Investors Realty Trust v. Carlton Corp.

541 S.W.2d 289, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3167
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 16, 1976
Docket19043
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 541 S.W.2d 289 (Investors Realty Trust v. Carlton Corp.) 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
Investors Realty Trust v. Carlton Corp., 541 S.W.2d 289, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3167 (Tex. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

GUITTARD, Justice.

This appeal is from a temporary injunction restraining a trustee’s sale of real property. The apparent ground of the injunction was failure of appellant Investors Realty Trust, the holder of the note secured by a deed of trust on the property, to give the borrower, Carlton Corporation, notice of default and notice of acceleration of maturity as required in the loan agreement. Since we find that these provisions of the loan agreement were complied with after the suit was filed, but before the temporary injunction hearing, we hold that the temporary injunction was improper. We hold also that appellant’s right to accelerate was not lost by waiver or estoppel.

The loan was made in 1973 by Investors Realty to Carlton Corporation in the amount of $1,500,000. The note was guaranteed by several individuals and was secured by the deed of trust in question, which covers realty in Dallas County. Interest was payable monthly, and the entire principal was payable in July 1976.

The borrower, Carlton Corporation, failed to make the interest payment due in November 1974. Negotiations then took place between the parties, who, in February 1975, signed an agreement to modify terms of the note and the amount of the indebtedness guaranteed by the guarantors. As a part of this transaction, a deed of trust on property in Collin County was given as additional security.

In December 1975, Carlton Corporation again failed to pay the monthly interest, and it has made no further payment. Investors Realty continued to send monthly statements of interest, which were marked “past due.” On March 17, 1976, Carlton Corporation received a letter from the attorney for Investors Realty stating that the note was in default and that the indebtedness was accelerated. This letter is alleged not to be in compliance with the loan agreement because it did not allow ten days time to cure the default.

The notice provision of the agreement is as follows:

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in the note, the mortgage or this loan agreement, in the event of any default under any such instrument, lender shall have no right to accelerate the maturity of the note, to proceed with foreclosure under the mortgage or to exercise any other remedy unless written notice of default has been delivered to borrower and borrower has failed to cure such default within ten days thereafter.

On March 22, 1976, Investors Realty filed this action against Carlton Corporation and the guarantors for principal and accrued interest on the note. Concurrently, the trustee under the deed of trust posted notices of sale for April 6, 1976. The defendants counterclaimed for an injunction and on April 5 obtained a temporary restraining order stopping the sale.

Defendant’s application for temporary injunction was heard April 29, 1976. Mean *291 while, on April 15, the attorney for plaintiff Investors Realty delivered to an officer of Carlton Corporation in person the following letter.

We represent and write on behalf of Investors Realty Trust. We hereby notify you, and reaffirm all notices previously given to you, that you are presently in default under the terms of the loan agreement dated July 3, 1973, between the Carlton Corporation and Investors Realty Trust and under the terms of your promissory note dated July 3, 1973, to Investors Realty Trust in the original principal amount of $1,500,000 and under the terms of the agreement dated as of February 19, 1975, between the Carlton Corporation and Investors Realty Trust. You have not made the interest payment in the amount of $10,000 for the month of November, 1975, which was due and payable on or before December 1, 1975, nor any monthly interest payment due thereafter.
If you have not secured such default within ten (10) days from the date hereof, please be advised that Investors Realty Trust intends to accelerate the maturity of the note and take such further action as it deems appropriate to protect its legal right.

This letter was not followed by any tender of payment. Accordingly, eleven days later, on April 26, plaintiff’s attorney delivered to the corporation another letter stating that the entire indebtedness evidenced by the note was accelerated and was then due.

Receipt of these letters was stipulated at the temporary injunction hearing on April 29. Nevertheless, the district court issued a temporary injunction restraining plaintiff and its trustee from attempting to sell the property pending final trial of the suit. The court’s order recites findings of a “probable right” on the part of defendants in that they presented evidence showing (1) that plaintiff had failed to give notice of default and acceleration pursuant to the loan document, (2) that a prior course of conduct of the parties in negotiation and restructuring of indebtedness when interest payments had not been paid supported defendant’s allegations that plaintiff had waived its right of acceleration and foreclosure and was estopped to exercise that right, and (3) that defendants were confused by various statements and letters from plaintiff concerning the amount to be paid in order to cure the default.

We conclude that none of these recited grounds establishes a probable right on the part of defendants to an injunction restraining the trustee’s sale. Much of the material in the briefs of both parties concerns whether the notice of March 17, 1976, complied with the requirements of the loan agreement. We regard that point as immaterial in view of the later notices of April 15 and April 26 above mentioned. Appellees do not contend that these later notices did not comply with the notice requirements of the loan agreement. The March 17 notice may have affected the validity of the posting for the trustee’s sale on April 6, but that matter is now moot because no sale was held on that date.

Neither can the temporary injunction be sustained on the ground of waiver or estoppel based on a prior course of conduct. The only conduct alleged in this contention is that in February 1975, plaintiff negotiated with defendants and entered into a modification of the loan agreement, which included acceptance of new security, and that when defendant again stopped making interest payments in December 1975, plaintiff attempted to obtain some satisfactory adjustment of the indebtedness for approximately four months before directing its trustee to post notices of sale. This evidence fails to raise an issue of either waiver or estoppel. The situation is far removed from that in Vaughan v. Crown Plumbing & Sewer Service, Inc., 523 S.W.2d 72 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1975, no writ), on which defendants rely. There the noteholder had repeatedly accepted late installment payments, but when another payment was four days late, he gave notice of acceleration and on the following day declined a tender of the in *292 stallment currently due. The court went no further than to say that late acceptance of installments raised an issue of waiver of the right of acceleration in the absence of some notice that timely payments of future installments would be strictly required.

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Bluebook (online)
541 S.W.2d 289, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3167, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/investors-realty-trust-v-carlton-corp-texapp-1976.