IN THE SUPREME COURT OF
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No. 07-0487
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David J. Sacks, P.C. d/b/a Sacks & Associates, Petitioner,
v.
Charles McIntyre Haden, Jr., Individually, and Charles McIntyre Haden, Jr. & Company d/b/a Haden & Company, Respondent
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On Petition for Review from the
Court of Appeals for the First District of
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PER CURIAM
This is an appeal of a trial court’s turnover order awarding fees a law firm incurred in its efforts to recover damages awarded for a client’s breach of their fee agreement. David J. Sacks, P.C. obtained partial summary judgment on its breach of contract claim against former client Charles Haden and his company, and the trial court awarded Sacks $30,314.38 plus interest. When Haden did not supersede that judgment pending his appeal of the case, Sacks undertook considerable expense under section 31.002 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code to secure a turnover order, have a receiver appointed, prevent postjudgment transfer of assets, and seek dismissal of Haden’s eventual bankruptcy filings. The trial court ruled that Section 31.002(e) entitled Sacks to attorney’s fees incurred in collection of the judgment, and awarded Sacks $90,000 as reasonable costs and attorney’s fees.
Haden
appealed the underlying breach of contract judgment as well as the turnover
order. Initially, the court of appeals unanimously affirmed both the trial
court’s judgment and the turnover order. On rehearing, the court of appeals
reversed the trial court’s judgment on Sacks’s underlying breach of contract
claim, holding that the issue of whether there was a meeting of the minds
between the parties was a question of fact that a jury must decide. 222 S.W.3d
580, 590–91 (
We
reversed the court of appeals’ judgment with respect to the breach of contract
claim, holding that the fee agreement was unambiguous and that the parol
evidence rule bars consideration of evidence of an oral agreement to cap the
fees. Sacks v. Haden, ___ S.W.3d ___, ___ (
OPINION DELIVERED: July 11, 2008