Commercial Credit Corporation v. Brown

471 S.W.2d 914, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 27, 1971
Docket8178
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 471 S.W.2d 914 (Commercial Credit Corporation v. Brown) 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
Commercial Credit Corporation v. Brown, 471 S.W.2d 914, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Justice.

This appeal is from a take-nothing judgment entered in a suit brought on a retail installment contract by plaintiff-appellant Commercial Credit Corporation, assignee of the contract, against defendant-appellees Randal C. Brown and wife. Affirmed.

Initially, appellees challenge appellant’s points of error as being multifarious and too broad, general and indefinite to give notice of the error relied upon. In view of the nature of this case, we believe the points of error as presented are only “no evidence” points that are sufficient to direct the court’s attention to the errors relied upon, and we will consider them. Fambrough v. Wagley, 140 Tex. 577, 169 S.W.2d 478 (1943); International Security Life Ins. Co. v. Arant, 463 S.W.2d 523 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1971, writ ref’d n.r.e.).

Trial was to the court without the intervention of a jury and after the rendition of judgment for appellees, the appellant made no request for findings of fact or conclusions of law, and thus none were made or filed by the court. It must be presumed that the trial court resolved in appellees’ favor every issue of fact raised by the evidence, and we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the court’s findings, disregarding all that is contrary thereto. Quinn v. Dupree, 157 Tex. 441, 303 S.W.2d 769 (1957). Therefore, it is the duty of this court to affirm the trial court judgment if it can be upheld on any legal theory that finds support in the evidence. Seaman v. Seaman, 425 S.W.2d 339 (Tex.Sup.1968).

A brief statement of the evidence adduced becomes necessary. While the evidence is not conducive to a pellucid record revealing the background and transactions involved in this suit, the record supports the following narrative of the events leading up to and embracing the controversy. Appellant’s Amarillo office and Dale McLaughlin, dba Dale’s Motor Company in Dumas, had entered into several agreements in regard to the financing of some of the cars McLaughlin had in stock for sale and sold. One agreement was a floor *916 plan or wholesale agreement whereby appellant financed the cars in stock and McLaughlin paid appellant as each car was sold. Another agreement was a retail financing agreement whereby appellant would purchase from McLaughlin retail installment contracts entered into between McLaughlin and various purchasers if and after appellant had approved the contracts. It was McLaughlin’s testimony that he received clearance from appellant before any retail installment contract was executed, that he never completed any of the contracts because he “didn’t know how to fill them out all the way,” and that appellant completed the contract after it was signed. Appellant’s office manager testified that some contracts were approved in advance, and all transactions accepted by appellant were those in which the credit and terms were checked before the transactions were made. McLaughlin would assign the contract to appellant in return for appellant’s payment by bank draft of the purchase price balance financed and perhaps any amount shown in the contract for credit life insurance. Appellant, as assignee, then looked to the purchaser for payment of the amount financed 1 , together with the finance charge computed at the interest rate shown, in stated installments. The contract gave appellant a security interest in the automobile financed. Appellant and McLaughlin also had an agreement whereby McLaughlin was to furnish appellant the certificate of title to the financed automobile within 60 days following the transaction. In addition, there was an agreement by which McLaughlin agreed that appellant would be furnished an insurance policy on all cars sold by McLaughlin and financed by appellant in those transactions where the insurance was not included in the contract.

Appellees owned two cars, a 1967 Plymouth Fury two-door and a 1966 Opel, financed for an undisclosed amount with CIT Corporation. Appellees approached McLaughlin to refinance the cars. After clearing the terms and figures with appellant, on June 8, 1969, appellees and McLaughlin entered into the retail installment contract sued upon, which reflected a sale of appellees’ two cars by McLaughlin to appellees for a cash sale price of $2,225.00. It was McLaughlin’s testimony that appellant’s employees prepared the contract, but there is no evidence that appellant was advised the transaction was a refinancing arrangement rather than a cash sale. A $500.00 cash down payment to McLaughlin was shown on the contract with the “unpaid balance of cash price” shown as $1,-725.00. Credit life insurance purchased by appellees cost $19.84, so that the total of the “principal amount financed” was $1,-744.84. Appellant’s finance charge was $278.84, resulting in a “time balance” amount of $2,023.68, payable in 24 equal monthly installments of $84.32 each, with the first installment to become due and payable on August 25, 1969. The contract, hereinafter referred to as the “first” contract, was assigned to appellant on the day it was executed, and appellant remitted to McLaughlin. The record is contradictory as to whether McLaughlin was paid $1,-744.84, the balance of the purchase price and credit life insurance premium shown in the contract, which he acknowledged receiving, or $1,725.00, representing only the reflected purchase price balance, shown by appellant’s records to have been paid him. The disposition of the funds received by McLaughlin is not disclosed. Appellant never received the certificates of title to the two automobiles, and appellant’s office manager testified he supposed it was for the reason “I never had applied for them showing a lien.”

Later, on July 25 of the same year, and one month before the first payment was due under the first contract, appellees decided to purchase a certain 1969 Buick *917 automobile from McLaughlin, and asked McLaughlin if the 1967 Plymouth financed by and secured in the first contract could be traded in. McLaughlin’s testimony is that he took a blank contract form, furnished by appellant, to appellant’s office manager who “okayed” the trade-in of the Plymouth. It is the testimony of the office manager that he approved the credit and terms of the transaction but did not know that the trade-in was the same Plymouth financed in the first contract. The retail installment contract, hereinafter referred to as the “second” contract, was completed and executed in Amarillo by ap-pellee Randal C. Brown and McLaughlin on July 25, 1969, and assigned to appellant on the same date. Abbreviated in form, the record of transaction contained in the second contract reads as follows:

$3585.00 1. Cash Pnce
Trade-in
67 Ply. Fury Sport 2 Dr.
DOWN a. Gross Trade-in $2090.00
PAY- b. Less Amount Owing $1590.00 2
MENT c. Net Trade-in $ 500.00
d. Cash
500.00 2. Total Down Payment

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

MBank El Paso National Ass'n v. Featherlite Corp.
792 S.W.2d 472 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Shwiff v. Priest
650 S.W.2d 894 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Safeco Insurance Co. of America v. J. L. Henson, Inc.
601 S.W.2d 183 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
471 S.W.2d 914, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commercial-credit-corporation-v-brown-texapp-1971.