First Coleman Nat. Bank of Coleman v. Shield

166 S.W.2d 688
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedDecember 9, 1942
DocketNo. 1925—7984
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 166 S.W.2d 688 (First Coleman Nat. Bank of Coleman v. Shield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Coleman Nat. Bank of Coleman v. Shield, 166 S.W.2d 688 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1942).

Opinion

SMEDLEY, Commissioner.

Petitioner, First Coleman National Bank of Coleman, Texas, hereinafter referred to as the Coleman bank, sued respondent, I. O. Shield for 6/2S of an alleged unpaid balance due on several notes owned by the bank. After trial before a jury the court withdrew the case from the jury and rendered judgment in favor of the bank against respondent I. O. Shield for $5,-048.25. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause, holding that there was evidence from which the jury could have concluded that the original indebtedness was taken up and extended and the bank fully paid. 160 S.W.2d 277.

I. O. Shield, Leon L. Shield, Elgean Shield, Camille Shield Wallace, wife of Karl E. Wallace and Shield Brown, being the joint owners as heirs of L. L. Shield, deceased, of 2,571 acres of land in Coleman County, on November 22, 1929, borrowed $32,000 from F. O. Ketchum Mortgage Company and executed therefor six principal notes aggregating that amount, secured by first deed of trust lien on the land, and another note for $3,160, representing interest and secured by second lien. The money borrowed was divided among the five heirs who made the notes in proportion to the interests that they owned in the land, I. O. Shield receiving 6/25. The first three of the principal notes were paid. The mortgage company, on February 21, 1930, assigned the other three principal notes, being in the total amount of $22,400, to the Kansas City Life Insurance Company.

In the year 1933 Leon L. Shield executed to a trustee for the Coleman bank a deed of trust conveying his undivided 6/25 interest in the 2571 acres of land to secure his two notes for the total principal sum of $35,318. After the death of Leon L. Shield his independent executor, by deed dated September 14, 1937, and by a deed of confirmation dated October 26, 1938, conveyed to the Coleman bank the undivided 6/25 interest in the land that had been owned by Leon L. Shield, and the bank in consideration of the conveyances so made to it released the estate of Leon L. Shield from all liability on the notes that he had given to the bank.

[689]*689Kansas City Life Insurance Company, on October 25, 1937, assigned to the Coleman bank an indebtedness of $4,123.38 arising against the Shield heirs on account of payments of taxes made by the life insurance company and unpaid interest due on the principal notes; and the mortgage company, on February 23, 1938, assigned to the Coleman bank the interest note for $3,160 secured by second lien.

The three notes aggregating $22,400 executed by the Shield heirs and on which this suit is brought were by assignment dated February 24, 1938, transferred by Kansas City Life Insurance Company to the Coleman bank, which declared all of the notes due, appointed a substitute trustee, caused an undivided 19/25 interest in the land to be sold at trustee’s sale on April 5, 1938, and bought the said undivided interest in the land for $10,000, which was credited on the debt.

The Coleman bank, on October 13, 1938, by general warranty deed conveyed the 2,-571 acres of land to Elgean Shield and his wife and Karl Wallace and his wife. The recited consideration for this conveyance was the execution by the grantees of twenty vendor’s lien notes aggsegating $30,000, payable to Mrs. Lilian Seeligson Winter-botham» and four vendor’s lien notes aggregating $2,000, payable to Brown Brothers. Elgean Shield procured the $32,000 in cash from Mrs. Winterbotham and Brown Brothers and paid it to the Coleman bank.

The judgment rendered by the district court against respondent is for 6/25 of the balance of the principal, interest and attorney’s fees due on the three principal notes aggregating $22,400, after crediting 19/25 of the amount due on said notes April 5, 1938, with $10,000, together with 6/25 of the principal, interest and attorney’s fees due on the interest note for $3,-160, secured by second lien.

The Court of Civil Appeals, as has been said, concluded that, from the facts and circumstances in evidence, the jury could reasonably have inferred that the foreclosure by the bank, the resale by it to El-gean Shield and Wallace for a consideration evidenced wholly by notes, and the immediate assignment thereof to prearranged purchasers were steps in a single undertaking by which the original indebtedness was taken up and fully paid. The Coleman bank challenges this conclusion on three grounds: First, because the conclusion is the decision of a question not raised in the trial court by respondent and not presented by assignment of error in the Court of Civil Appeals; second, because the record contains undisputed evidence showing that the bank, for the conveyance to Elgean Shield and Wallace, was not paid the full amount of the indebtedness which it held secured by liens against the land; and, third, because the conveyance to Elgean Shield and Wallace was the sale of the land which the bank as owner thereof had the right to make at whatever price it desired.

The answer filed in trial court by respondent contains many allegations, making in a somewhat informal manner a number of defenses, and the several defenses are not distinctly and separately presented. We find in it, however, allegations which, though they seem to relate in part at least to other theories of defense, may fairly be considered sufficient to present the defense that a deficiency judgment cannot be taken against respondent because the bank, in transactions with Elgean Shield and from payments made to it by him, has received full payment in satisfaction of the original obligation for which respondent was bound.

A paragraph of respondent’s motion for new trial and the first proposition in his brief in the Court of Civil Appeals complain of the trial court’s judgment, and assert that the bank has no right of recovery in the suit, because the evidence shows that the full amount due on all of the notes executed by the Shield heirs and acquired by the bank was paid by one of the makers of the notes. We cannot sustain the contention that the Court of Civil Appeals in the reversal of the trial court’s judgment decided a .question not raised and not presented by respondent.

The Court of Civil Appeals did not find that the Coleman bank received full payment of all of the indebtedness that it held, or had held, secured by liens against the land, in its transaction with Elgean Shield whereby he paid the bank $32,000 in cash and the bank conveyed the land to him. The finding was that under the undisputed testimony the bank in its receipt of the $32,000 from Elgean Shield “was repaid all the money it had been out in connection with the various transactions connected with the 1929 loan”. That loan was the loan made to the Shield heirs by the Ket-chum Mortgage Company and evidenced by the notes, all of which, except the first [690]*690three that had been paid, were assigned to the bank. Elgean Shield testified that with the money which he obtained from Mrs. Winterbotham and Brown Brothers he paid the Coleman bank the entire amount owing -on the Kansas City Life Insurance Company loan, the Ketchum loan. S. H. Gray, vice-president of the Coleman bank, testified that the agreement finally made with Elgean Shield was he should pay for the land all of the money that the bank had paid out for the Shield heirs and also an agreed amount representing the equity that the bank had acquired from the estate of Leon L. Shield.

The transaction between the bank and Leon L.

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Related

Shield v. First Coleman Nat. Bank
175 S.W.2d 267 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
166 S.W.2d 688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-coleman-nat-bank-of-coleman-v-shield-texcommnapp-1942.