Gerst v. American Savings & Loan Ass'n of Houston

384 S.W.2d 352, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2370
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1964
DocketNo. 11259
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 384 S.W.2d 352 (Gerst v. American Savings & Loan Ass'n of Houston) 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
Gerst v. American Savings & Loan Ass'n of Houston, 384 S.W.2d 352, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2370 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

PHILLIPS, Justice.

American Savings and Loan Association of Houston, hereinafter called appellee, brought suit in the trial court seeking to overturn an order of the Savings and Loan Commissioner denying appellee’s application to establish a branch office at 410 Main Street in the northern portion of the central business district of Houston.

Houston First Savings Association, Home Savings and Loan Association and Benjamin Franklin Savings Association intervened and aligned themselves with the Savings and Loan Commissioner in an attempt to sustain the order. All of these parties, unless names individually, will hereinafter be designated as appellants.

After trial, the District Court entered judgment setting aside the Commissioner’s order and issued a writ of mandamus directing and commanding the Commissioner to grant appellee’s application for the branch. The State and the intervenors have appealed the judgment to this Court.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellee’s application for the branch here under consideration was filed prior to the effective date of the present Savings and Loan Act,1 and is therefore controlled by Art. 881a-2, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St.,2 the [354]*354previous statute, the pertinent part being as follows:

“ * * * whether the public convenience and advantage will be promoted by-allowing such proposed building and loan association to be incorporated and engaged in business, and whether the population in the neighborhood of such place and in the surrounding country affords a reasonable promise of adequate support for the proposed building and loan association.”

After a hearing, the Commissioner denied the appellee’s application for the branch by an order containing the following language:

“The applying association has adequate reserves and surplus to warrant the additional places of business; the applying association has operated its principal office for at least three (3) years successfully, profitably, properly and in accordance with law, but the proposed operation of the additional office will impair the applying association’s ability to carry on its overall operation; the public convenience and advantage in the neighborhood proposed to be served and in the surrounding country will not be promoted by allowing the proposed additional office to be established and engage in business at the proposed location, the volume of business there is not such as to indicate that a profitable operation is probable within a reasonable period of time, and the public within such area is being adequately served; the proposed operation will unduly injure other associations operating in the neighborhood of the proposed location and the surrounding county; and a separately enclosed office area within which no activity or business except that which is related to the' affairs or services of the association is proposed.”

Appellant intervenors are existing associations with their main offices in downtown Houston.

Appellants are before this Court on four points of error. The first three briefed together are that appellee failed to prove that there is no substantial evidence supporting the Commissioner’s finding that the volume of business in the proposed location is not such as to indicate a profitable operation-within a reasonable period of time; that the public convenience and advantage in the neighborhood proposed to be served and in the surrounding country will not be promoted by the proposed office; and that the public in the area is being adequately served. Appellants’ fourth point of error is that ap-pellee failed to prove that there is no sub[355]*355stantial evidence supporting the Commissioner’s finding that the proposed operation will unduly injure other associations operating in the neighborhood of the proposed location and the surrounding country.

The facts of this case and the law applicable thereto bring it within the Supreme Court’s decision in Gibraltar Savings & Loan Association v. Falkner, 371 S.W.2d 548. In Gibraltar the Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court reversing an order of the Commissioner that denied a savings and loan branch to the applicant therein. The Court said:

“This appeal is governed by the substantial evidence rule. First: the order of the Commission is presumed to be a legal and valid order. Second: the burden is on the one appealing from the Commissioner’s order to show that the order appealed from is not reasonably supported by substantial evidence, existing at the time of the entry of the order by the Commissioner. This showing must be made at the trial court hearing. This may be done by a showing that all of the evidence available to the Commissioner, and given in the trial court on appeal, so conclusively demands an affirmative finding on all requirements that a negative finding on any requirement can have no support in substantial evidence; therefore negative findings are arbitrary.” Citing cases. (Emphasis added.)

The rules of the Building and Loan Section of the Finance Commission and Banking Commission which were the basis for the Commission’s ruling in Gibraltar are similar to the provisions of Art. 881a-2 which govern the case at bar.

From the evidence before this Court as adduced in the trial court, we find that ap-pellee has, in outline, presented the following case: (a) Appellee began operation in 1960 with $312,500 capital and has grown in less than four years to over $15,000,000 in total assets with approximately $600,000 in capital, surplus and reserves; (b) that ap-pellee’s principal field of service is in the field of loans under $10,000 made in a large proportion to Negroes and Latin Americans; (c) that there is a need for the branch office in the area requested due to proximity and access to the class sought to be served and that due to such proximity and access a successful operation can reasonably be anticipated; that the group or class sought to be served are of a sufficient number to insure a profitable operation; (d) that the greater percentage of inter-venors’ business, the nearest competitors of the proposed branch, is in the field of loans of above $10,000.

In attempting to present substantial evidence to uphold the Commission’s order, the State and intervenor appellants relied on (a) cross examination of appellee’s witnesses in an attempt to discredit their testimony; (b) one witness, the secretary of one of the appellant intervenors.

Appellee’s president, Mr. Ralph B. Lee, in addition to his testimony concerning the growth of his company as outlined above, stated that he had, in the past, organized two savings and loan companies, a mortgage company and a bank and trust company. Lee stated that in the course of this financial career, he learned that a profitable savings and loan business could be built from loans made to the lower income groups and that he had sought to project his association’s endeavors into this field and had done so with considerable success. Numerous exhibits were presented by competent witnesses outlining the district sought to be served as the northwest quadrant of the city of Houston. That the proposed branch office itself at 410 Main Street would be the only .savings and loan institution in the downtown area bordered by Texas Avenue on the South and Buffalo Bayou on the north.

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Related

SPRING BRANCH SAVINGS & LOAN ASS'N v. Gerst
420 S.W.2d 618 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
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392 S.W.2d 200 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1965)

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384 S.W.2d 352, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gerst-v-american-savings-loan-assn-of-houston-texapp-1964.