Lawler v. Lomas & Nettleton Mortgage Investors

691 S.W.2d 593, 28 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 471, 1985 Tex. LEXIS 864
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJune 5, 1985
DocketC-3682
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 691 S.W.2d 593 (Lawler v. Lomas & Nettleton Mortgage Investors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawler v. Lomas & Nettleton Mortgage Investors, 691 S.W.2d 593, 28 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 471, 1985 Tex. LEXIS 864 (Tex. 1985).

Opinions

McGEE, Justice.

This is a usury case. The Lawler Family Trusts and the Lawler Corporation sued Lomas & Nettleton Mortgage Investors and Lomas & Nettleton Financial Corporation, alleging that various loans (607, 1126 and 1667) were usurious. The trial court rendered judgment that Lomas & Nettleton Financial charged the Lawler Family Trusts usurious interest on part of loan 607; however, it was also found that part of loan 607, charged to the Lawler Corporation, and loans 1126 and 1667 were not usurious. The court of appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court regarding loans 607 and 1126. 679 S.W.2d 671. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Loan 607

On March 21, 1972 the Lawler Family Trusts d/b/a Lawler Investment Company, William Robert Lawler, Jr., Trustee, executed a promissory note payable to the order of Lomas & Nettleton Financial. The note provided for a principal amount of $400,000.00 with interest at 10 percent per annum and a maturity date of March 1, 1975. On May 1, 1973, the Lawler Corporation was chartered. Thereafter, the Lawler Corporation executed a promissory note dated January 20, 1975 payable to Lomas & Nettleton Financial for the principal amount of $479,500.00. The note provided for a maturity date of January 20, 1976 and for monthly interest payments of 5 percent over the prime rate starting March 1, 1975; however, a subsequent modification agreement reduced the interest rate to 10 percent per annum. The note further permitted an interest rate of 18 percent per annum in the event of default on principal or interest payments.

From April 1972 to March 1976, Lomas & Nettleton Financial submitted monthly interest statements on loan 607 to “Lawler Investment Co.” Although the statements recited a 10 percent interest rate, a per diem calculation was assessed on the basis of a 360-day year. In total, $118,711.52 was charged from April 1, 1972 through February 28, 1975; $27,082.21 from March 1, 1975 through September 30, 1975; and $28,262.55 from October 1, 1975 through April 30, 1976.

The issue presented is: Does loan 607 involve two separate obligations, and if so, is the original note usurious? The case was submitted to the trial court on an agreed statement of facts pursuant to Tex.R.Civ.P. 263. The trial court rendered judgment that the original debt, from March 21,1972 through March 1,1975, was usurious because interest was charged to a non-corporate entity at a rate higher than 10 percent per annum. The trial court found the remaining obligation on loan 607 from March 1, 1975 through April 30, 1976 was not a usurious loan because it was made to the corporate borrower, the Lawler Corporation, and the interest rate did not exceed one and one-half percent per month. The court of appeals determined that the promissory note executed by the Lawler Corporation was not a new transaction but a continuation of the original indebtedness. The court of appeals cited Schwab v. Schlumberger Well Surveying [595]*595Corp., 145 Tex. 379, 384, 198 S.W.2d 79, 82 (1946) for the general proposition “that the giving of a new note for a debt evidenced by a former note does not extinguish the original indebtedness unless such is the intention of the parties.” It was reasoned that no such intention was apparent because the agreed statement of facts recited that the promissory note executed by the Lawler Corporation was “in the principal amount of $479,550.00, representing the principal and accrued and unpaid interest on the March 21, 1972, promissory note executed by the Lawler Trust.”

An appellate court, in reviewing a ease tried upon an agreed statement of facts, is not permitted to draw any inference or find any fact not embraced in the agreement unless as a matter of law such further inference or fact is necessarily compelled by the agreed upon evidentiary facts. Bowman v. Simpson, 546 S.W.2d 99, 100 (Tex.Civ.App.—Beaumont 1977, writ ref’d). The various documents evidencing loan 607 are mentioned in and attached to the agreed statement of facts. All these documents constituting the loan transaction must be interpreted together. Novels v. Harris, 129 Tex. 190, 195, 102 S.W.2d 1046, 1048 (1937).

Although the agreed facts mention that the promissory note executed by the Lawler Corporation was for a sum of money “representing the principal and accrued and unpaid interest” on the original 607 loan, this recitation does not prevent a decision that the second note began a new loan transaction. In particular, the Schwab case also makes it clear that the execution of a renewal note “is generally treated as a new contract.” 198 S.W.2d at 82; see Priest v. First Mortgage Co. of Tex., 659 S.W.2d 869, 871 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1983, writ ref'd n.r.e.). The focus of the court of appeals on whether intent to extinguish the original indebtedness was present does not entirely resolve the issue of whether two separate obligations on loan 607 existed.

The promissory note executed by the Lawler Corporation differed from the original note executed by the Lawler Family Trusts. The original note provided for an interest rate of 10 percent per annum during periods of default, whereas the corporation’s note provided for interest at 18 percent during default. The original note did not establish the method for calculation of interest; however, the second note sets the calculation at a daily rate of Vko of the annual percentage. Also, the original note, but not the second, allowed for prepayment without penalty.

In addition, language in the second note referring to “payment” of the original indebtedness supports the conclusion that a new contract obligation existed. The deed of trust executed by the Lawler Corporation on the same day as the promissory note stated that the promissory note “is given in renewal” of the original 607 loan, that “the proceeds of the note hereby secured have been advanced ... to renew and pay” the outstanding balance due on loan 607 and further that the original $400,-000.00 “promissory note and all other charges aforementioned thus paid and renewed are secured” by the deed of trust.1

Lomas & Nettleton Financial rely on a bankruptcy order declaring the Lawler Family Trusts, the Lawler Corporation and [596]*596the Lawler Management Company were one and the same entity and all alter egos of H. Roger Lawler. It is argued, therefore, that only one loan transaction has occurred because the various promissory notes and documents evidencing loan 607 were executed by only “one” borrower. In RepublicBank Dallas, N.A. v. Shook, 653 S.W.2d 278, 282 (Tex.1983), a new loan was established after the noncorporate borrower on the original note incorporated himself and negotiated a renewal loan with corporate interest rates. The loan was not usurious even though all parties agreed and the jury found that Shook was the “true borrower.” Id. at 279.

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Bluebook (online)
691 S.W.2d 593, 28 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 471, 1985 Tex. LEXIS 864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawler-v-lomas-nettleton-mortgage-investors-tex-1985.