Interfirst Bank Clifton v. Julian E. Fernandez

844 F.2d 279, 6 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 6233, 1988 WL 36549
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1988
Docket87-1321
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 844 F.2d 279 (Interfirst Bank Clifton v. Julian E. Fernandez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Interfirst Bank Clifton v. Julian E. Fernandez, 844 F.2d 279, 6 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 6233, 1988 WL 36549 (1st Cir. 1988).

Opinion

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from a deficiency judgment rendered in federal district court in Texas, against appellant Julian E. Fernandez, a Louisiana resident, who claims his contacts with the State of Texas are insufficient to support personal jurisdiction. Fernandez also claims that the district court erred in applying the Texas law of deficiency judgments instead of the Louisiana law. Finally, he claims that even under Texas law, the deficiency judgment was erroneous because it was based upon an unreasonable commercial sale under Tex.Bus. & Com.Code Ann. § 9.504(c) (Ver *282 non Supp.1988). We affirm the decision of the district court, finding that it properly-exercised personal jurisdiction, and correctly chose and applied Texas law.

I. Facts

Fernandez is a Louisiana businessman and owner of several aircraft. In July of 1981 he observed an ad in the Wall Street Journal offering for sale a Schafer Piper Comanchero airplane. He responded to the ad by calling from Louisiana to Texas to speak with Shelby L. Richardson, a vice president at Clifton Bank, predecessor in interest of Interfirst Bank Clifton (“Inter-first”). Richardson and a representative of the manufacturer of the airplane thereafter flew to Patterson, Louisiana, to take Fernandez on a test flight. Some time later, Fernandez again called Richardson in Texas and offered to purchase the plane for $610,000. The bank accepted the offer and agreed to finance the sale. Fernandez signed sale and loan documents including a Loan Commitment Agreement, a $550,000 Promissory Note, and a Security Agreement, all dated July 27, 1981. Fernandez later signed a Louisiana security instrument entitled Collateral Chattel Mortgage, in Amelia, Louisiana. The mortgage was recorded in the clerk’s office of the Parish of St. Mary, Louisiana, on September 21, 1981.

Fernandez became unable to make his payments on the note. He delivered the airplane to a broker in Pennsylvania to attempt its sale. After several months in which the broker was unable to sell the plane, Interfirst contacted Fernandez and informed him of an interested buyer in Texas. Based on this representation, Fernandez agreed to let Interfirst’s pilot fly the plane back to Texas in early April of 1983. In this manner, Interfirst effectively repossessed the plane.

In September 1983, with the plane back in Texas, Interfirst accelerated the note and made demand for full payment. Fernandez then received and signed a letter from Interfirst in which he consented to Texas foreclosure procedures and waived his rights under Louisiana law. Approximately two years later, on December 20, 1985, Interfirst sold the plane in a private foreclosure sale for less than half the price at which it was sold to Fernandez in 1981. Interfirst then filed suit in state district court in Bosque County, Texas to recover the deficiency between the balance due on the note and the selling price of the plane. This being a diversity case, Fernandez removed to the United States District Court, Western District of Texas, Waco Division pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1441 and 1332. Fernandez then filed a Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(2) motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The motion was denied, and the case proceeded to a bench trial in which Interfirst was awarded $447,921.29 in deficiency on the note, plus interest and reasonable attorney’s fees. Fernandez filed this appeal.

II. Personal Jurisdiction

A federal court sitting in diversity may exercise jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant, provided state law confers such jurisdiction and its exercise comports with due process under the Constitution. Product Promotions, Inc. v. Cousteau, 495 F.2d 483, 489 (5th Cir.1974). Because the Texas long-arm statute extends to the limits of due process, Hall v. Helicopteros Nacionales De Colombia S.A., 638 S.W.2d 870, 872 (Tex.1982), rev’d on other grounds, 466 U.S. 408, 104 S.Ct. 1868, 80 L.Ed.2d 404 (1984), we consider only whether jurisdiction over Fernandez satisfies federal constitutional requirements.

The United States Supreme Court divides this inquiry into two parts: whether the nonresident defendant purposefully established “minimum contacts” with the forum state and, if so, whether the exercise of jurisdiction results in “fair play and substantial justice.” Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court of California, — U.S. —, —, 107 S.Ct. 1026, 1029, 94 L.Ed.2d 92 (1987); Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 476, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 2184, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985). We consider these due process considerations in turn.

*283 A. Minimum Contacts

The minimum contacts of a nonresident defendant may support either “specific” or “general” jurisdiction. Specific jurisdiction refers to a suit “arising out of or related to the defendant’s contacts with the forum.” Helicópteros, supra, 466 U.S. at 414 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. at 1872 n. 8, 80 L.Ed.2d at 411 n. 8. General jurisdiction refers to a suit which does not arise from the nonresident’s contacts with the forum, and is asserted only over defendants who maintain “continuous and systematic” contacts in a particular forum. Id. 466 U.S. at 415,104 S.Ct. at 1873. The theory of general jurisdiction clearly is not applicable in this case. 1 This deficiency action is directly related to Fernandez’s airplane purchase and financial arrangements with Interfirst, a Texas bank. Thus, we examine these contacts to determine whether they support a finding of specific jurisdiction.

We are guided by the Supreme Court’s discussion of minimum contacts in Burger King, supra, 471 U.S. at 473-82, 105 S.Ct. at 2183-87. 2 In Burger King the Court found specific jurisdiction based upon relatively few contacts between a nonresident defendant and the forum state of Florida. The defendant, Rudzewicz, was a Burger King franchise owner who lived in Michigan and had dealt almost exclusively with the Michigan Burger King office. Rudzew-icz had signed a twenty-year Burger King franchise agreement which contained a Florida choice-of-law clause, and which specified that payments would be made to Miami, Florida, the location of the Burger King main office.

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844 F.2d 279, 6 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 302, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 6233, 1988 WL 36549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/interfirst-bank-clifton-v-julian-e-fernandez-ca1-1988.