Court Opinion

ID: 9644560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:59:33.10578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:15.164924
License: Public Domain

CORNELIUS, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment and in Justice Bleil’s opinion, but I write separately to state why the judgment cannot be supported on a breach of contract basis, as the trial court found.
The trial court based its judgment in part on a breach of contract by Atterbury and Anderson. The partnership agreement gave them an option to purchase Brison’s share of the business by paying $6,000.00, plus the value of Brison’s equity in the business. At-terbury attempted to exercise the option by offering Brison $6,000.00, but nothing for his equity. Brison contended, and apparently the trial court agreed, that Atterbury’s defective or inadequate exercise of his option obligated him to complete the purchase and pay *829Brison for his equity. That is the basis for the trial court’s findings and conclusions numbers four and one, respectively. Those findings and conclusions, however, are legally insupportable.
An option is unilateral. It imposes no liability on the optionee unless and until he exercises the option according to its terms. Jones v. Gibbs, 133 Tex. 627, 130 S.W.2d 265 (1939); Corsicana Petroleum Co. v. Owens, 110 Tex. 568, 222 S.W. 154 (1920); 14 Tex. JuR.3d Contracts § 79, at 128-29 (1981). Acceptance of an option, unless excused on equitable grounds, must be unqualified, unambiguous, and strictly in accordance with its terms. Zeidman v. Davis, 161 Tex. 496, 342 S.W.2d 555 (1961); TSB Exco v. E.N. Smith, III Energy Corp., 818 S.W.2d 417 (Tex.App. — Texarkana 1991, no writ); Cattle Feeders, Inc. v. Jordan, 549 S.W.2d 29 (Tex.Civ.App. — Corpus Christi 1977, no writ); Kenver Corp. v. Robinson, 492 S.W.2d 317 (Tex.Civ.App. — Beaumont 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Hutcherson v. Cronin, 426 S.W.2d 638 (Tex.Civ.App. — Tyler 1968, no writ); 14 Tex.Jur.3d Contracts § 83, at 133 (1981). Any failure to exercise an option according to its terms, including an untimely or defective acceptance, is simply ineffectual, and legally amounts to nothing more than a rejection. Hutcherson v. Cronin, supra; Lambert v. Taylor Telephone Co-operative, 276 S.W.2d 929 (Tex.Civ.App. — Eastland 1955, no writ); Godfrey v. Central State Bank, 5 S.W.2d 529 (Tex.Civ.App. — Eastland 1928), rev’d on other grounds, 29 S.W.2d 1015 (Tex.Comm’n App.1930). Consequently, an acceptance that does not comply with the option’s terms, unless it is accepted by the optionor, binds neither the optionee nor the optionor. Vratis v. Baxter, 315 S.W.2d 331, 333 (Tex.Civ.App. — Beaumont 1958, writ ref'd n.r.e.).
Brison did not accept Atterbury’s defective offer. Instead, he attempted to force Atter-bury to exercise the option according to its terms. The law does not impose liability in such circumstances. As noted above, an option is necessarily conditional. The optionee may or may not, as he chooses, accept the offer. If he fails to accept the offer in strict accordance with its terms, there is no contract, and the optionee’s only liability is loss of the consideration paid for the option. Northside Lumber & Bldg. Co. v. Neal, 23 S.W.2d 858 (Tex.Civ.App. — Fort Worth 1929, no writ); 14 Tex.JuR.3d Contracts § 79, at 128.
The judgment here, however, may be sustained on the basis of an accounting between partners on dissolution.1 There is ample evidence that Atterbury and Anderson acquired all of the business on dissolution. There is also sufficient evidence that Brison’s equity in the business was valued at $12,346.80, as found by the trial court.
With the foregoing reservations, I concur.

. Indeed, Brison pleaded only for an accounting on dissolution. There is no pleading for breach of the option, although the parties probably tried that issue by consent. See Tex.R.Civ.P. 67.