Thanks for visiting! Welcome to a new way to research case law. You are viewing a free summary from Descrybe.ai. For citation and good law / bad law checking, legal issue analysis, and other advanced tools, explore our Legal Research Toolkit — not free, but close.
Praxair, Inc. v. Sterling Chemicals, Inc.
Citation: Not availableDocket: 07-05-00156-CV
Court: Court of Appeals of Texas; July 17, 2007; Texas; State Appellate Court
In the case Praxair, Inc. v. Sterling Chemicals, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas addressed a motion for rehearing filed by Sterling Chemicals. The court overruled the motion, which sought to affirm the trial court's judgment on an alternative basis involving an alleged oral agreement between Sterling and Praxair regarding the design and construction of piping at a Texas City plant. The court noted that the jury found Praxair had orally agreed to comply with various codes in their work. However, the only written agreement between the parties was a guaranty that included a clause stating it contained the entire agreement regarding the subject matter, superseding any prior agreements, whether written or oral. The court cited Hubacek v. Ennis State Bank, which supports the principle that a written contract can nullify prior oral agreements that are merged into the subsequent written agreement. Since the oral agreement mentioned by Sterling predated the execution of the guaranty, the clause effectively voided it. The court's decision emphasized that the written terms governed the relationship between the parties, leading to the overruling of Sterling's rehearing motion. The opinion was issued per curiam, with Justice Don Reavis not participating in the decision.