Falkner v. Gibraltar Savings & Loan Ass'n

359 S.W.2d 56, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2593
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 11, 1962
DocketNo. 10992
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 359 S.W.2d 56 (Falkner v. Gibraltar Savings & Loan Ass'n) 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
Falkner v. Gibraltar Savings & Loan Ass'n, 359 S.W.2d 56, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2593 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

ARCHER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court holding that an order of the [57]*57Banking Commissioner dated July 29, 1958 denying the application of Gibraltar Savings and Loan Association, appellee, to maintain a branch office at a specified location in Houston was not reasonably supported by substantial evidence and is illegal and setting such order aside.

On February 12, 1958 appellee made application to the Banking Commissioner “to open an additional office in the proposed Smith-Hofheinz Shopping City, located in the vicinity of Westheimer and Sage Roads, Houston, Texas.” Hearing was held on such application before the Banking Commissioner in Austin, Texas, on June 12, 1958. On July 29, 1958 the Banking Commissioner entered his order denying the application.

Appellee then brought this action, alleging that such denial was “arbitrary, discriminatory and capricious.” Appellant San Jacinto Savings & Loan Association, having been a protestant at the hearing upon the application, intervened in support •of the Banking Commissioner’s denial. The Attorney General moved for summary judgment on the basis that:

“(3) That at the time Defendant Falkner declined Plaintiff’s application for said branch, the said Smith-Hof-heinz Shopping City had not been built, and that the application for said "branch was declined specifically for that reason.
“(4) That, as a matter of law, the fact that a branch is applied for in an undeveloped shopping center is sufficient ground for declining such application on the ground that establishment of such branch in an undeveloped shopping center would not promote the public convenience and advantage, as required by Article 881a-2, V.A.C.S.”

Such Motion for Summary Judgment was denied and the parties went to trial on December 4, 1961, on the plaintiff’s third amended original petition and trial amendment thereto. On January 15, 1962, the Trial Court entered its judgment, holding “that the said order of defendant Banking Commissioner and his acts in connection therewith did not deny plaintiff due process of law” but that “the order of defendant Banking Commissioner dated July 29, 1958 denying plaintiff’s application to maintain a branch office of its association is not reasonably supported by substantial evidence and is invalid, illegal, void and of no binding effect and is hereby set aside.”

The appeal is based on two points of error as follows:

“Point One. The Trial Court erred in overruling the Attorney General’s motion for summary judgment.
“Point Two. The Trial Court erred in holding that the Banking Commissioner’s denial is not reasonably supported by substantial evidence.”

The prime issue in this case, conceding procedural sufficiency, is whether the action of the Commissioner in denying the application was supported by substantial evidence.

The applicant, appellee herein, had the burden of proving, under the provisions of Art. 881a-2, and other related sections as are set out, before or to the Commissioner the sufficiency of the facilities to serve the public convenience and advantage in the neighborhood proposed to be served, and that the volume of business there is such as to indicate a profitable operation; that the proposed operation will not unduly injure any other association operating in the area; that the proposed location is within the same county as the home office of the applying association and that there is no other association adequately serving the neighborhood.

The character of the application, its required contents and recitations, are fully set out in the statute, and in a number of cases such as Falkner v. Gibraltar Savings Association, Tex.Civ.App., 348 S.W.2d [58]*58467, error ref., N.R.E., and we do not restate the several requirements.

The appellee applied for a branch location as we have hereinabove set out in 1958 in a shopping center which had not then been constructed and which has not been built or started now, some four years later.

The Trial Court, in the judgment, found:

“It is further ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that Acts 1929, 41st Legislature, 2d. Called Session, page 100 as codified by Vernon’s as Article 881a-2, V.A.T.S. and Article 1136a-9, V.A.P.C. is constitutional; and that the said order of defendant Banking Commissioner and his acts in connection therewith did not deny plaintiff due process of law.
“It is further ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that the order of defendant Banking Commissioner dated July 29, 1958, denying plaintiff’s application to maintain a branch office of its association is not reasonably supported by substantial evidence and is invalid, illegal, void and of no binding effect and is hereby set aside.
“It is further ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that defendants are enjoined from enforcing said order and from issuing any orders or taking any further action that will interfere with the opening of plaintiff’s said office and that defendant R. A. Benson, as Savings & Loan Commissioner of Texas and successor in administrative control to defendant J. M. Fallcner, is directed to enter a proper order in the premises; * * * ”

We shall attempt to review the record, although the statement of facts contains 871 pages with many exhibits, in as brief a manner as we can consistent with a full consideration in an effort to determine if the order of the Commissioner denying the application to maintain a branch office of its association is .reasonably supported by substantial evidence, bearing in mind that it was the conditions existing at the time the application was made that are controlling.

The application dated February 12, 1958 reads in part:

“We hereby make application to open an additional office in the proposed Smith-Hofheinz Shopping City, located in the vicinity of Westheimer and Sage Roads, Houston, Texas.”

From the statements in the application and in the accompanying verifications as to place of location and area to be served it is to us apparent that the branch was-to be situated in the Smith-Hofheinz Shopping City, located in the vicinity of West-heimer and Sage Roads. The Shopping City was not then under construction and according to statements in appellants’' brief, building is not now going on.

The Commissioner found that there was-not a sufficient volume of business to render the operation profitable and that there was another association in the area which would be injured by the operation of the proposed branch.

The denial of the application is as follows :

“EXHIBIT B-l DEPARTMENT OF BANKING
“Austin 14, Texas
“July 29, 1958
“J. M. FALKNER
“COMMISSIONER
“Gibraltar Savings and Loan Association
“Houston, Texas
“RE: Application for branch office — Smith-Hofheinz Shopping Area, Houston Texas
“Dear Sirs:
“Your application to establish a branch in the Smith-Hofheinz Shop[59]*59ping Area is declined for the following reason:

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Related

Gibraltar Savings & Loan Association v. Falkner
371 S.W.2d 548 (Texas Supreme Court, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
359 S.W.2d 56, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2593, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falkner-v-gibraltar-savings-loan-assn-texapp-1962.