COMMUNITY SAV. & LOAN, ETC. v. Vandygriff

630 S.W.2d 457
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 3, 1982
Docket13455
StatusPublished

This text of 630 S.W.2d 457 (COMMUNITY SAV. & LOAN, ETC. v. Vandygriff) 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
COMMUNITY SAV. & LOAN, ETC. v. Vandygriff, 630 S.W.2d 457 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

630 S.W.2d 457 (1982)

COMMUNITY SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, Appellant,
v.
L. Alvis VANDYGRIFF, Savings and Loan Commissioner of Texas, et al., Appellees.

No. 13455.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Austin.

March 3, 1982.

Thomas A. Broussard, McKay & Burns, P. C., Austin, for appellant.

Mark White, Atty. Gen., Thomas M. Pollan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Larry Temple, Austin, for appellees.

POWERS, Justice.

Community Savings and Loan Association (Community) sued in district court for *458 judicial review of an order of the Savings and Loan Commissioner of Texas. The order approved an application by Brazos Savings Association of Texas (Brazos) to establish a branch office in the City of Bryan, Texas. The district court affirmed the order and Community seeks further judicial review in this Court, as allowed by § 20 of Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6252-13a, the Texas Administrative Procedure and Texas Register Act [TAPTRA].

Under the first of three points of error, Community contends the Commissioner's findings,[1] which support the order, were arbitrary and capricious or characterized by an abuse of discretion, a statutory ground for reversing the Commissioner's order set out in TAPTRA § 19(e)(6).[2] By way of elaboration, Community says that the findings were not based upon a consideration of all relevant matters shown in the evidence adduced at the agency hearing; rather, they are based upon only selected portions of such evidence and in disregard of other relevant matters established by substantial and even uncontroverted evidence. In consequence, the Commissioner's findings, it is argued, were not the result of reasoned decision-making. We find the substance of Community's argument is, however, that the Commissioner failed to give conclusive effect to that evidence which weighed against his findings and the establishment of a branch office. Community equates this failure with arbitrary and capricious action and an abuse of discretion, and does so in language which addresses only the subjective mental functioning of the Commissioner in his evaluation of the evidence — that he "ignored" or "failed to consider" that portion of the evidence which militated against his findings, and gave effect to "selected" portions of the evidence which supported them. Lacking omniscience, we are confined in this appeal to errors shown of record. McClelland v. Moore, 48 Tex. 355 (1877). The Commissioner's subjective mental functioning is not shown of record. We know of no way to evaluate Community's first point of error, it being so framed, except to do so under the "substantial evidence" ground for reversal set forth in TAPTRA § 19(e)(5), an objective matter verifiable from the record.[3]*459 Nevertheless, we will comment on the reasonableness of the Commissioner's actions where relevant to our discussion.

We find the administrative record supports the trial court's judgment that the Commissioner's order is valid and reasonably *460 supported by substantial evidence and that it is, in all respects, a valid, legal, and proper order, which should be affirmed.

With respect to the Commissioner's finding of a public need for the proposed branch office, Community points to contrary evidence which showed that Community's own new branch office, under construction at the time of the administrative hearing, would be surrounded by four of Brazos' full-service facilities already established in the vicinity, a matter which also bears on the Commissioner's finding relative to undue harm to existing associations; that seven commercial banks and seven savings and loan associations were to be found in the county; that two savings and loan associations had buildings under construction in the City of Bryan; that these numerous existing financial institutions competed vigorously for the savings dollars to be derived from the locality; and, that Brazos' net deposits increased from $91,534,000 on September 30, 1977, to $91,841,000 on February 29, 1980, an increase of only $307,000.

The evidence to which the Commissioner assigned the greater weight showed the location of the proposed branch office to be at "major cross-thoroughfares" in the City of Bryan; that this location was in an "area of new residential construction" and near a "concentration of medical offices"; and that the area was an area of growth "not yet fully developed." The Commissioner's order recites the evidence weighing for and against public need and reconciles the conflict by giving the greater weight to the former.

Continuing under its first point of error, Community complains of the Commissioner's decision to use the Bryan Independent School District as the "community" or context within which to hear, consider and determine the findings required under the Texas Savings and Loan Act § 2.08. Community argued in the proceedings for a smaller "community," and contends the undisputed evidence shows existing savings and loan facilities would necessarily be passed by if customers chose to patronize the branch office proposed by Brazos, two of the existing facilities being those of Brazos itself. The implication is that customers would patronize the first facility they approached. Community points to the provisions of the Commissioner's Rule 1.01, which defines "community" for hearing purposes as:

[T]hat geographical area so situated with respect to the proposed location that persons residing in such area could patronize the proposed office in the ordinary course of their business.

We find the agency's choice of the school district not unreasonable and supported by substantial evidence, in view of the evidence adduced at the agency hearing which showed ninety-percent of the district's population living in the City of Bryan; the proposed site was on a major thoroughfare which connected the east and west ends of the district; and the site was within a few blocks of the only high school in the district. All of this evidence implied that residents of the school district could, and perhaps would, patronize the proposed branch office in the ordinary course of their business. Under Rule 1.01, it was necessary only to show that such customers could patronize the proposed branch office.

Community also attacks, under its first point of error, the finding of the Commissioner relative to the expected profitable operation of the proposed branch office. Included within the record of the administrative hearing is evidence that savings by Bryan residents increased consistently each year from 1974 ($34,631,416) through 1979 ($62,848,166); the savings held by Brazos showed a "healthy increase" which demonstrated that association's ability to obtain and retain an increasing amount of savings from all areas served by it, including the Bryan area; the population base of the area was growing, indeed, the Bryan standard metropolitan statistical area was one of the fastest-growing in the nation; employment in the area had increased from April, 1974, *461 (28,000) to November, 1979, (38,000); the economy of the area was greatly diversified; bank deposits were up; manufacturing operations were expanding; total cash deposits for agricultural activities were increasing; the value of mineral production and the amount of production were increasing; existing savings and loan associations competing in "this marketplace" were "doing well and growing"; and so forth.

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630 S.W.2d 457 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)

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