First National Bank of Amarillo v. Arrow Oil & Gas, Inc.

818 S.W.2d 159, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2532, 1991 WL 206855
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 14, 1991
DocketNo. 07-90-0227-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 818 S.W.2d 159 (First National Bank of Amarillo v. Arrow Oil & Gas, Inc.) 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
First National Bank of Amarillo v. Arrow Oil & Gas, Inc., 818 S.W.2d 159, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2532, 1991 WL 206855 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.

The First National Bank of Amarillo appeals from a summary judgment decreeing that the Bank wrongfully set off the general deposit account of Dawson Operating Company, Inc. Concluding that the trial court correctly denied the setoff by application of the equitable exception to the Bank’s general right of setoff, we will affirm.

Dawson Operating Company, Inc., whose president was H.C. Bryan Dawson, was an operator of wells, one of which was the Bernstein No. 1 gas well. The Company maintained with the Bank a general deposit account, no. 76-8413 under the name “Dawson Operating Company, Inc., Mineral Account.” The account was used primarily as a depository for payments the purchasers of production from the wells made to the Company for the owners of working and royalty interests in the wells.

On 31 July 1987, a check made payable only to the Company in the sum of $6,003.04, issued as the June gas runs on the Bernstein No. 1 well, was deposited in the account. On 6 August 1987, and before the Company disbursed the funds to the working interest and royalty owners, the Bank setoff $19,579.38 from the account to apply to a debt owed the Bank by the Company. At the time, the Bank was not aware that any funds in the account were held in trust for third parties.

Approximately two months later, one of the working interest owners notified the Bank that the funds belonged to him and other claimants, and requested payment. The Bank did not honor the request. Subsequently, Arrow Oil & Gas, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation, became the operator of the Bernstein No. 1 well. In January of 1988, Arrow, as the owner of a working interest in the well and the agent for the other working interest and royalty owners,1 notified the Bank that the $6,003.04 deposited on 31 July 1987, rightfully belonged to them, and demanded its return. The Bank refused the demand.

Afterwards, on 4 February 1988, the Bank filed a declaratory judgment action to establish that it had not wrongfully converted the funds. Arrow Oil & Gas, Inc. and the other owners of working interests and royalties in the Bernstein No. 1 well, collectively referred to as Arrow, answered with a general denial and then counter[161]*161claimed for the ownership of the funds. In answering and generally denying the counterclaim, the Bank alleged that on 29 March 1988, it had recovered a judgment against Dawson and the Company for the amount of their debts and note obligations to the Bank, less the credited $6,003.04 setoff.2

Later, on 3 July 1989, Arrow moved, with supporting documents, for summary judgment on the ground that, as a matter of law, the $6,003.04 was held in trust for the working interest and royalty owners and was not subject to the Bank’s right of setoff. The Bank responded to the motion for summary judgment and, relying upon its submitted documents and perceived deficiencies in Arrow’s documents, alleged the existence of eight material fact issues concerning the nature of account no. 76-8413 and Arrows’s right to the $6,003.04, and denied that Arrow had established the account was a “special” account of trust, or that there was an “equitable exception” to the Bank’s right of setoff.

The trial court, finding that the Bank had no knowledge or notice that any trust agreement existed between Dawson and the working interest and royalty owners, nevertheless was persuaded that National Indemnity Co. v. Spring Branch State Bank, 162 Tex. 521, 348 S.W.2d 528 (1961), in which the Supreme Court adopted the “equitable” exception to the bank’s right of setoff as the rule in Texas, controlled the summary judgment proof to support Arrow’s entitlement to judgment. Thereupon, the court granted Arrow’s motion, denied the Bank declaratory relief, and rendered summary judgment accordingly.

With two points of error, the Bank contends that (1) the existence of fact issues precluded summary judgment, and (2) the court erred in the application of the law of setoff. In this regard, it is noticed that Arrow presented summary judgment evidence sufficient to establish as a matter of law that it and its principals were the record owners of the working interests and royalties in the Bernstein No. 1 well; that the $6,003.04 payment was traced into the bank account of the Company, and to the Bank’s setoff; and that the record owners had a trust relationship with the Company. Thus, Arrow established all elements of the theory of recovery under the “equitable” rule of National Indemnity presented to the trial court as a matter of law, and was entitled to summary judgment unless, as the Bank contends, the summary judgment proof establishes fact issues to avoid Arrow’s entitlement to judgment or the court misapplied the law to the facts. City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671, 678 (Tex.1979).

In presenting its second point of error, the Bank contends that the trial court misinterpreted the law of setoff as expressed in National Indemnity. In that cause, Spring Branch State Bank had charged the joint business and personal account of insurance agent Mullan and his wife to satisfy a debt owed by Mullan to the bank. The funds seized included funds Mullan held in trust for National Indemnity without the knowledge of the bank, which had not otherwise changed its position to its detriment. In holding that National Indemnity was entitled to recover the funds belonging to it, the Court first noted the uniform rule that when the bank has knowledge, or is charged with notice, that the funds in the account of one of its depositors are trust funds, it may not seize and retain the funds held in trust in order to setoff a debt of the depositor. The Court next observed that when the bank has no such knowledge or notice, there is a sharp division of authority. “[M]ost states,” the Court said, “have held that when the bank has no knowledge or notice, it has the right to apply the funds on deposit against the fiduciary’s individual indebtedness.” Then, the Court continued:

But a substantial minority of states which apply the “federal” or “equitable” rule have held that the bank may not apply such funds to the individual debt of [162]*162the depositor if there has been no change in the bank’s position to its detriment and no superior equities have been raised in its favor.

National Indemnity Co. v. Spring Branch State Bank, 348 S.W.2d at 529. Having reviewed the authorities and considerations underlying the different rules, the Court concluded, “[W]e believe the ‘equitable’ rule is supported by the sounder reason and equity,” and regarded the rule “as being applicable in this State.” Id. at 531.

The misinterpretation occurred, the Bank proposes, because it could not find any Texas case which interprets National Indemnity for the proposition that when a fiduciary or trust relationship exists between a depositor and some third party, which is wholly unknown to the banking institution, the banking institution is unable to lawfully setoff a general depository account. A review of the cases citing National Indemnity

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Bluebook (online)
818 S.W.2d 159, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2532, 1991 WL 206855, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-of-amarillo-v-arrow-oil-gas-inc-texapp-1991.