Court Opinion

ID: 9827857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:53:39.998189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:37.810619
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The judgment of the trial court, in accordance with our original opinion, was reversed and judgment was rendered that appellee take nothing herein. Appellee has filed an earnest motion for rehearing, duly verified, in which it shows that the plans and specifications, which by the terms of the contract between the contractor, Hull, and appellee, were made a part thereof, contained the following provisions:
“9.10. Partial Payments. At the earliest possible date after the 1st day of each month, the engineer will make current estimate in writing of the materials in place complete and the amount of work performed during the preceding month or period and the value thereof at the unit prices contracted for, as shown in proposal and contract. * * * *1082From-the total of the amounts so ascertained shall be deducted ten per cent, to he retained until after the completion of the entire work to the satisfaction of the engineer, and ninety per cent, of the amount so ascertained shall be paid to the contractor. ⅜ ⅜ *
“9.12a. The engineer shall, as soon as practicable after the completion of this contract, make a final estimate of the amount of work done thereunder and the value of such work, and the party of the first part shall at such time, within thirty days from and after the date of such estimate, as the State may elect, pay the entire sum so found to be due thereunder, after deducting therefrom all previous payments and all amounts to be kept and all amounts to be retained under the provisions of this contract.”
 The parties hereto agreed that the statement of facts filed herein contained a full, true, and correct statement of the facts, and all the facts, adduced upon the trial of the cause, and the same was thereupon duly examined and approved by the trial judge. We are restricted, in determining whether the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed or reversed, to consideration of the facts embraced in said authenticated statement. We therefore conclude that our reversal of the judgment of the trial court must stand. It is, however, the rule that, when a judgment is reversed and it appears that the case has not been fully developed and that justice may be better subserved by remanding the cause, the court will do so, rather than render judgment. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Herring (Tex. Com. App.) 280 S. W. 740, 741, and authorities there cited. It is proper to remand the cause in such cases to afford a party an opportunity to amend his pleadings or to supply additional testimony. Limestone County v. Robbins (Tex. Civ. App.) 42 S.W. (2d) 159, 160, par. 1, and authority there cited.
The fact that the contract introduced in evidence at the trial contained no provision for successive estimates or partial payments thereon was stressed in our original opinion in this case. We, however, called attention therein to the fact that a comparison of the third estimate issued to the contractor with the so-called final estimate issued to him indicated that the work embraced in the contract was fully completed at the time said third estimate was issued, and that the only additional item embraced in such final estimate was for extra labor furnished and performed after the actual completion of the work stipulated in the contract. Should the second excerpt above quoted from the contract between Hull and appellee be introduced in evidence upon another trial, and should it be found from the evidence before the court at that time that the work provided for in said contract was fully completed at and prior to the time the third estimate was issued, then said estimate should have been a final one and appellee was required by the express terms of such excerpt to deduct from the amount shown thereby “all previous payments and all amounts to be kept and all amounts to be retained under the provisions of this (said) contract.” It could not arbitrarily issue and pay a partial estimate when it was required by the terms of the contract to issue a final estimate and make final settlement thereon. See authorities cited in original opinion, and especially the last group of such authorities.
The judgment of this court is so modified as to remand the cause to the district court for another trial.