Malone v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

611 S.W.2d 855, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4226
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 1980
DocketAB2405
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 611 S.W.2d 855 (Malone v. Federal Deposit Insurance 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
Malone v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 611 S.W.2d 855, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4226 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

JUNELL, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered for appellee Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) against appellant Paul Malone, the guarantor of a promissory note.

Malone failed to file a response to FDIC’s motion for summary judgment. Therefore, this appeal is limited to review of the sufficiency of the summary judgment proof on the issues presented to the court below by FDIC’s motion. City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671 (Tex.1979).

FDIC was substituted as party plaintiff in a suit originally brought by South Texas bank on a promissory note against the maker, W. E. Devine, and the guarantor, appellant herein. South Texas Bank, being insolvent, was closed by vote of its Board of Directors, at which time FDIC was appointed its receiver. Thereafter FDIC in its corporate capacity purchased, among other assets and liabilities of said bank, the note and guaranty agreement which were the subject of this suit. Defendant Devine, on whom service of process was not perfected, was severed from the action after an interlocutory summary judgment in order that a final judgment might be rendered against Malone.

The facts, as stipulated by FDIC solely for purposes of the motion for summary judgment, are that Malone was visited on two separate occasions by J. Howard Wilson, who claimed to be an advisory director and loan committee member of South Texas Bank. Wilson questioned Malone about his familiarity with the E.B. Pickett No. 1 well in the South Liberty field in Liberty County, Texas, owned by defendant Devine. Malone acknowledged familiarity with the well and placed a value of approximately $20,000.00 on it. On the second visit Wilson asked Malone if he would agree to guarantee a note to be executed by Devine and collateralized by the E.B. Pickett No. 1 well. On February 14, 1975, Don Moore, Executive Vice-President of the Bank, called Malone to verify that the bank had a lien on the E.B. Pickett No. 1 well, its production *857 and equipment. When Malone replied that no notation of the existence of the lien appeared on the guaranty agreement he had been requested to sign, Moore advise him to add such a notation to the agreement. Malone told Moore he would not agree to sign the guaranty unless assured that if called upon to pay the note, Malone would receive clear title to the well. When Moore so assured him, Malone added the language, “COLLATERAL: E.B. Pickett Well No. 1 — Production and Equipment located in the South Liberty Field, Liberty County, Texas” and executed the guaranty agreement on February 14, 1975. The guaranty agreement provides that Malone’s guaranty is limited to the amount of $20,-000.00 plus “any and all expenses incurred by Bank in enforcing this Agreement,” and that the Bank may, without the consent of or notice to the guarantor, sell, exchange, release, or surrender any property securing the liability guaranteed under the agreement.

The promissory note guaranteed by Malone is in the amount of $23,200.00, $20,-000.00 of which is listed as the net amount advanced and $3,200.00, as finance charges. Listed as collateral on the note is “Well No. 1 in the South Liberty Field in Liberty County, Texas — description on Security Agreement of even date.”

Filed with its motion for Summary Judgment was the affidavit of Walter Clay Cooke, attorney for FDIC, in support of an award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $1200.00, for the work described therein “necessary to collect the promissory note upon which this lawsuit is based.” Also filed was the affidavit of Richard L. Sever-son, an employee of FDIC, reciting the unpaid balance on the note as of April 30, 1979, to be $28,018.40 ($20,376.00 stated to be unpaid principal and $7,642.40 stated to be accrued interest). Judgment was rendered for FDIC against Paul Malone in the amount of $28,018.40 plus $1,200.00 attorney’s fees, both to bear interest at ten percent per annum from April 30, 1979, until paid.

We agree that the summary judgment proof establishes Malone's liability on the guaranty agreement, but find that his liability is limited by the terms of that agreement and the summary judgment proof to the sum of $20,000.00. We, therefore, reform the judgment and affirm it as reformed.

Malone’s only point of error on appeal is that the grounds expressly presented to the trial court by FDIC’s motion for summary judgment were insufficient as a matter of law to support summary judgment for the reason that a fact issue was raised by the summary judgment proof. He contends that a fact issue on the affirmative defense of fraud is established by the alleged oral agreement between Malone and Moore to the effect that if Malone were called upon to pay the note, he would receive clear title to the well. We hold that no fact issue was raised by such oral agreement for the reason that the trial court upon motion for summary judgment may consider only such evidence as would be admissible upon trial of the case and evidence regarding the oral agreement would be inadmissible for two reasons.

The provision of the guaranty agreement allowing the Bank, without notice to the guarantor and without impairing or releasing the obligation of the guarantor, to release any property mortgaged to secure payment of the guaranteed note is clearly inconsistent with the alleged oral agreement, and parol evidence is not admissible to vary the terms of a document which is clear and express in its terms. Town North Nat. Bank v. Broaddus, 569 S.W.2d 489 (Tex.1978).

Furthermore the evidence would be inadmissible because of 12 U.S.C.A. § 1823(e) (1978) which provides in pertinent part as follows:

No agreement which tends to diminish or defeat the right, title or interest of the [FDIC] in any asset acquired by it under this section, either as security for a loan *858 or by purchase, shall be valid against the [FDIC] unless such agreement (1) shall be in writing, (2) shall have been executed by the bank and the person or persons claiming an adverse interest thereunder, including the obligor, contemporaneously with the acquisition of the asset by the bank, (3) shall have been approved by the board of directors of the bank or its loan committee, which approval shall be reflected in the minutes of said board or committee, and (4) shall have been, continuously, from the time of its execution, an official record of the bank.

We hold that the oral agreement between Malone and the Bank, when measured against the above statutory standard, is not valid against FDIC because it was not in writing and did not comply with the other requirements of said statute.

The courts have used § 1823(e) to void a variety of oral agreements collateral to written guaranty agreements. For example, in FDIC v. Vogel, 437 F.Supp. 660 (E.D.Wis.1977), FDIC, as the owner of a promissory note purchased from FDIC as receiver of a closed bank sued to enforce a guaranty of the note. The defendants contended that the guaranty was given, at least in part, for a promise of the defunct bank to lend the defendants additional monies. The FDIC filed a motion for summary judgment on the ground that this defense was barred by § 1823(e).

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611 S.W.2d 855, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/malone-v-federal-deposit-insurance-corp-texapp-1980.