Langdeau v. Dick

356 S.W.2d 945, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2417
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 14, 1962
Docket10941
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 356 S.W.2d 945 (Langdeau v. Dick) 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
Langdeau v. Dick, 356 S.W.2d 945, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2417 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinions

RICHARDS, Justice.

Suit was brought by C. H. Langdeau as receiver of General American Casualty Company against John L. Dick et ux. to recover upon their promissory note dated December 26, 19S2 in the sum of $6,000.00 to General American Casualty Company in payment for six $1,000.00 5% Debenture Bonds of General American Casualty Company, Series 1952, and to foreclose a deed of trust lien on certain real estate under a deed of trust executed by Dick et ux. as security for the note. General American Casualty Company was placed in temporary receivership in the 126th District Court of Travis County, Texas on June 17, 1954 and C. H. Langdeau is its receiver.

Dick et ux. having answered only by general denial, Langdeau filed motion for summary judgment based on pleadings filed and exhibits thereto attached pursuant to-Rule 166-A, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Dick et ux. thereupon filed their first amended original answer admitting execution of [948]*948the note and deed of trust but alleging that the note and deed of trust were void or voidable because the execution thereof was induced by fraud, misrepresentation, concealment and in violation of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C.A. § 77a et seq. and additionally that they had exercised their option to cancel the contract for the purchase of the Debenture Bonds because General American Casualty Company or its successors had failed and refused to pay installments of interest on the bonds for more than thirty days after the interest became due, thereby permitting them to exercise their option to cancel and terminate the bond purchase agreement, which pleading was controverted by Langdeau in a supplemental petition.

After filing their first amended original answer Dick et ux. then filed their answer to Langdeau’s motion for summary judgment as follows:

“Defendants’ first amended original answer, filed herein, raises fact issues of misrepresentation, fraud, concealment and in violation of the Securities Act of 1933, all of which are genuine issues of material fact, which require trial.”

and in the same instrument filed their motion for summary judgment against Lang-deau on the ground that the deed of trust and note attached to Langdeau’s motion for summary judgment revealed that the note and deed of trust are subject to termination and cancellation by Dick et ux. -and that the same had been cancelled and terminated and therefore there is no genuine issue of material fact which would entitle Langdeau to judgment, attaching thereto an affidavit executed by their attorney, Garland F. Smith. Langdeau filed his answer to defendants’ motion for summary judgment consisting of special exceptions and a denial that the provisions in the deed of trust providing for the cancellation and termination of the note and deed of trust was available against him as receiver, attaching Langdeau’s affidavit stating that prior to the date General American Casualty Company was placed in receivership and also as of June 1, 1954, the note and deed of trust sued upon were not can-celled and terminated.

Before either of the motions for summary judgment were submitted to the Trial Court Dick et ux. filed a cross-action against Langdeau as cross-defendant joined therein as cross-plaintiffs by R. Gordon Pierce et ux. and D. H. Zachman et ux., in which cross-action each of the cross-plaintiffs sought to cancel, rescind and recover from Langdeau the notes and deeds of trust given by them for the purchase of the Debenture Bonds, Series 1952, of the General American Casualty Company in the case of Dick et ux.; of sixteen $1,000.00 5% Debenture Bonds of Alamo Casualty Company, Series 1952, in the case of Pierce et ux.; and of ten $1,000.00 5% Debenture Bonds of Alamo Casualty Company, Series 1952, in the case of Zachman et ux., Alamo Casualty Company having been the predecessor of and merged into General American Casualty Company prior to receivership. Each of the promissory notes in question were secured by deeds of trust on real estate executed by cross-plaintiffs as security for the notes given to the respective companies as consideration for the purchase of the bonds.

As their basis for cancellation, rescission and recovery of the notes and deeds of trust, all cross-plaintiffs alleged that the notes and deeds of trust were secured by fraud, misrepresentation and deceit and in violation of the National Securities Act of 1933 and the mail fraud section thereof by General American Casualty Company as set forth in detail in the first amended original answer of defendants John L. Dick et ux. and which allegations contained “in said answer in Paragraphs I through XVI, all of which are hereby adopted and made a part hereof to assert affirmatively Plaintiff’s cross-action for fraud, deceit, violation of the Securities Act, assertion of the Statutes of Limitation and all other matters pled therein.”

[949]*949Dick et ux. then filed their first amended motion for summary judgment alleging that there was no genuine issue as to any material facts and that on the basis of the pleadings, exhibits and affidavits attached thereto and depositions taken in connection with the receivership of General American Casualty Company, of which the Trial Court had judicial knowledge, they were entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law upon the grounds that (1) they had exercised their right to cancel and terminate the bond purchase contract agreement under its provisions; (2) the note was without consideration and/or (3) the consideration of the note failed; (4) the note was given for bonds in violation of Art. XII, Sec. 6, of the Constitution of and the laws of the State of Texas, including Art. 1348, Texas Civil Statutes, since the note was not money paid, labor performed, or property received and therefore void or voidable; (5) that General American Casualty Company at the time the note was issued was insolvent and doing business in violation of the laws of Texas prohibiting insolvent corporations to operate in Texas, especially Art. 1379, Texas Civil Statutes, and the bond purchase contract including the notes was therefore void or voidable as a matter of law; (6) that cross-plaintiffs are entitled to set-off the amount of the bonds against the amount of the note; and (7) that the note and deed of trust were executed as a result of fraud perpetrated by the agents, employees, officers and directors of General American Casualty Company, of which fraud the Court has judicial knowledge. Motions for summary judgment were filed by Pierce et ux. and Zachman et ux. based upon the same grounds alleged in the Dick motion but omitting the 7th ground. Each •of the motions for summary judgment was supported by the affidavits of Garland F. Smith, attorney for each of the plaintiffs in the cross-action, which will be adverted to later in this opinion, the cross-plaintiffs .and one Spencer R. Bowyer.

Langdeau filed unsworn answers to the cross-actions which consisted of special exceptions, pleas of estoppel, laches, waiver, and general and special denials and answers to the motions for summary judgment filed by the various cross-plaintiffs stating that fact issues were raised as to each of the grounds upon which relief was sought in the motions for summary judgment. The answers to the motions for summary judgment were not sworn to nor were they supported by controverting affidavits.

Prior to the hearing on the various motions for summary judgment the Trial Court overruled all the special exceptions contained in Langdeau’s first supplemental petition and his answers to each of the cross-actions brought by the cross-plaintiffs.

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Bluebook (online)
356 S.W.2d 945, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/langdeau-v-dick-texapp-1962.