Court Opinion

ID: 9856831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:59:57.008425+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:59.458424
License: Public Domain

CATHERINE STONE, Justice,
concurring and dissenting, joined by ALMA L. LÓPEZ, Chief Justice.
I concur in the opinion of the court reversing and rendering judgment that Dr. Oscar Lightner take nothing from Laredo *75Medical Group. I respectfully dissent, however, from the court’s decision on the issue of the non-competition agreement.
The majority describes the issue as “whether the parties had a mutual understanding and intent that Lightner was to be bound by a non-compete agreement when he signed the employment contract with LMG.” In answering this question in the affirmative, I believe the majority ignores parts of Lightner’s testimony and engages in its own credibility determinations.
By relying on Champlin Oil & Ref. Co. v. Chastain, 403 S.W.2d 376 (Tex.1965), the majority apparently determines that the omission of the page from the agreement was the result of mutual mistake, yet the majority does not cite to any record evidence indicating that Lightner was in any way responsible for the failure to include the missing page or that Lightner was aware of the provisions contained on the omitted page. Rather, the majority concludes that Lightner was careless, indifferent, or inattentive because he stated he was unaware of the terms of the covenant not to compete. In reaching this conclusion the majority makes a credibility determination that Lightner was aware of the provisions, but just chose to ignore them. This is in direct conflict with his testimony that the provisions in question-two-year and twenty-five-mile non-compete restrictions — were never discussed. The majority’s conclusion also fails to acknowledge Lightner’s testimony that he understood the $100,000 “was part of the deal to join LMG. In other words, a bonus for coming into the group.” This testimony is not indicative that the parties had reached a definite and explicit agreement that was omitted from the written agreement by mutual mistake. These credibility determinations were for the jury to make. I respectfully dissent from this court’s decision to engage in such determinations.