Brazosport Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Phillips

326 S.W.2d 567, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2010
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 24, 1959
DocketNo. 10715
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 326 S.W.2d 567 (Brazosport Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Phillips) 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
Brazosport Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Phillips, 326 S.W.2d 567, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2010 (Tex. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinions

ARCHER, Chief Justice.

This suit was filed seeking injunctive and declaratory judgment relief by appellants against appellees on account of the proceedings before and action of the State Banking Commissioner in granting a charter, franchise and certificate of authority to do business to American Savings and Loan Association, pursuant to application of appellees, the organizers and directors thereof, and sought to set aside the articles of incorporation and to enjoin the incor-porators from doing business under the charter and alternatively sought a declaratory judgment to the effect that the Commissioner lacked authority to issue the charter.

Appellants contend that the gist of the complaint is that the Commissioner (in an adversary proceeding) wrongfully granted the charter to American contrary to the Commissioner’s own rules, the law and the evidence which will permit American to unlawfully and illegally engage in a savings and loan business with resulting injury and damage to appellants.

The Banking Commissioner and the individual defendants severally filed pleas to the jurisdiction of the court which were sustained and the court dismissed the case and it is from this action that the appeal is taken.

The appeal is based on eight points which are to the effect that the trial court erred in sustaining the pleas in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court filed by the Commissioner and by Phillips et al; in dismissing appellants’ suit on grounds of lack of jurisdiction; in depriving appellants of their rights to a declaratory judgment; in holding that appellants’ suit was a collateral attack, over which the court had no jurisdiction; in failing to assume jurisdiction because appellants as the holders of lawful franchises to engage in savings and loan businesses, are real and substantial parties at interest and entitled to the protection from illegal competition; in failing to assume jurisdiction to enforce the constitutional rights of appellants; and finally in construing Art. 881 a-1 et seq. and related provisions so as to deny to appellants any right of judicial review of the action of the Commissioner in granting a charter to do business to appellees and depriving appellants of their constitutional rights under the Due Process Clauses of the Constitutions of the United States and of Texas. U.S.Const. Amend. 14; Vernon’s Ann.St.Const. art. 1, § 19.

Appellees Phillips et al. have counterpoints to the effect that appellants had no standing to contest the validity of the Articles of Incorporation of American Savings and Loan Association and no right to review, or maintain a suit to enjoin the actions of the Banking Commissioner in the exercise of discretionary functions and that the Declaratory Judgment Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 2524-1 et seq., is procedural in nature and does not afford a substantive right of action, and not available to appellants and that the action of the trial court in sustaining the pleas in abatement did not violate any property right of the appellants.

Appellee, Banking Commissioner, in a counterpoint says that the trial court did [569]*569not err in sustaining his plea in abatement because as a matter of law the allegations in appellants’ petition constitute an attempt by third parties to collaterally attack the validity of the charter theretofore granted to American Savings and Loan Association under the provisions of Article 881a-2, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., and the trial court was without jurisdiction to determine the cause of action alleged by appellants.

On January 23, 1959, the Banking Commissioner granted to American Savings and Loan Association the charter herein questioned, and on February 9, 1959, Brazo-sport Savings and Loan Association, Fort Bend Savings and Loan Association, and Gulf Coast Savings and Loan Association filed this suit against Jimmy Phillips and eleven others, naming them, composing the officers and directors of American Savings and Loan Association, American Savings and Loan Association of Lake Jackson, Texas and J. M. Falkner, Banking Commissioner of Texas, alleging that plaintiffs were building and loan associations within the area to be served by appellee American Savings and Loan Association and were entitled to conduct their businesses free of unlawful competition which would result if American were permitted to engage in the savings and loan business under the authority granted by the Commissioner, and that the actions of the Commissioner in issuing the charter under the provisions of Articles 881a-2 and 881a-4 were wholly illegal and void, both under the law and the Rules and Regulations promulgated by the Finance Commission of Texas and the Banking Commission pursuant to the authority granted in Article 342-114, V.A.C.S., because the Commissioner had failed to follow the procedures required by Article S81a-2.

The Rules and Regulations for Building and Loan Associations 1 require application and articles to be accompanied by certain data, properly verified, “sufficiently detailed and comprehensive to enable the Commissioner to pass upon the proposed charter” as to (1) character and fitness, etc.; (2) promotion of public convenience and advantage, (including probability of insurance of accounts, maintenance of independent ground floor quarters, full time qualified management, and adequacy of initial capital and surplus); (3) reasonable promise of adequate support for the association by the population of the neighborhood and surrounding country.

Appellants pled that appellees Phillips et al. failed to file supporting data with the application but subsequently amended this application, and that the notary who acted was one of the proposed stockholders and that such instruments were illegal but that the Commissioner acted thereon; that in acting on the application the Commissioner did not afford appellants an opportunity to offer evidence, and that the Commissioner acted in an arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unlawful manner and in violation of appellants’ rights to Due Process.

Appellants take the position that nothing in Art. 881a-3, which provides only for a review by mandamus in the case of a rejected application, and that nothing in the statute indicates an affirmative legislative intent to deprive any person of a right to judicial relief from illegal or arbitrary action and that courts affirm such right to judicial relief when the statutes are silent.

The prayer for relief in appellants petition reads:

“Premises Considered, plaintiffs pray that defendants be cited to appear and answer herein; that upon final hearing herein, the Court enter its judgment finding and declaring the action of the Banking Commissioner of Texas in approving the articles of association and in granting a charter to and issuing a certificate of authority to do business [570]

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Related

Brazosport Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Phillips
353 S.W.2d 78 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1962)
Brazosport Saving & Loan Ass'n v. American Savings & Loan Ass'n
342 S.W.2d 747 (Texas Supreme Court, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
326 S.W.2d 567, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2010, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brazosport-savings-loan-assn-v-phillips-texapp-1959.