Chavez v. Aetna Finance Co.

553 S.W.2d 174, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3006
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 25, 1977
Docket15658
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 553 S.W.2d 174 (Chavez v. Aetna Finance Co.) 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
Chavez v. Aetna Finance Co., 553 S.W.2d 174, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3006 (Tex. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This is a suit on a promissory note in which the makers of the note, by way of counterclaim, seek recovery of penalties from the holder of the note for alleged violations of the usury statutes and of Federal and State truth-in-lending statutes and regulations.

Plaintiff, Aetna Finance Company, sued to recover $503.05, allegedly the unpaid balance on a note executed by defendants, Henry R. Chavez and wife, Mary Chavez. Defendants appeal from a judgment granting recovery to plaintiff on the note, .plus attorney’s fees, and denying defendants’ recovery on their counterclaim.

The note in question, in the principal sum of $625.00, was executed by defendants on March 23, 1973. This amount represented the amount of cash advance made by plaintiff to defendants ($482.14), plus interest in the sum of $142.86. The note was payable in 25 monthly installments of $25.00 each, with the first installment payable on April 23, 1973.

Under Art. 5069-3.15(1) and (2), Tex.Rev. Civ.Stat.Ann. (1971), the maker of a loan of the type involved in this case is permitted to charge interest at the rate of 18% per annum on that part of the cash advance not in excess of $300.00 and 8% per annum on that part of the cash advance in excess of $300.00 but not in excess of $2,500.00. This interest is computed at the time the loan is made and the amount of the interest may, as here, be added to the amount advanced to determine the total amount payable by the borrower.

The amount of interest charged by plaintiff and added to the amount advanced represents the maximum permitted by law on a loan of $482.14 for a period of 25 months. The face amount of the note in this case, then, represented the money actually advanced by plaintiff to defendants, plus the maximum legal interest for a period of 25 months.

As authorized by Art. 5069-3.15(5), the note provided for an additional charge of five cents for each $1.00 “of any scheduled installment when any portion of such installment continues unpaid for ten (10) days or more following the date such payment is due, including Sundays and holidays.” The note provides for refund to defendants, in case of payment in full prior to the date the last installment is due, of the unearned portion of the interest included in the face amount of the note as provided in Art. 5069-3.15(6). There is also the usual provision for acceleration by the maker in case of default and payment of attorney’s fees if the note is placed in the hands of an attorney for collection.

Defendants made the first payment more than ten days after April 23, 1973, the date on which such payment was due. This payment was in the amount of $26.25, of which $1.25 represented payment of the late or delinquency charge, and the remaining $25.00 was applied to the face amount of the note, reducing the balance due to $600.00. Between the date of this payment and October 12, 1973, defendants made six payments, ranging in amount from $1.50 to $26.25, totalling $101.25, but at no time did they manage to bring their account to a current status as to any one installment. As of October 12, 1973, then, defendants [176]*176owed $7.50 in additional delinquency charges. For some reason not explained by the record, from the last $101.25 paid by defendants after the initial payment of $26.25, plaintiff deducted only $4.30 as default charges and the remainder ($96.95) was applied to the balance due on the face of the note, reducing it to $503.05.

Defendants made no further payment after October 12, 1973, and on October 22, 1974, one day before the 19th payment was due, plaintiff filed this suit, alleging that because of defendants’ failure to pay the note plaintiff had been damaged in the sum of $503.05. This figure coincides with the face amount of the note, reduced by the amount which defendants had paid and which had been applied to reduction of the debt evidenced by the face amount of such note.

The filing of the suit by plaintiff seeking recovery of the entire unpaid balance of the note some six months and one day prior to the date the last installment was due clearly constituted an exercise by plaintiff of its power of acceleration.

Defendants’ claim of usury is based on the theory that since the original amount of the note included interest at the maximum legal rate for a 25-month loan, the telescoping of the term of the note as the result of acceleration necessarily increased the rate of interest beyond that permitted by law.

Where a holder of a note, upon exercise of his power of acceleration, demands the entire amount of interest payable over the total term of the note he is, in effect, increasing the rate of interest payable by the maker, and if such demand constitutes a demand for a rate of interest which is illegal as computed to the date of acceleration, the result is a demand for usurious interest. 45 Am.Jur.2d Interest and Usury § 185, at 148 (1969).

Defendants’ contention is simply that by failing to rebate the unearned interest plaintiff’s suit seeks recovery of usury.

Article 5069-3.15(6) requires, in case of prepayment of an “add-on” note, that the lender “refund or credit the borrower with an amount which shall be as great a proportion of the total interest contracted for , . as the sum of the periodic balances scheduled to follow the installment date after the date of prepayment in full bears to the sum of all the periodic time balances under the schedule of payments set out in the loan contract.”

Nothing in the statute in terms requires a rebate of unearned interest in cases where the lender, following default by the borrower, exercises his power of acceleration, as distinguished from the situation where the borrower exercises his right of prepayment. However, it is generally held that where a note is'accelerated the date of acceleration is considered to be the date of maturity of the note, requiring a rebate of unearned interest. Moore v. Sabine National Bank of Port Arthur, 527 S.W.2d 209 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1975, writ ref’d n. r. e.).

Defendants’ first complaint is that the trial court erred in holding that plaintiff did not fail to rebate the unearned interest. The relevant testimony was given by plaintiff’s account supervisor who testified in part as follows:

Q Now, referring you back to October of 1974 [the date of the last payment made by defendants], what was the balance on [defendants’] account?
A On October of 1974, the balance on this account was $503.05.
Q And have there been any payments made since that particular time?
A No, sir.
Q And in October of 1974, was this particular account accelerated?
A No, sir, it was not accelerated.
Q Was the net paid off and also rebating your interest according to Rule 78 [sic]?
A Yes sir, it was.
Q And figuring any delinquent fee or default charge at that time?
A That is correct.
Q And at that time was the account delinquent?
A That is correct, yes, sir, it was.
[177]

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Chavez v. Aetna Finance Co.
553 S.W.2d 174 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
553 S.W.2d 174, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chavez-v-aetna-finance-co-texapp-1977.