Court Opinion

ID: 9829731
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:34:15.292354+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:04.937521
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Defendant contends that his acceptance of smaller quantities of oil than that specified in the contract did not constitute a waiver of the breach of .contract,' because delivery of the specified amount was made contingent upon that amount being produced; that it was not shown that his acceptance of the short shipments was done with knowledge that deliveries were *300substantially less than the amounts actually produced, as was .the case; that he had a right to assume that plaintiff Was shipping all he was producing, and to further assume that plaintiff’s failure to ship the full amounts contracted for was caused by lack of production, which would excuse the default, and not by a wilful breach. We sustain defendant’s contention.
The provision to ship oil “if and as produced” was sufficient to excuse appellee for shipping less oil than called for, unless it was actually produced, and by the same token, a short shipment due to short production would give appellant no cause to complain, and he would be bound by the terms of the contract to accept the smaller amount, which he did. This acceptance was not inconsistent with his right to rely on the contract. Unless it affirmatively appears that appellant accepted the short shipments with knowledge of the material fact that sufficient oil had been produced to comply with the contract, and thereby intentionally relinquished a known right, he can not be held to have waived the breach. “Waiver is operative only where the person charged has actual or constructive knowledge of all the material facts concerning the right or privilege involved. * * * no one can be said to have waived that which he does not know, nor can he be precluded where he has acted under a misapprehension of the facts.” 43 Tex.Jur. p. 895, sec. 4; Bering Mfg. Co. v. W. T. Carter & Bro., Tex.Civ.App., 255 S.W. 243; Id., Tex.Com.App., 272 S.W. 1105.
The burden was upon plaintiff, in order to establish waiver, to show that defendant accepted the short deliveries with knowledge of the material fact that the default was deliberate, and not because of insufficient production. Plaintiff did not meet that burden in this case, and the trial court therefore erred in holding that defendant waived the breach of contract and the judgment must be reversed.
The record in the case is not satisfactory, and other questions, some of them of doubtful solution, call for remand, in order that they may be clarified, and a mass of immaterial pleadings and evidence eliminated.
Defendant’s motion for rehearing will be granted and the judgment reversed and the cause remanded.