McWilliams v. National Farm Life Insurance (In Re McWilliams)

610 F. App'x 393
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 26, 2015
Docket15-10122
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 610 F. App'x 393 (McWilliams v. National Farm Life Insurance (In Re McWilliams)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McWilliams v. National Farm Life Insurance (In Re McWilliams), 610 F. App'x 393 (5th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Stanley McWilliams appeals the district court’s affirmance of the bankruptcy court’s order awarding attorney’s fees and expenses to National Farm Life Insurance Company. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s order affirming the bankruptcy court’s award of attorney’s fees and expenses.

I.

Stanley McWilliams (“McWilliams”) is the President of Red Point Development, Inc. (“Red Point”), which in turn is the sole general partner of Race Street Properties, L.P. (“Race Street”). . In 2009, National Farm Life Insurance Company (“NFLIC”), a Texas life insurance company, loaned Race Street $1,162,500 for a construction project, and McWilliams personally guaranteed the loan. In doing so, McWilliams signed a Note and Guaranty on the loan. In 2010, Race Street defaulted on the loan. NFLIC then accelerated the debt and foreclosed on the collateral securing the loan. Because the foreclosure proceeds did not satisfy the loan balance, NFLIC sued McWilliams, Race Street, and Red Point in state court for the deficiency. The parties settled in 2011, and the state court entered an Agreed Final Judgment in the amount of $874,768.19, broken out as follows: $781,086.95 for the loan deficiency, $18,681.24 for pre-judgment interest, and $75,000 for “reasonable attorney’s fees.”

McWilliams then filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, attempting to discharge the Agreed Final Judgment. Seeking to protect its judgment, NFLIC initiated an adversary proceeding. After a three-day bench trial, the bankruptcy court found that because McWilliams had obtained the loan from NFLIC by fraud, the judgment was nondischargeable. The bankruptcy court then entered a final judgment against McWilliams and awarded NFLIC costs and $99,177.87 in attorney’s fees incurred during the adversary proceeding, which it calculated by taking 10 percent of the Agreed Final Judgment of $874,768.19 plus post-judgment interest of $117,010.51. This calculation was apparently based on a provision of the note on the loan providing that attorney’s fees and costs would generally be calculated as “10% of all amounts due.”

McWilliams timely appealed the order awarding attorney’s fees and costs to the Northern District of Texas under 28 U.S.C. § 158, and the district court affirmed. This appeal followed.

II.

“This Court reviews the decision of a district court, sitting as an appellate court, by applying the same standards of review to the bankruptcy court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law as applied by the district court.” In re SI Restructuring, Inc., 542 F.3d 131, 134-35 (5th Cir.2008). We thus review the bankruptcy court’s factual findings for clear error and conclusions of law de novo. Id. at 135. In Texas, the meaning of an ambiguous con *395 tract is a question of fact. Coker v. Coker, 650 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Tex.1983). 1

III.

A creditor that successfully contests the dischargeability of its claim in an adversary proceeding under 11 U.S.C. § 523 is entitled to recover attorney’s fees if it has a contractual right to them under state law. In re Luce, 960 F.2d 1277, 1286 (5th Cir.1992). Here, McWilliams does not dispute NFLIC’s entitlement to attorney’s fees — the Note and Guaranty expressly provide for their recovery in these circumstances — but he does dispute the amount of fees that the bankruptcy court awarded.

As relevant here, the Note provides that:

If this note or any instrument securing or collateral to it is given to an attorney for collection or enforcement, or if suit is brought for collection or enforcement, or if it is collected or enforced through probate, bankruptcy, or other judicial proceeding, then Maker shall pay Payee all costs of collection and enforcement, including reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs, paid to an attorney who is not an employee of Payee, in addition to other amounts due. Reasonable attorney’s fees shall be 10% of all amounts due unless either party pleads otherwise.
Similarly, the Guaranty provides that: The term “Guaranteed Indebtedness” as used herein, includes (a) all indebtedness of every kind and character, without limit as to amount, whether now existing or hereafter arising, of Borrower to Creditor, regardless of whether evidenced by notes, drafts, acceptances, discounts, overdrafts, or otherwise, and whether such indebtedness be fixed, contingent, joint, several, or joint and several, including to [sic] not limited to that one certain Real Estate Lien Note in the principal amount of $1,162,500.00, dated July 27, 2009, executed by Race Street Properties, L.P., a Texas limited partnership, made payable to National Farm Life Insurance Company; (b) interest on any of the indebtedness described in (a) preceding; (c) any and all costs, attorney’s fees, and expenses suffered by Creditor by reason of Borrower’s default in payment of any of the foregoing indebtedness; and (d) any renewal or extension of the indebtedness, costs, or expenses described in (a) through (c) preceding, or any part thereof.

McWilliams contends that because the Agreed Final Judgment issued by the state court included $75,000 for “reasonable attorney’s fees” — an amount equal to 9.4 percent of the original loan deficiency plus interest — the bankruptcy court erred in awarding NFLIC attorney’s fees equal to 10 percent of the entire Agreed Final Judgment. Whether McWilliams is correct turns on the proper definition of the term “all amounts due” in the fee provision. We find this phrase to be ambiguous in this context, and thus its interpretation is a question of fact. See Coker, 650 S.W.2d at 394.

The Note states that if it “is collected or enforced through ... bankruptcy,” the debtor owes “[r]easonable attorney’s fees,” which shall be “10% of all amounts due.” The bankruptcy court, adhering to the principle that “separate documents executed at the same time, for the same purpose, and in the course of the same transaction are to be construed together,” Jim Walter Homes, Inc. v. Schuenemann, 668 S.W.2d 324, 327 (Tex.1984), appears to have looked to the Guaranty’s definition of Guaranteed *396 Indebtedness — the total amount that McWilliams agreed to pay NFLIC — to construe “all amounts due.” Effectively, the bankruptcy court viewed the terms “Guaranteed Indebtedness” and “all amounts due” as synonymous. And McWilliams agreed that his Guaranteed Indebtedness would include “any and all costs, attorney’s fees, and expenses suffered by Creditor by reason of Borrower’s default.” 2

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Bluebook (online)
610 F. App'x 393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcwilliams-v-national-farm-life-insurance-in-re-mcwilliams-ca5-2015.