Court Opinion

ID: 9636414
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:27:53.871259+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:45.347756
License: Public Domain

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
I concur in the disposition of the case and in the opinion except the last paragraph. I do not think that interest will be allowable on any recovery that may be had. The Texas statutes and decisions on the question of interest on unliquidated sums due under written contracts are not plain. The court in Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Johnson, 5 Cir., 155 F.2d 185, did its best to follow them by distinguishing situations in which the sum payable could have been ascertained by the debtor with reasonable certainty from those in which a trial on evidence was fairly necessary to ascertain it. That distinction applied here would allow interest if there was a prevailing market .rate for gas, for a market price is a definite and ascertainable fact. But interest should be denied if there was no certain market rate and the fair value of the gas had to be ascertained by a trial. Value is a matter of opinion, and the value of gas in Texas, as the cases of Phillips Petroleum Co. in this court show, has hitherto been very difficult to fix.