Court Opinion

ID: 9683395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:27:59.029338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:46.823931
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
On Motion for Rehearing appellee expresses concern because we addressed ourselves to the issue of conversion. He asserts that since appellants did not specifically raise the issue in their brief, we failed to follow the rules of appellate procedure by deciding an issue not raised in the brief.
Our reason for disposing of the issue of conversion was due to the fact that the only *147theory upon which appellee sought a recovery in his pleadings was that DCS had wrongfully converted the funds withheld from appellee’s monthly commission check. Furthermore, the jury found that DCS agreed with York to make all contributions to the fund and also that DCS made the contributions with funds deducted from his commissions. Thus, based on the pleadings and the foregoing findings, we concluded that the issue of wrongful conversion was raised. When appellants in their brief challenged the foregoing findings on the ground that the findings were not supported by the evidence, we concluded, and still believe, that the issue of conversion became a viable issue calling for some disposition even though appellants did not specifically discuss any of the elements of conversion in their brief.
Turning to the contract feature of the case, appellee points out that the breach of contract theory, although not specifically pled, was tried and submitted to the jury by consent. Further he points out that appellants admitted in their brief that “the ultimate issue as to the contributions to the pension plan is whether or not DCS breached any agreement with plaintiff as to funding of the plan and the manner in which it was funded.” We recognize, as we did in our original opinion, that the breach of contract theory was tried by consent. However, as we attempted to point out in our original opinion, there is no evidence that DCS ever made any agreement with York individually, promising him that it would make all contributions to the pension plan out of corporate funds. York signed the pension plan agreement in his capacity as a trustee. Thus, the pension plan agreement cannot be construed as a private agreement between York and DCS. On Motion for Rehearing appellee contends that he was a third party beneficiary under the pension plan agreement. Based on such premise, he argues that since DCS contracted with the trustees to fund the plan and failed to do so, it breached its contract and therefore he had a right, as third-party beneficiary, to enforce the funding provisions of the plan and recover damages in the amount DCS deducted from his monthly commissions and paid into the trust fund. We are not in accord with this proposition. Had the pension plan agreement not been a gratuitous undertaking on the part of DCS, appellee might conceivably have been able as third-party beneficiary to sue and recover on the theory of breach of contract. However, since the agreement to fund the plan was purely voluntary, no duty on the part of DCS arose, and as a result appellee acquired no right to assert a cause of action for the breach thereof. Avinger v. Campbell, 499 S.W.2d 698, 704 (Tex.Civ.App.— Dallas 1973) writ ref’d n. r. e., 505 S.W.2d 788 (Tex.1974). The fact that the jury found that appellee did not waive his right to complain of the funding of the plan with funds withheld from his commissions cannot serve to create a cause of action for breach of a gratuitous contract where no such cause of action existed in the first instance. The motion is overruled.