Melody Homes Mfg. Co. v. Barnes

• Decision Date: 08 May 1986
• Docket Number: No. 2-85-155-CV,2-85-155-CV
• Citation: 708 S.W.2d 600
• Parties: MELODY HOMES MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Appellant, v. Lonnie and Donna BARNES, Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 600

708 S.W.2d 600

MELODY HOMES MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Appellant, v. Lonnie and Donna BARNES, Appellees.

No. 2-85-155-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas Fort Worth.

May 8, 1986.

M. Ward Bailey & Assoc., P.C., M. Ward Bailey, Fort Worth, for appellant.

Law Offices of Leeper, Priddy & Chovanec, Timothy G. Chovanec, Fort Worth, for appellees.

Before BURDOCK, JOE SPURLOCK, II, and HILL, JJ.

OPINION

HILL, Justice.

Melody Homes Manufacturing Company appeals from an adverse judgment in a suit brought by Lonnie and Donna Barnes under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for damages to their modular or mobile home. The judgment was in the total amount of $12,600. Melody Homes presents six points of error.

We affirm.

In points of error numbers one and two, Melody Homes urges that the trial court erred in submitting special issues concerning its failure to manufacture the Barnes' modular home in a good and workmanlike manner, because there is no pleading concerning any such failure on the part of Melody Homes. Melody Homes objected to special issue number one, which inquired whether Melody Homes Manufacturing Company failed to manufacture the home in a good and workmanlike manner, on the basis of there being no pleading to support its submission. We are unable to find an objection to the damage issue concerning failure to manufacture in a good and workmanlike manner.

Pleadings are sufficient under the Rules of Civil Procedure if they give fair and adequate notice to the adversary. Stone v. Lawyers Title Ins. Corp., 554 S.W.2d 183, 186 (Tex.1977). In the absence of special exceptions, the petition will be construed liberally in the pleader's favor. Roark v. Allen, 633 S.W.2d 804, 809 (Tex.1982); Stone, 554 S.W.2d at 186. There were no special exceptions filed to the Barnes' original petition.

In their original petition, the Barnes alleged that "[p]rior to August of 1982, the Plaintiffs purchased a mobile home from the Defendant. They used it for a number of months and finally discovered that the sink was not hooked up to the drain, with the result that water ran behind some of the cabinets and caused extensive damage." Liberally construing the pleading, we find it sufficient to support the special issue about Melody Homes' failure to manufacture the home in a good and workmanlike manner. We overrule points of error numbers one and two.

By points of error numbers three, four, five, and six, Melody Homes urges that the trial court erred in submitting a special issue concerning special, punitive, or discretionary damages and awarding such damages under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and in awarding automatic damages and attorney's fees under the Act, because the failure to make repairs in a good and workmanlike manner is not listed in TEX.BUS. & COM.CODE ANN. sec. 17.46(b) (Vernon Supp.1986) or elsewhere in the Act as a deceptive trade practice, and there was no jury finding that such failure was a deceptive trade practice.

After purchasing the mobile or modular home from Melody Homes in 1980, the appellees continually found puddles and dampness inside their house. It was not until June, 1982, that the appellees discovered that a sink was not hooked up to the drain inside one of the interior walls. The water damage included mold, crumbling sheetrock, and a rotting floor and insulation. Melody Homes sent someone out in July, 1982, and subsequently three repairmen attempted work on behalf of Melody Homes. In addition to attempting repair work, the workmen also made obscene gestures to Donna Barnes, one of the appellees. The Barnes testified as to additional damages resulting from the efforts to...