HOUSTON — The Texas First District Court of Appeals ruled that an issue brought before the court was inadequately briefed and presented nothing for the court to review.
"In its brief, ADI presents its assertions globally and does not present argument or analysis with respect to any specific fees or discovery matters," the opinion states. "Further, ADI does not present a single citation to legal authority to support its argument under this point. As such, we conclude that this issue is inadequately briefed and presents nothing for our review."
The court held that ADI waived its fourth issue regarding the award of attorney's fees and affirmed the lower court's order.
Chief Justice Sherry Radak authored the April 21 opinion. Justices Peter Kelly and Gordon Goodman concurred.
Nabors Industries retained ARC Designs Inc. (ADI) to fabricate and construct five sets of drilling rig components at a contract price of $651,248 per mast and $1,276,667 per substructure. Each set cost a total of $1,927,915 and ADI was to deliver one set per month for five months from October 2014 through February 2015, the opinion states.
ADI did not deliver the first set as scheduled, only delivering the substructure on Dec. 15, 2014, and not delivering the mast until the following month. Nabors claims that the substructure was also defective and Nabors had to pay $175,000 to remedy the defects.
After that, it demanded reimbursement for the payments made to ADI, but the parties were unable to reach a resolution and Nabors sent a notice of termination to ADI and demanded repayment of $2,804,681.10, ADI, however, refused to reimburse Nabors and Nabors filed suit against ADI for breach of contract.
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Nabors and awarded damages in the amount of $2,213,227.90, as well as attorney's fees in the amount of $161,023.51, but ADI then appealed.
"We conclude that ADI did not present evidence raising a genuine issue of material fact concerning the calculation of Nabors’s damages and that Nabors conclusively established its damages," Radak wrote. "We hold that the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment for Nabors on its breach-of-contract claim."
Texas First District Court of Appeals case number: 01-18-00992-CV