Edwards v. State Bank of Satanta, Kansas

705 S.W.2d 839, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12290
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 28, 1986
DocketNo. 07-84-0199-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 705 S.W.2d 839 (Edwards v. State Bank of Satanta, Kansas) 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
Edwards v. State Bank of Satanta, Kansas, 705 S.W.2d 839, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12290 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.

Summarily adjudged liable to the State Bank of Satanta, Kansas, in the sum of $89,402.48 on his written guarantee to pay the unpaid note indebtedness of Ganadera, Inc., William V. Edwards, Jr. appeals, attacking the judgment with five points of error. The bank has a request in the nature of a cross-point for a reformation of the judgment to include the amount of attorney’s fees the court found, but did not decree, the bank should recover. Because the preliminary fact issue of notice of the [841]*841summary judgment hearing is unresolved, the appeal will be abated for a determination of the fact.

Edwards, then the president of Ganad-era, Inc., a Texas corporation, executed the corporation’s two promissory notes dated 12 October 1978 and made payable to the order of The State Bank of Satanta. One of the notes was in the principal sum of $50,000 and was due on 12 April 1978. On the day the notes were executed, Edwards and others jointly executed a loan guaranty agreement by which, in order for the corporation to secure and the bank to extend it credit, they guaranteed the full and prompt payment to the bank at maturity of any and all indebtedness, liabilities, and obligations owed by the corporation to the bank to the extent of $500,000. The guaranty agreement further specified that authority is given to the bank to make extensions and renewals of the indebtedness covered without notice to the guarantors.

The $50,000 note was twice renewed and the maturity date was last extended to 26 January 1980 by two succeeding notes executed in behalf of Ganadera by two of its officers, neither of which was Edwards. Among the collateral and security listed for the note was the personal guaranty agreement executed by Edwards and others.

Ganadera defaulted in payment of the note when it became due. The bank initiated its action to recover the principal amount due on the note, the accrued interest, and reasonable attorney’s fees, from Ganadera, Edwards, and the other signatories to the guaranty agreement. However, by the time the trial court rendered the summary judgment from which this appeal has been perfected, all defendants except Edwards had been procedurally removed from this cause.

After Edwards answered, interposing various pleas, and replied to a request for admissions of facts, the bank moved, with supporting documents, for summary judgment on the ground that there is no genuine issue of material fact of Edward’s liability, via his loan guaranty agreement, on the note sued upon. In response, Edwards filed a verified pleading.

Subsequently on 30 April 1984, after all pleadings and supporting documents had been filed, the trial court rendered judgment which, except for the formal heading and ending, is in these words:

On the 30th day of April, 1984, came on to be heard the MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT of STATE BANK OF SATANTA, KANSAS, Plaintiff, against WILLIAM V. EDWARDS, JR., Defendant. The Plaintiff appeared through its agent by affidavit and by its attorney of record and announced ready. The above named Defendant, although having been duly and legally cited to appear and answer, failed to appear and answer, and wholly made default.
Notice of the hearing was served on the attorney of record for Defendant. The Court has read the pleadings and the papers on file, and is of the opinion that the allegations of Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment have been admitted and that the cause of action is liquidated and proved by an instrument in writing, and finds that Defendant WILLIAM V. EDWARDS, JR. is indebted to Plaintiff in the principal sum of $55,545.57, plus legal interest of $33,556.91, and should recover a reasonable attorney’s fee, which the Court finds to be $4,000.00
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that STATE BANK OF SATANTA, KANSAS, Plaintiff, have and recover from WILLIAM V. EDWARDS, JR., Defendant, the sum of $89,102.48 with interest hereon at the legal rate of thirteen and one-half percent (13.5%) per annum, as provided by said instrument from the date of judgment until paid, together with all costs of court in this behalf expended.

The judgment prompted Edwards’ motion for new trial by which he alleged that, for reasons stated, the judgment was erroneous under the standard for either a default judgment or a summary judgment. Later, one of the bank’s attorneys addressed a letter to the trial judge purportedly trans[842]*842mitting a copy of a judgment nunc pro tunc to replace the original judgment, which was proposed to delete references to Edwards’ default and admission of the allegations in the bank’s summary judgment motion, and to amend the amount of the total judgment to include the $4,000 the court found should be recovered by the bank as reasonable attorney’s fees.

Subsequently, the court, reciting the hearing of evidence and consideration of arguments and briefs of counsel for the parties, signed an order denying Edwards’ motion for new trial. The court was not requested to, and did not, rule on the proposed judgment nunc pro tunc.

Appealing, Edwards contends, with the first three of his five points of error, that the court erred in rendering summary judgment because proper notice of the hearing was not served as required by law, genuine issues of material fact exist, and the motion for summary judgment was considered under an improper standard of law. With his last two points, Edwards contends that if the judgment rendered is found to be a default judgment, then the court erred in rendering it because he had made a written appearance, and abused its discretion in failing to set it aside when he fulfilled the requirements for doing so. To determine the viable points before us, it becomes necessary to resolve the nature of the judgment actually rendered.

When the judgment is viewed and construed as a whole, as it is to be to give effect to all parts if possible, Rodgers v. Williamson, 489 S.W.2d 558, 560 (Tex.1973), it is immediately obvious that the judgment is ambiguous in that it reasonably could be construed as a summary judgment or a default judgment. These circumstances invoke the rule that the judgment is construed in the light of the entire contents of the record and the motion upon which it was rendered. Lone Star Cement Corporation v. Fair, 467 S.W.2d 402, 404-05 (Tex.1971).

There is nothing in the record to indicate that the bank ever moved for a default judgment. On the other hand, not only does the record contain the bank's motion for summary judgment, which the judgment rendered recites was heard on 30 April 1984, but it contains a letter, dated 2 April 1984, written by one of the bank’s attorneys to Edwards’ trial counsel advising that a hearing had been set on the motion at 9:30 a.m. on 30 April 1984. We, therefore, hold, agreeable to the trial court’s later and orally expressed view, that the judgment rendered was a summary judgment.

Since Edwards drafted his fourth and fifth points to address only the rendition of a default judgment, they are moot. As the consequence thereof, they are overruled.

In his motion for new trial, Edwards raised, among other matters, his first-point contention that he was not given the required notice of the summary judgment hearing.

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705 S.W.2d 839, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-state-bank-of-satanta-kansas-texapp-1986.