Bluebonnet Savings Bank v. Jones Country, Inc.

911 S.W.2d 871, 1995 WL 704209
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 14, 1995
Docket09-94-127 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 911 S.W.2d 871 (Bluebonnet Savings Bank v. Jones Country, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bluebonnet Savings Bank v. Jones Country, Inc., 911 S.W.2d 871, 1995 WL 704209 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

BURGESS, Justice.

Appellants are Bluebonnet Savings Bank, formerly known as Consolidated Federal Savings Bank, formerly known as Consolidated Federal Bank F.S.B., formerly known as Consolidated Federal Savings & Loan Association, Assignee of the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), Receiver for Home Savings & Loan Association of Lufkin, Texas, and Thomas Selman.

Jones Country financed a bus through Home Savings which required insurance on the bus. The insurance premium was financed in a separate promissory note. Thomas Selman, the banker who handled the transaction for Home Savings, wire transferred the first premium payment to the insurance broker on May 15, 1986. Home Savings received a certificate of insurance. A new note was executed for the second policy year, and on May 7, 1987, Mr. Selman wire transferred that premium to the insurance broker. Home Savings’ records contain neither a certificate of insurance nor a receipt from the insurance carrier.

The bus was involved in an accident on August 16, 1987. The next day Jones Country was told, by their supposed insurance carrier, National Fire and Marine Insurance Company, there was no insurance policy on the bus. Jones Country contacted Home Savings and was assured there was coverage. The note for the insurance was paid by Jones Country to Home Savings on March 8, 1988. On August 7, 1989, based on the accident, a suit was filed against Jones Country in North Carolina. Jones Country had to employ its own counsel to defend the suit, which ultimately settled on May 8, 1991 for $15,000. Jones Country incurred expenses of $33,-776.63 in defense of the litigation. Prior to the North Carolina suit, Home Savings was declared insolvent by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. The Bank Board appointed the FSLIC as Receiver for Home Savings. The FSLIC transferred and assigned substantially all of Home Savings’ assets to Bluebonnet. Bluebonnet received the assets of Home Savings on December 22, 1988. On July 10, 1992, Jones Country sued Bluebonnet, as successor in interest of Home Savings, alleging alternative claims for “negligence, breach of implied and/or express warranties, breach of contract, indemnity and for monies due and owing” Jones Country. The jury found that Thomas, as agent of Home Savings was negligent, that Home Savings “expressly [warranted] to [Jones [873]*873Country] that it would obtain” an insurance policy, that Home Savings’ failure to procure insurance created a debt to Jones Country, and that Home Savings “should indemnify” Jones Country for losses as a result of Home Savings’ failure to fulfill its agreement, if any, to procure an insurance policy. The jury found the same amount of damages, $48,776.63 (total of settlement and litigation expenses), on each ground of recovery. The trial court entered a $48,776.63 judgment against Bluebonnet and Selman.

Bluebonnet raises twenty-two points of error. Point of error one, if sustained, would be dispositive of the entire case. It urges that Jones Country’s claims were barred by the doctrine of D’Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 315 U.S. 447, 62 S.Ct. 676, 86 L.Ed. 956 (1942), and 12 U.S.C. § 1823(e) (1988). Simply put, such doctrine provides that no agreement which tends to diminish the interest of a financial institution under federal receivership shall be valid unless: (1) it is in writing; (2) contemporaneously executed by the depository institution and the person claiming the adverse interest; (3) was approved by the board of directors or loan committee; and (4) from the time of its execution has been continuously a record of the financial institution. Thus, this point involves the interpretation and application of federal law.

Since D’Oench, Duhme and the enactment of 1823(e) the Supreme Court has had one occasion to consider this area of the law. In Langley v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 484 U.S. 86,108 S.Ct. 396, 98 L.Ed.2d 340 (1987), the Supreme Court discussed D’Oench, Duhme as a precursor of section 1823(e). According to the Court the petitioner was, in essence, seeking affirmative relief to enforce an oral warranty on the property through an action for fraud. The Court declared that section 1823(e) was a matter of strict statutory construction and barred such claims, opening the door for an expansive interpretation of the statute and the D’Oench, Duhme doctrine.

According to the Supreme Court (which was actually interpreting section 1823(e) in light of D’Oench, Duhme, decided prior to the enactment of the statute) the doctrine serves three purposes:

1. “One purpose” is to allow federal and state bank examiners to rely on a bank’s records in evaluating the worth of the bank’s assets without being concerned that an asset of the bank (note) is encumbered by some unrecorded agreement. Such evaluations are necessary when a bank is examined for fiscal soundness by state or federal authorities.
2. “A second purpose” is to “ensure mature consideration of unusual loan transactions by senior bank officials.”
3. The third is to “prevent fraudulent insertion of new terms, with the collusion of the bank employees, when a bank appears headed for failure.”1

Langley, 484 U.S. at 91-92, 95, 108 S.Ct. at 401, 403, 98 L.Ed.2d at 347, 349; see also OPS Shopping Center, Inc. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 992 F.2d 306 (11th Cir.1993).

The majority of D’Oench, Duhme doctrine cases involve attempts to resist collection on notes the FDIC has acquired from the failed bank. In that situation, equities are applied against the FDIC and its successors, however, following the D’Oench, Duhme doctrine, the courts have, in effect, deemed the FDIC a quasi-holder-in-due-course with a complete defense against the claims of common law fraud and violations of state or federal securities laws and with immunity from the affirmative defenses of waiver, estoppel, unjust enrichment, failure of consideration, and usury-

Over the years, the case law surrounding D’Oench, Duhme and the statute (particularly section 1823(e)) has been discussed interchangeably such that it is very difficult to decide where the statute ends and D’Oench, Duhme begins. See Royal Bank of Canada v. FDIC, 733 F.Supp. 1091, 1095 (N.D.Tex. 1990) describing how section 1823(e) and D’Oench, Duhme are interpreted in tandem. Thus, the crucial question is the total protection that the statute and D’Oench, Duhme together provide.

[874]*874The federal common law of D’Oench, Duhme equitable estoppel applies when a note has been paid prior to the bank going into receivership and no specific asset is acquired by the federal corporation. Brook-side Assoc, v. Rifkin, 49 F.3d 490, 495-497 (9th Cir.1995).

In re NEW Commercial Paper Litigation, 826 F.Supp. 1448, 1476 (D.D.C.1992) sums up the D’Oench, Duhme doctrine thusly:

D’Oench

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Bluebonnet Savings Bank v. Jones Country, Inc.
911 S.W.2d 871 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)

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