephone conversation shows that Mrs. Kelley told Mr. Jones:
“Well, sir, we are not in any way going to sell that land to anyone else when we so desparately (sic) want it for ourselves. Now I am going to tell you, we have contacted a lawyer and you will be hearing from him. The Land Board is notified of the facts that you are trying to back out of the deal, and we will not in any way give up this piece of land. We have too much money invested in it now.” 614 S.W.2d 95, 100 n. 4.
The letter from the Veterans Land Board was not reproduced in the opinion. All that we know is that the letter, together with the telephone conversation, constituted a sufficient demand for specific performance of the contract sued upon by the Kelleys. In Jones v. Kelley, there was an emphatic demand that the Joneses comply with the contracts of sale. In the instant case there is no language in the letter which, under the most liberal construction, can be construed as a demand, or even a request, that the monies paid for back payments of parking fees be repaid to plaintiffs.
The word “demand” was defined in Penn. Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Maner, 101 Tex. 553, 109 S.W. 1084 (1908) as “a request to do a particular thing specified under a claim of right on the part of the persons requesting.” That definition was approved in National Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Dove, supra, wherein the Court noted, as mentioned in the majority opinion, that the “demand,” or request, need not be in “firm and commanding language,” but may be “couched in the customarily-used polite language of the day.” However, the Court did say that “there must be an assertion of a right and a demand for the recognition and performance of the obligation upon which such right rests.” In Dove, plaintiff’s counsel, by letter, notified defendant that plaintiff “is filing his claim (for disability) covering his illness to date,” and requested that it be given “immediate attention.” The defendant, by letter, replies: “This acknowledges your letter of May 25th with which you sent us disability claims filed by Lemmie C. Dove.” There, the defendant insurance company “recognized that a claim had been filed.” This is not so in this appeal. The letter from plaintiff’s counsel, dated January 30, 1980, while asserting that it had a legal right to use the “thirty-two spaces” free of charge, did not demand or *846request that the defendant refund or repay the monies that had previously been paid as parking fee payments.
In Huff v. Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company, supra, plaintiff sued for renewal commissions as agent and renewed overwriting commissions as branch manager which he claimed defendant owed him. The evidence showed that plaintiff, by “oral demands and the letter asserting plaintiff’s claims were made known to defendant and defendant contended that it did not owe the items for which plaintiff was asserting his claim.” The Court said there was a proper presentment of the claim under art. 2226, and further said, at page 498 of the published opinion:
“Under this statute it has been held that a demand for a claimed amount due must be presented to the debtor alleged to owe the money to plaintiff, and that this demand must be made at least 30 days prior to a judgment in favor of claimant against the debtor. Gateley v. Humphrey, 1952, 151 Tex. 588, 254 S.W.2d 98; United States Life Ins. Co. v. Hamilton, Tex.Civ.App. 1951, 238 S.W.2d 289 (1, 2).”
In the case at bar, there was no demand by plaintiff for “a claimed amount due” which was presented to defendant.
An examination of the letter in question from its four corners, reveals that it does not make a demand of any kind or character for refund of monies previously paid. An examination, sentence by sentence, of the letter shows the following, and nothing more: 1) plaintiff is entitled to use the thirty-two spaces free of charge; 2) plaintiff does not owe any money for the parking spaces; 3) plaintiff will pay defendant $480.00 as the amount claimed by defendant to be due for the month of February, 1980; 4) such payment was not to be considered as any admission that any parking fee is lawfully owed by plaintiff to defendant, nor is such payment to be considered as a waiver of plaintiff’s legal right to occupy the parking spaces and to seek a judicial determination of such legal right; and 5) plaintiff will continue to insist upon its legal right to use the parking spaces without charge. The letter is nothing more than a statement of plaintiff’s legal rights, a protest of the parking fees charged by defendant, counsel’s views relating to plaintiff’s rights, and an assertion that payment of the $480.00 was not to be regarded as an admission that the parking fees are lawfully owing or as a waiver of plaintiff’s legal right to have the issue determined by litigation. The letter, giving it a most liberal construction, does not constitute a demand for refund of any of the $14,400.00 previously paid by plaintiff.
Plaintiff also asserts that the notation on the back of the check dated February 1, 1980 in payment of parking fees on the thirty-two spaces constitutes a presentment of the claim. I disagree. The notation only indicates that the payment was made under protest and refers to the letter of January 31,1980. The notation, either by itself or in conjunction with the letter of January 31, 1980, does not constitute a proper presentment of plaintiff’s claim and a demand that the claim be paid.
Unquestionably, it is well established that no particular form of presentment of a claim is required in order to supply the basis for an award of attorneys’ fees. Likewise, it is well established that the presentment (demand) for payment of a claim need not be evidenced by “firm and commanding language,” but “may be couched in customarily-used polite language of the day.” However, it is equally well established that, irrespective of the form of the presentment, whether it be in writing or oral, in forceful language, or otherwise, 1) assertion of a right, and 2) a demand for the amount claimed to be due must be presented to the defendant alleged to owe the debt or obligation to the plaintiff before there can be an award for attorneys’ fees under art. 2226. In the case at bar, plaintiff did assert a right to use the parking spaces without charge, but it did not demand that any money previously paid for the use of the spaces be paid to it by defendant. There is nothing in the letter which will support even an inference that plaintiff claimed that defendant owed it $14,400.00.
*847The making of some type of a demand for payment of a claim is an essential element for the recovery of attorney’s fees. International Security Life Insurance Company v. Redwine, 481 S.W.2d 792 (Tex.1972); Jones v. Kelley, supra; Huff v. Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company, supra; and National Life & Accident Insurance Company v. Dove, supra. The award of attorney’s fees was improper. Defendant’s fourth point of error should be sustained.
I would reform the judgment to eliminate the award of attorney’s fees, and as reformed, would affirm the judgment.