Mayfair Building Corporation v. Oak Forest Bank

441 S.W.2d 568, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 7, 1969
Docket11638
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 441 S.W.2d 568 (Mayfair Building Corporation v. Oak Forest Bank) 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
Mayfair Building Corporation v. Oak Forest Bank, 441 S.W.2d 568, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

This suit was filed originally by Sharps-town State Bank against Mayfair Building Corporation, William Nathan, Great American Insurance Company, and others, seeking a declaratory judgment that a promissory note in the principal sum of $300,000 executed by Mayfair and Nathan to Sharpstown and a surety bond executed by Great American to secure the note were binding obligations.

After Sharpstown filed suit, Oak Forest Bank, appellee in this appeal, intervened as the holder of a certificate of participation in the note. Oak Forest purchased the certificate from Sharpstown for $250,000 December 7, 1966, the date the note was executed. Maturity date of the note was December 7,1967.

In November, 1967, Oak Forest Bank assigned its $250,000 beneficial interest back to Sharpstown. Upon this fact Oak Forest later based a motion in district court to dismiss its petition in intervention.

Part of the proceeds of the loan represented by the note for $300,000, together with other funds, were used by Mayfair and Nathan to pay off another promissory note, also in the amount of $300,000, dated July 23, 1966, which was payable to the order of the Central National Bank. This note had been executed by one Lee Wiley. Appellant Nathan was a partner of Wiley in the transaction for which the note to Central National had been given, and Nathan apparently was obligated as a partner upon the debt evidenced by the Central National note. It also appears that Nathan was the principal stockholder of Mayfair Building Corporation.

About the time Central National was making the $300,000 loan to Wiley, Sharps-town State Bank sent letters to Central National in which Sharpstown agreed to lend certain sums of money, along with Oak Forest Bank, to Wiley, and further agreed that if the Wiley note to Central National were not paid prior to due date (January 23, 1967), Sharpstown, along with Oak Forest, would purchase the Wiley note from Central National Bank.

Mayfair and Nathan filed a cross-action against Oak Forest and Sharpstown on these letters, claiming that the letters became the property of Mayfair and Nathan after Central National was paid in full and that Oak Forest and Sharpstown were obligated to purchase respective shares in the Central National note. Oak Forest and Sharpstown took the position in the trial court that no obligation existed to pay respective shares of the Central National note because payment in full discharged the note, as well as any obligation to lend Wiley further sums or to buy any part of the Central National note.

Mayfair and Nathan, as well as Oak Forest Bank, made motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion of Oak Forest that Mayfair and Nathan take nothing by their cross-action against Oak Forest, and dismissed the petition by which Oak Forest had intervened.

The order of the trial court in which this action was taken bore the caption, *570 “Order granting partial summary judgment and other pre-trial orders.” This order, dated May 6, 1968, disposed of various motions and exceptions considered by the court at a pre-trial conference held April 25 and April 26. The order, after disposing of the several motions “for partial summary judgment,” including those of appellants and appellee in this appeal, recited:

“To all of which actions, orders and judgments of the Court the defendants-cross-plaintiffs Nathan and Mayfair Building Corporation, and each of them, then and there in open court excepted and obj ected.”

Three days later, on May 9, Nathan and Mayfair ordered a transcript from the district clerk, and subsequently, on May 13 filed notice of appeal and an appeal bond. It is from the action of the trial court as reflected in its order of May 6, 1968, that appellants Nathan and Mayfair bring this appeal.

A jury was selected, and, beginning May 6, 1968, Sharpstown State Bank and Great American Insurance Company introduced evidence, following which the trial court submitted special issues to the jury. The trial court entered a “final judgment” on July 26, 1968.

This judgment referred to the court’s previous action, taken May 6 with respect to appellants and appellee in this appeal, as “interlocutory orders for summary judgment,” and after stating the action then taken, the court set out that at that time the court, reserved “ * * * for trial the issue of whether plaintiff [Sharpstown] was entitled to recover from said defendants [Nathan, Mayfair, and others] attorneys fees, and if so, the amount of attorneys fees recoverable; and reserving for trial all issues of fact and law as between plaintiff and defendant Great American Insurance Company except those disposed of by said order of May 6,1968.”

The trial court, in the judgment of July 26, 1968, provided that, “The interlocutory orders for partial summary judgment dated May 6, 1968, are hereby confirmed and made final * * *,” and then set out a final judgment, among other holdings that Nathan and Mayfair “ * * * take nothing by reason of their respective cross-actions against intervenor Oak Forest Bank * * *.» -phe judgment also provided that Sharpstown recover attorneys fees and costs of court from Nathan and Mayfair.

Finally, the judgment recited “To all of which actions and judgment of the Court, the defendants William Nathan and Mayfair Building Corporation then and there in open court excepted and gave notice of appeal * * *.”

Nathan and Mayfair filed an amended motion for new trial following the judgment of July 26, 1968. The trial court overruled the motion by order dated September 13, 1968, in which it was noted that Nathan and Mayfair gave notice of appeal.

The appeal from this final judgment was not perfected, and Nathan and Mayfair were not appellants in Sharpstown State Bank v. Great American Insurance Company et al., 441 S.W.2d 548 decided by this Court April 9, 1969 (rehearing denied May 7, 1969), which was an appeal from the trial court’s judgment of July 26,1968.

As already observed, the appeal now before us is from the action of the trial court on May 6, 1968.

Appellants Nathan and Mayfair bring three points of error, which we do not reach if this Court is without jurisdiction to determine the appeal as one not taken from a final judgment.

On the question of jurisdiction, Appellants Nathan and Mayfair rely upon Grossenbacher v. Burket, 427 S.W.2d 595 (Tex. 1968) in the following argument, quoted from their brief:

“The Court of Civil Appeals has jurisdiction of this case by reason of the fact *571 that the order granting summary judgment in favor of Appellee was in fact a final judgment as to Appellants’ claims against it, and therefore is appealable.
In this case, the order granting Appel-lee’s Motion for Summary Judgment was entitled ORDER GRANTING PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND OTHER PRETRIAL ORDERS. This order, however, did dispose of all claims between Appellants and Appellee, there being no issues remaining undecided and to be litigated with the rest of the case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
441 S.W.2d 568, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mayfair-building-corporation-v-oak-forest-bank-texapp-1969.