A Texas appeals court has upheld a summary judgment in favor of Borders & Long Oil Inc.’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against retail stores that had agreed to purchase its gasoline.
The state’s Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas issued the decision Sept. 7 after AMPM Enterprises Inc., Point Target Enterprises Inc. (PTE) and AMPM Vice President Khawar Asghar appealed a trial court’s decision siding with Borders. The appeals court ruling affirms that AMPM and PTE retail stores owed the oil company more than $42,100 plus interest and attorney fees.
Borders filed the motion for summary judgment in July 2021, providing invoices and exhibits as evidence that the company delivered gasoline to the stores until sometime in 2017. The appellants argued that the trial court erred in its issuing of the summary judgment since Borders did not fully itemize offsets, payments and credits in its invoices. In addition, Borders’ claims should not have been allowed due to a statute of limitations on certain contract disputes, they said.
But the appeals court upheld the trial court’s decision, which included a requirement that AMPM and ATE pay nearly $15,600 in attorney fees to Borders.
“In light of the contracts between the parties, the undisputed history of performance, delivery, and receipt of fuel and failure to pay, and having determined that the table showing a balance of $42,151.82 owed by AMPM and PTE was proper summary judgment evidence, we conclude the trial court did not err in granting traditional summary judgment in favor of Borders on Borders’ breach-of-contract claim,” the opinion authored by appeals court Justice Bonnie Lee Goldstein states.
Borders also emphasized that the appellants offered no evidence that contradicts that the specified amounts were owed or that the fuel was delivered to the stores in question, according to last week’s opinion.
Attorneys representing the retail stores attempted to argue that Borders’ proposed attorney fee reimbursement was not reasonable since the retail companies’ attorney charged $220 per hour while Borders’ two attorneys charged $300 and $400 per hour. The appeals court, however, rejected that position
“We have already concluded that (Borders’ attorney Andrew D.) Lewis’ affidavit was competent summary judgment evidence supported by detailed billing records showing billing statements and payments,” the court said.