Jeanes v. Hamby
| Decision Date | 30 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-83-00452-CV,05-83-00452-CV |
| Citation | 685 S.W.2d 695 |
| Parties | Jack K. JEANES, Appellant, v. Paul M. HAMBY, Charles Shaver, and R.L. McSpedden, Appellees. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
C. Wesley Jeanes, Richardson, for appellant.
David M. Kendall, Debora Beck Williams, Austin, Gary R. Stephens, Dallas, for appellees.
Before AKIN, SPARLING and GUILLOT, JJ.
Jack K. Jeanes appeals a summary judgment declaring that Jeanes released Paul M. Hamby and Charles C. Shaver from liability on a prior judgment obtained by Jeanes on a note of indebtedness against them and others. Additionally, Jeanes appeals a finding that Jeanes' counterclaim for fraud against Hamby, Shaver, and R.L. McSpedden was precluded as a matter of law by the affirmative defenses of res judicata and the statute of limitations. By cross-point, Hamby and Shaver contend that the trial judge erred in failing to grant them summary judgment against Jeanes on their breach of contract claim based upon releases of the prior judgment executed by Jeanes. We hold that the trial judge properly rendered summary judgment against appellees on their breach of contract claim because the releases were not supported by consideration. We also hold that the trial judge erred in declaring valid and binding the releases, signed by Jeanes, which purported to relieve Hamby and Shaver of their judgment debt to Jeanes. Additionally, we hold that the court erred in summarily ordering that Jeanes take nothing for damages allegedly resulting from appellees' fraud because neither res judicata nor the statute of limitations precludes Jeanes' suit. Consequently, we affirm the judgment with respect to the denial of appellee's breach of contract claim against Jeanes but reverse and render the judgment with respect to the void releases. As to Jeanes' suit for fraud, the judgment is reversed and remanded for trial.
Appellees were guarantors on a note which evidenced a $150,000 loan made by Jeanes to Gar-Dal, Inc., a company in which the appellees were shareholders. Gar-Dal defaulted on the note. Jeanes sued Gar-Dal and its five shareholders, including the appellees, who had personally guaranteed payment of the note. In that lawsuit, Jeanes recovered judgment against all opposing parties. In that same cause of action, the appellees in this case won a judgment of indemnity against the two other shareholders for their liabilities to Jeanes. Thereafter, Jeanes attempted to collect on his judgment by numerous means, including garnishment of appellees' judgment of indemnity against O.K. Jones, one of the other Gar-Dal shareholders.
The present appeal arose when appellees intervened in a garnishment suit brought by Jeanes against Jones seeking satisfaction of his judgment against appellees. Appellees alleged in their plea in intervention, later severed from the garnishment proceeding, that Jeanes' judgment against appellees on the note had been extinguished when Jeanes garnished appellees' judgment of indemnity against Jones. However, before this cause of action was severed, Jeanes executed two documents, referred to as releases, wherein he promised to forego all legal recourse against appellees Hamby and Shaver, including his efforts to collect from them pursuant to his judgment on the note, in return for payment of $100,000, which was less than Jeanes' judgment. Nevertheless, Jeanes later counterclaimed in this suit to have these releases declared unenforceable.
In this respect, Jeanes contends that the trial judge erred in granting summary judgment for Hamby and Shaver on the issue of the validity of the releases because, among other reasons, the releases were not supported by consideration. We agree. It is well settled that the payment of less than the full amount of a judgment debt alone cannot be consideration for an accord and satisfaction. Blaylock v. Akin, 619 S.W.2d 207 (Tex.Civ.App.--Texarkana 1981, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Reeves v. Hall, 437 S.W.2d 424 (Tex.Civ.App.--Austin 1969, no writ). In this case, it is undisputed that an amount of over $100,000 remained unpaid on the judgment held by Jeanes against Hamby and Shaver. Consequently, payment by Hamby and Shaver to Jeanes of only $100,000 is not consideration that will support the releases, thereby rendering these releases invalid. Although Hamby and Shaver correctly note that the rule in Blaylock applies only to liquidated debts, we disagree with their characterization of this judgment debt as an unliquidated obligation. Their sole support for this contention is that at the time Jeanes signed the releases, litigation was pending concerning the question of whether the judgment debt owed by appellees to Jeanes was extinguished by his garnishment of their judgment against Jones. But the mere pleading of such an allegation does not convert a liquidated debt arising from a valid final judgment into an unliquidated debt or put the obligation in dispute. In this respect, we note that Hamby and Shaver did not allege that Jeanes' judgment had been satisfied from the garnishment of their judgment of indemnity against Jones. Furthermore, appellees cite no authority, nor have we found any, to support their theory that the mere garnishment of an obligation owing to a judgment debtor extinguishes the debt owed to the holder of the judgment. Consequently, we hold that the releases executed by Jeanes were invalid for lack of consideration.
Nevertheless, Hamby and Shaver persist in contending that Blaylock is not controlling because Jeanes received consideration other than the $100,000 payment for Jeanes' signature on the releases. According to Hamby and Shaver, Jeanes' received consideration which will support the releases in the form of a promise by Hamby and Shaver to forego their attempts to have Jeanes' judgment declared extinguished. We disagree because the only basis for these attempts were founded on Hamby and Shaver's allegations that the judgment debt was extinguished when Jeanes garnished the judgment held by Hamby and Shaver against Jones. As noted previously, we are not of the opinion that a cause of action against Jeanes was pleaded on this issue. Consequently, no consideration existed because Hamby and Shaver could not be said to have abandoned any legal rights by foregoing their attempt to have the judgment extinguished.
Moreover, even if their pleadings had alleged a cause of action, the releases signed by Jeanes do not state that they were signed in consideration of appellees terminating any cause of action. Instead, the releases merely state that Jeanes released Hamby and Shaver from any claims held by him by virtue of Jeanes' prior judgment and nowhere do the releases mention additional consideration in the form of a release of Jeanes from any controversy, claims, or actions held against him by Hamby or Shaver. Moreover, because the releases are unambiguous, any attempt by Hamby and Shaver to prove that the releases were signed by Jeanes in return for additional consideration not mentioned in the releases would violate the parol evidence rule. Crozier v. Horne Children Maintenance and Educational Trust, 597 S.W.2d 418 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Because the $100,000 payment was the only consideration for the release of a judgment debt of a greater amount, we hold that, as a matter of law, these releases were not supported by consideration and are, therefore, invalid and unenforceable to discharge Jeanes' judgment. Because the contracts of release are invalid, appellees' cross-point by which they contend that the court erred in not allowing them to proceed against Jeanes for breach of that agreement is also without merit.
Since we have held that the releases of the judgment are invalid for lack of consideration, it is unnecessary to address Jeanes' other points of error attacking the validity of the releases. We now turn to the question of whether the trial judge erred in granting summary judgment against Jeanes on his pleading that he had been defrauded by all three appellees. In this respect, the record shows that Jeanes specifically alleged that appellees wrongfully conspired to obtain loans from him on behalf of Gar-Dal, Inc. with the intent to withhold payment when due and to hinder collection of any judgment that he might obtain on the note so as to pressure him into signing the releases involved in this appeal. According to Jeanes, appellees concealed and secreted their assets for the purpose of delaying his collection efforts, and this concealment is evidenced by the fact that Hamby and Shaver were able to deliver the $100,000 in cash at the time when he had agreed to the release even though his previous extensive attempts to discover assets to satisfy the judgment had been unsuccessful.
In considering Jeanes' point with respect to his cause of action for conspiracy to defraud him, we first note that the burden was on appellees, as movants, to establish that Jeanes' cause of action was precluded, as a matter of law, as to at least one essential element of Jeanes' cause of action. 1 Williamson v. Tucker, 615 S.W.2d 881 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1981, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Appellees do not contend that they have met this burden because they argue that Jeanes' cause of action was barred by the doctrine of res judicata and by the statute of limitations, both of which are affirmative defenses.
With respect to res judicata, appellees argue that Jeanes had already had his day in court when he obtained his original judgment on the note against appellees and that Jeanes should have pursued his allegation of a conspiracy to defraud him in that suit. We cannot agree because Jeanes' allegations assert a continuing fraudulent conspiracy by appellees to assure that he would never recoup his money in the form of continuing actions by appellees to prevent collection of his judgment. Res judicata precludes litigation of causes of action which, with the use...
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