Court Opinion

ID: 9638343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:41:41.275849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:05.767720
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Mrs. Jack Seale, in her motion for rehearing, complains that we erred in rendering judgment against her because there was no pleading to support the jury’s answer to special issue number three finding that Mrs. Jack Seale failed to disclose to Medical Personnel that she was ordering the services for her mother-in-law. In this respect, Medical Personnel pleaded that “the services were ordered and requested to be performed for Mrs. W. O. Seale by defendant Mrs. Jack Seale.” Plaintiff did not, however, plead that Mrs. Jack Seale did not inform Medical Personnel that she was acting as Mrs. W. O. Seale’s agent when she ordered the services. In response Mrs. Jack Seale pleaded that “if she had any contacts with plaintiff concerning the services sued for, such contacts were solely as a representative of . Mrs. W. O. Seale . . . , all of which was well known to plaintiff.” At trial, Mrs. Jack Seale admitted ordering the services, but, as noted in our previous opinion, her testimony with respect to what she told Medical Personnel was contradictory. Nevertheless, she failed to object to testimony that she failed to inform plaintiff of her capacity as agent in ordering the services on the ground that such evidence was unsupported by pleadings. Similarly, she failed to object to special issue number three on this ground. We conclude, therefore, that she waived this ground of complaint and that the nondisclosure issue was tried by implied consent. Tex.R.Civ.P. 90; Bednarz v. State, 142 Tex. 138, 176 S.W.2d 562, 563 (1943); Ames v. Putz, 495 S.W.2d 581, 582 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1973, writ ref’d).
Mrs. Jack Seale also asserts that we erred in rendering judgment against her based upon the jury’s answer to - special issue number three because the uncontradicted testimony of plaintiff’s president was *215that Mrs. Jack Seale never agreed to pay for the services rendered and because the evidence fails to show that plaintiff did not know that the services were being ordered as agent for Mrs. W. 0. Seale. It is immaterial here whether Mrs. Seale expressly agreed to pay for the services when she ordered them because the law in such a situation implies an agreement to pay by the person making the order unless he discloses that he was acting as agent for another person. The question presented here is not plaintiff’s right to be paid for the services rendered, but rather which of the defendants should be required to make the payment. More importantly, however, this contention ignores Mrs. Jack Seale’s testimony that she did not inform plaintiff that she was ordering the services as Mrs. W. 0. Seale’s agent. Since this evidence shows that when the order was made plaintiff had no contact with anyone other than Mrs. Jack Seale, it appears that plaintiff had no knowledge of the agency from any other source. As we noted in our previous opinion, she admitted during trial that her testimony was contradictory on this point. Thus, the jury was entitled to believe that part of her testimony where she stated that she did not inform Medical Personnel of her capacity at the crucial time when she ordered the services. Furthermore, the only time when knowledge by plaintiff that Mrs. Jack Seale ordered the services as an agent is crucial was when they were ordered. Likewise, the fact that Mrs. W. 0. Seale was billed by plaintiff for the services is but some evidence from which the jury could have drawn an inference that Mrs. Jack Seale disclosed her agency to plaintiff when she ordered the services; it is not, however, binding on the jury as a matter of law, but only one of the evidentiary matters for the jury to resolve. This issue was resolved against Mrs. Jack Seale.
Mrs. Jack Seale next argues that we erred in permitting plaintiff to elect in this court the defendant against whom it desired judgment. She contends that the plaintiff made its election in the trial court by accepting judgment against Mrs. W. 0. Seale. We cannot agree. Although plaintiff sought judgment jointly and severally against both defendants, which we determined in our former opinion it was not entitled to have, the trial court refused to require plaintiff to make an election. Instead, the trial court in effect made the election by granting Mrs. Jack Seale’s motion for judgment n. o. v. and granting plaintiff judgment only against Mrs. W. 0. Seale. An election by a party contemplates a freedom by that party to choose which defendant against whom it desires judgment. We hold, therefore, that plaintiff made no election in the trial court by accepting judgment against Mrs. W. 0. Seale when it was denied judgment against Mrs. Jack Seale.
She also asserts that she had no advance notice of plaintiff’s election in this court and, therefore, no time to prepare a defense thereto. This argument is without merit. In the trial court Mrs. Jack Seale and Mrs. W. 0. Seale filed identical motions asking the court to require plaintiff to make an election. Likewise, both defendants filed motions for judgments n. o. v. Thus, Mrs. Jack Seale was aware that judgment could be rendered against her by the trial court if the trial court had required an election. In her brief by counterpoint, she asserted that the trial court should have required plaintiff to make an election. We fail to see, therefore, how Mrs. Jack Seale could be surprised when we permitted plaintiff to make the election which the trial court should have required if it had ruled correctly on her motion to require an election. We are simply rendering the judgment that the trial court should have rendered, as required by Tex.R.Civ.P. 434. No useful purpose would be served by remanding to the trial court for the purpose of allowing plaintiff to make its election.
Neither can we agree with Mrs. Jack Seale’s assertion that our rendition of judgment against her is error since “the judgment against Mrs. W. 0. Seale is long since final.” She argues that since Mrs. W. 0. Seale cannot now appeal from the judgment against her and plaintiff limited its appeal to that part of the judgment which *216denied recovery against Mrs. Jack Seale, we have no power to reverse the judgment against Mrs. W. 0. Seale and permit plaintiff to elect judgment against Mrs. Jack Seale. This argument is without merit because the recovery against Mrs. W. 0. Seale is in the same cause and in the same judgment as the judgment n. o. v. from which plaintiff appealed; no order of severance was entered. Although plaintiff has limited its appeal to the action of the trial court in granting judgment n. o. v., we nevertheless can reverse the judgment against Mrs. W. 0. Seale when it and the judgment n. o. v. are intimately intertwined and interrelated and when justice requires it under the authorities cited in our original opinion. Essentially, Mrs. Jack Seale’s position is that because all of the cases cited in our main opinion for this proposition concerned situations where the reversal of the judgment appealed from required a new trial as to all parties including those who did not appeal, this case, likewise, should be remanded for a new trial. We cannot agree that a new trial is necessarily required by the rule enunciated in the cited cases where no reversible error occurred at trial and where the ends of justice and judicial economy are served by rendering, as in other cases, the judgment that the trial court should have rendered on the verdict after denial of Mrs. Jack Seale’s motion for judgment n. o. v. and after permitting plaintiff’s election.
Finally, Mrs. Jack Seale urges us to remand this cause for a new trial in the interests of justice. We see no reason for a new trial because the only error committed by the trial court was after the jury’s verdict had been received when the court rendered judgment n. o. v. in favor of Mrs. Jack Seale. It would be manifestly unjust to require plaintiff to convince a second jury of its claim when no reversible error was committed during the course of the trial before the jury.
Motion overruled.