Eagle Properties Ltd. v. KPMG Peat Marwick

912 S.W.2d 825, 1995 WL 776164
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 26, 1995
Docket08-93-00478-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 912 S.W.2d 825 (Eagle Properties Ltd. v. KPMG Peat Marwick) 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
Eagle Properties Ltd. v. KPMG Peat Marwick, 912 S.W.2d 825, 1995 WL 776164 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

LARSEN, Justice.

Plaintiffs/appellants Eagle Properties, Ltd., a limited partnership, and M.W. Bra-num, its managing partner, appeal the trial court’s summary judgment in favor of defendant KPMG Peat Marwick, an accounting firm. Eagle also appeals the trial court’s denial of its motion for partial summary judgment. We affirm.

FACTS

This appeal is yet another chapter in a saga which began in 1982, arising from the financial problems and ultimate failure of The First National Bank of Midland. The transaction from which this appeal stems has been the subject of much litigation in federal and state courts over the last decade.

In 1982, First National Bank of Midland encountered serious financial difficulties, created by its large portfolio of energy-related loans, many of which became uncollectible after the oil bust of the early eighties. To improve its precarious financial position (at least on paper), the bank decided to sell its twenty-four-story office building in downtown Midland, thus turning a non-producing capital asset into an income-producing one. In December 1982, the bank’s president, Charles Fraser, approached a number of prominent Midland businessmen, suggesting they buy the bank building, then lease it back to the bank. Fraser was quite open with the partners about the bank’s financial straits and its need for this transaction. “[The banks’s] disclosures and representations were adequate to inform Eagle and its partners of the bank’s financial position and the reasons for selling the building ... and ... [each of Eagle’s partners] knew the bank had definite financial problems.” Eagle Properties, Ltd. v. Scharbauer, 807 S.W.2d 714, 723 (Tex.1990), citing FDIC v. Eagle Properties, Ltd., 664 F.Supp. 1027, 1043-44 (W.D.Tex.1985). A number of Midland’s prominent citizens agreed to the plan.

On December 31, 1982, these individuals formed the limited partnership Eagle Properties and that day Eagle bought the bank’s property, agreed to lease the property back to the bank, and provided that the bank would continue to manage the property. M.W. Branum and Thomas C. Brown were Eagle’s general partners; Brown was also an advisory director of the bank. Eagle’s consideration for the purchase was $25 million in unsecured promissory notes from Eagle and *827 two unfunded letters of credit from Texas Commerce Bank and InterFirst Bank Dallas, to be funded in December 1983. In June 1983, Eagle agreed to fund the letters six months ahead of schedule.

On October 14, 1983, the First National Bank of Midland was declared insolvent and the FDIC appointed its receiver. The FDIC sued Eagle Properties and its partners on the promissory notes. Eagle and its partners raised numerous defenses to payment of the notes, which the federal district court, in a lengthy opinion following trial on the merits, rejected. It entered judgment for the FDIC. FDIC v. Eagle Properties, Ltd., 664 F.Supp. 1027 (W.D.Tex.1985). In two suits filed in state court, Eagle and its partners sued FNBM, its directors, TCB and Inter-First, and Main Hurdman, FNBM’s independent auditor in 1981 and 1982 (Main Hurd-man was later taken over by KPMG Peat Marwick; it is that firm which is appellee). Summary judgment was entered by the trial court in both suits, which judgments wound their way through the appellate system. The Texas Supreme Court eventually affirmed many aspects of the summary judgments, but reversed and remanded those causes of action involving the accounting firm. Those claims were the subject of another summary judgment, and they are the subject of this appeal.

KPMG issued financial statements on FNBM for 1981 and 1982. The 1981 financial statement was issued on January 15, 1982. The 1982 financial statement was issued on January 28, 1983. Eagle’s lawsuit alleges that these statements contained fraudulent misrepresentations which induced it to enter the sale/leaseback, and that KPMG and the bank conspired to defraud Eagle.

FRAUD

In its first point of error, Eagle contends that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment against it on its claim of fraud against KPMG. The elements of actionable fraud are: (1) a material misrepresentation; (2) that is false; (3) which the speaker knew was false or made recklessly without any knowledge of truth or falsity; (4) made with the intent that it be acted upon by the plaintiff; (5) upon which the plaintiff acted in reliance; and (6) which proximately results in injury. DeSantis v. Wackenhut Corp., 793 S.W.2d 670, 688-89 (Tex.1990); Trenholm v. Ratcliff, 646 S.W.2d 927, 930 (Tex.1983). To prevail on summary judgment, KPMG must conclusively disprove at least one of these elements.

Actionable fraud requires that the party making the representation do so with the actual intent to cause the other to rely upon the falsity. Eagle Properties, Ltd. v. Scharbauer, 807 S.W.2d 714, 723 (Tex.1990). In other words, the representing party must intend to induce action or inaction by means of the false representation. In this case, the summary judgment clearly establishes that KPMG could not have intended to induce Eagle or its partners into any act. When the 1981 financial statement was issued on January 15, 1982, and reissued in July 1982, the bank had yet to even approach plaintiffs about buying the building. Eagle had not been formed, and KPMG certainly had no knowledge that the bank building was for sale, or that its purchase was contemplated by Brown and Branum. Thus, any representation in the 1981 report could not have been made to induce anyone into participating in the sale/leaseback.

As for the 1982 report, when it was issued on January 28, 1983, the sale/leaseback transaction was complete. A representation made after a transaction is complete, no matter how false, cannot give rise to an action for fraud. Morgan v. Amarillo National Bank, 699 S.W.2d 930, 937 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 1985, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Banks v. Merritt, 537 S.W.2d 494, 496-97 (Tex.Civ.App.— Tyler 1976, no writ). Thus, as a matter of law, Eagle could not have relied on any information in the 1982 financial statement in deciding to purchase the bank budding. Westcliff Co. v. Wall, 153 Tex. 271, 267 S.W.2d 544, 546 (1954); Jefmor, Inc. v. Chicago Title Ins. Co., 839 S.W.2d 161, 163-64 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1992, no writ).

Eagle Properties argues that the 1982 financial statement caused it to agree to the *828 early funding of the letters of credit which financed the sale/leaseback.

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912 S.W.2d 825, 1995 WL 776164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eagle-properties-ltd-v-kpmg-peat-marwick-texapp-1995.