Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Linda K. Fisher, Individually and D/B/A Fisher Properties

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 25, 2015
Docket03-13-00510-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Linda K. Fisher, Individually and D/B/A Fisher Properties (Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Linda K. Fisher, Individually and D/B/A Fisher Properties) 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
Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Linda K. Fisher, Individually and D/B/A Fisher Properties, (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-13-00510-CV

Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Appellant

v.

Linda K. Fisher, Individually and d/b/a Fisher Properties, Appellee

FROM THE COUNTY COURT AT LAW NO. 1 OF TRAVIS COUNTY NO. C-1-CV-12-008199, HONORABLE J. DAVID PHILLIPS, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In this credit card debt-collection case, appellant Investment Retrievers, Inc.

appeals the trial court’s judgment granting no-evidence summary judgment in favor of appellee

Linda K. Fisher, individually and d/b/a Fisher Properties. We affirm in part and reverse and remand

in part.

BACKGROUND

Investment Retrievers, as assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., sued Fisher in

August 2012 seeking to recover the past due amount on Fisher’s credit card account plus interest and

attorney’s fees based on claims of breach of contract, open account, account stated, and quantum

meruit. According to Investment Retrievers, Fisher defaulted in making payments on the account, Wells Fargo accelerated maturity of the total amount owed, and subsequently Wells Fargo sold and

assigned the account to Investment Retrievers.

Investment Retrievers attached to its original petition: (i) Fisher’s redacted

application for a business credit card for Fisher Properties from Wells Fargo in 2006,

(ii) Wells Fargo’s customer agreement for business cards effective January 1, 2008, (iii) monthly

statements of Fisher’s account from Wells Fargo during the time period January 2009 to

March 2010, and (iv) a bill of sale between Wells Fargo and Investment Retrievers dated

February 23, 2011. The application for a credit card includes an agreement and personal guarantee

signed by Fisher on July 27, 2006; the monthly statements of account show purchases, interest rates

and finance charges, cash advances, and payments until the charge-off date in March 2010; and the

bill of sale states that Investment Retrievers “hereby purchases and accepts, and Seller hereby sells,

assigns, transfers, and conveys to Buyer all its rights, interest and title in and to the Receivables

listed on the attached Schedule A.” Five pages of excerpts from a spreadsheet follow the Bill of Sale

that reference Fisher’s account by number, name, charge-off date, charge-off amount, balance, last

payment amount, last payment date, credit line, and last merchandise purchase date.

Fisher filed a motion for no-evidence summary judgment in May 2013 on the

following grounds:

Plaintiff is unable to bring forth legally sufficient evidence of the essential elements of its claim which are as follows: (a) Defendant applied for credit; Plaintiff extended credit to Defendant; Defendant was obligated to repay amounts provided to Defendant on credit on the terms alleged by Plaintiff; and Defendant defaulted on Defendant’s payment obligations; (b) Plaintiff’s claim arise [sic] from a breach of contract or from a failure to pay an account stated or open account that has damaged Plaintiff; (c) Despite written demand, Defendant failed to pay the amount owed;

2 (d) Plaintiff is the owner and holder of the claim; (e) Plaintiff can substantiate its damages, including calculation of principal and interest; (f) all conditions precedent to recovery have occurred or been performed.

Investments Retrievers responded to Fisher’s motion and produced evidence in

support of its response. Its evidence included Fisher’s responses to requests for admission and

business records accompanied by affidavits from Roger Williams, as the custodian of records for

Wells Fargo, and Gina Guillory, as the custodian of records for Investment Retrievers. The records

included the documents that were attached to Investment Retrievers’s original petition and additional

monthly statements of Fisher’s account during the period of 2006 to the charge-off date in 2010.

Williams averred:

1. My name is Roger Williams. I am over 18 years of age and capable of making this affidavit. The facts stated in this affidavit are within my personal knowledge and are true and correct.

2. I am the custodian of records of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

3. Attached to this affidavit are 98 pages of records from Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

4. These 98 pages are kept by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. in the regular course of business, and it was the regular course of business of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. for an employee or representative of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., with knowledge of the act, event, condition, opinion, or account that was recorded, to make this record or to transmit the information to be included in this record. The record was made at or near the time or reasonably soon after the act, event, condition, opinion, or account that was recorded by or from information transmitted by a person with knowledge. The records attached to this affidavit are originals or are exact duplicates of the originals.

5. I have reviewed the file in this matter and upon review of the file have personal knowledge of the facts set forth in this affidavit concerning this claim against Defendant, LINDA K. FISHER, INDIVIDUALLY and DBA

3 FISHER PROPERTIES. I have personal knowledge of the books and records concerning this matter. Based on this knowledge, I declare the following:

6. The Defendant entered into an agreement with the Plaintiffs Assignor allowing Defendant to receive cash advances and/or purchase goods and services. The attached Application for account number ending in xxxxxxxxxxxxl702 is the original, true and correct account or an exact duplicate thereof of Defendant, LINDA K. FISHER, INDIVIDUALLY and DBA FISHER PROPERTIES, which has been maintained in files under my supervision and control. See a signed copy of the application attached hereto as Exhibit “A” and Customer Agreement attached hereto as Exhibit “B.”

7. In accordance with the agreement, Defendant promised to pay for the account number ending in xxxxxxxxxxxxl702. The Defendant failed to make payments due on the account. Due to Defendant’s failure to pay in accordance with the terms of the account, the account was charged off in the amount of $7,857.70. See the Defendant’s Monthly Statements attached hereto as Exhibit “C.”

8. On or about February 23, 2011, Plaintiff entered into a bill of sale with Wells Fargo Bank, in which Wells Fargo Bank assigned all of its rights, title and interest in monies owed under the Agreement to Plaintiff. See Bill of Sale attached hereto as Exhibit “D.”

Guillory’s affidavit contains similar testimony, and the records attached to her affidavit include the

same documents concerning Fisher’s account as well as copies of checks written by Fisher that were

made payable to Wells Fargo. Two of the checks reference an account number ending in “1702.”

Fisher filed objections to Investment Retrievers’s evidence. She objected to (i) the

affidavit of Williams, on the ground that “it contains unsupported factual and legal statements”;

(ii) the bill of sale, on the grounds that it is a conditional document and a portion of a larger

document that does not stand by itself; (iii) the pages following the bill of sale, on the grounds of

hearsay and lack of authentication; and (iv) Fisher’s application, on the grounds that the application

was not linked to Fisher’s account and was not legible.

4 After a hearing, the trial court granted Fisher’s motion for summary judgment without

stating the basis for its ruling. In its judgment, the trial court denied all claims asserted by

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Investment Retrievers, Inc., a California Corporation, Assignee of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Linda K. Fisher, Individually and D/B/A Fisher Properties, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/investment-retrievers-inc-a-california-corporation-texapp-2015.