Court Opinion

ID: 9770305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:58:07.583394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:16.375639
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Defendants urge on rehearing that we erroneously considered the agreement to be an executory accord, citing as authority RESTATEMENT OF CONTRACTS § 419 (1932) which creates a presumption of a satisfaction through the execution of a substitute agreement when the underlying claim is unliquidated. The damages sought here by plaintiffs’ underlying claim are capable of a definite ascertainment. The action is one for breach of express trust and the imposition of constructive trusts on property and upon production payments. These are not matters to be arrived at by conjecture, like pain and suffering in a personal injury case. They are subject to a precise calculation. Accordingly, the presumption noted in § 419 of the RESTATEMENT OF CONTRACTS has no application. Our holding is based upon an examination of the face of the agreement which does not reveal that it was entered into in accord and satisfaction in the light of defendants’ burden to establish the defense of accord and satisfaction. See Jenkins v. Henry C. Beck, 449 S.W.2d 454 (Tex.1969). Upon retrial, the surrounding facts and circumstances may create a fact issue as to whether the parties intended the agreement to operate in satisfaction of the underlying claim or merely to hold it in abeyance until performance. Compare Ferguson-McKinney Dry Goods Co. v. Garrett, 252 S.W. 738 (Tex.Com.App.1923, holding approved) with Scott v. Ingle Bros. Pacific, Inc., 489 S.W.2d 554 (Tex.1972) and Murphy v. Dilworth, 137 Tex. 32, 151 S.W.2d 1004 (1941). We note that this may be one of several fact issues that may be raised by the pleadings and the evidence, including agreement, repudiation and fraud. We needed only to find one such fact issue, repudiation, that the court below erroneously decided without benefit of trial by jury.
Defendants also complain that we erred in failing to consider the following provision of the settlement agreement:
It is further understood and agreed that should any party fail to comply with the substantial terms of this agreement, that the court, upon notice of hearing, may on motion enter a judgment in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement as the court interprets them without prejudice.
Defendants contend that this provision operates as a waiver of trial by jury. We disagree. By its terms, the provision purports to clothe the court with supervisory power over the contract to the end that the court could supply such additional terms as are necessary to enforce the agreement, as well as to interpret it. In short, this stipulation reveals that the parties intended, as we noted in note 5 of the original opinion, to give the court impermissible powers. Looking at it another way, the parties, by this provision, sought to enter into a consent judgment in advance by giving the court the power to make the agreement its judgment. We considered this argument in connection with Burnaman v. Heaton, 150 Tex. 333, 240 S.W.2d 288 (1951). Whatever the parties sought to do by this stipulation, it may not be interpreted as giving the court fact-finding power with respect to accord and satisfaction, breach or repudiation or any other fact issue.
Defendants next call upon us to make findings of fact from the record to support certain conclusions reached in our original opinion. We remain persuaded that the original opinion together with our comments on rehearing are sufficient. However, in connection with defendants’ specific request that we point to references in the settlement agreement calling for execution of notes, security agreements, deeds of trust and the like, we merely point to the numerous representations made to the court by counsel for all parties. One of the more serious disagreements among counsel was the form to be used in preparation of closing documents. Specific mention was made of one eighteen-month note and of other security agreements and mortgages. One side insisted that standard State Bar of *619Texas forms were contemplated, and the other apparently would not agree. It was represented to the court that several drafts of documents had been exchanged, and, although diligent effort had been made by both sides, agreement could not be reached as to form or content. While we might agree with defendants that the settlement agreement does not refer to these documents, it is obvious that they were contemplated by the parties.
Finally, defendants point out that our original opinion did not consider the award of fees made by the trial court to the attorney ad litem. This is the first time that we have been presented with this issue. A review of the record reveals that the minor for whom the attorney was appointed had his disabilities removed during the course of proceedings in the trial court. It is apparent, therefore, that the trial court’s judgment made a final award of attorney ad litem fees and no complaint is made on appeal in this respect. Accordingly, defendants’ motion for rehearing is granted, the trial court’s judgment is affirmed with respect to the award of attorney ad litem fees and that part of the judgment severed. In other respects the judgment is reversed and remanded as in our original opinion.
Affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part.