Midstates Resources Corp. v. Farmers Aerial Spraying Service, Inc.

914 F. Supp. 1424, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1488, 1996 WL 69572
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 9, 1996
Docket1:95-mj-00043
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 914 F. Supp. 1424 (Midstates Resources Corp. v. Farmers Aerial Spraying Service, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Midstates Resources Corp. v. Farmers Aerial Spraying Service, Inc., 914 F. Supp. 1424, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1488, 1996 WL 69572 (N.D. Tex. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

CUMMINGS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Midstates Resources Corp. (“Mid-states”) has sued defendants Farmers Aerial Spraying Services, Inc., a/k/a Farmers Aerial Spraying, a/k/a Farmer Aerial Spraying, Inc. (“FASS”), Kenneth D. Russell, and Sherry Russell to recover on certain defaulted notes, security agreements, and guaranties. The defendants admit that they both made and defaulted on these obligations. Defendants’ sole defense to this suit is limitations. As all material facts are undisputed, both Midstates and defendants as a group have each moved for summary judgment. This opinion disposes of both motions.

Defendants’ limitations defense rests on two issues that the Court must decide. The first issue is whether 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(14) superseded and nullified a provision of 28 U.S.C. § 2415(a). The provision in question causes the accrual of contract actions’ limitations periods to restart when debtors acknowledge or partially pay debts otherwise barred by limitations. 1 The Court finds that section 1821 did not supersede this provision. The second issue the Court must decide is whether the defendants acknowledged their debts sufficiently to restart the running of the expired limitations periods barring actions on the debts. The Court finds that the defendants did sufficiently acknowledge their debts to restart the limitations period.

1. FACTS

The material facts of this case are undisputed. 2 In 1987, FASS executed three promissory notes payable to First State Bank of *1426 Bovina. Security agreements collateralized each note, and Kenneth Russell and Sherry Russell also individually guaranteed the notes. As the details of these obligations are undisputed, the Court will not recite them here. The details may be found in the appendix to this opinion.

In October of 1987, First State Bank of Bovina was declared insolvent. FDIC Receiver was appointed receiver of the bank. FDIC Receiver subsequently assigned, transferred, and conveyed the notes to FDIC Corporate. FDIC Corporate in turn assigned, transferred, and conveyed the notes to Midstates Resources Corp.

Defendants defaulted on all of their obligations. The original limitations periods for all of the debts had run by the date Mid-states filed suit. However, in February of 1992, Larry McEachem contacted the FDIC by letter on behalf of all defendants. Stipulated Facts ¶ 48. This letter is important, because it restarted the limitations periods running again, which is one of the chief issues in this ease.

H. STATUTES

The first issue raised by the parties concerns the relationship between two limitations statutes, each of which ostensibly applies to Midstates’s contract actions. The first statute is 28 U.S.C. § 2415(a), which broadly purports to apply to every contract action brought by the United States, including the FDIC and its assignees. FDIC v. Bledsoe, 989 F.2d 805, 810-11 (5th Cir.1993). This statute was promulgated in 1966 and places a six-year limitations period on covered contract actions. The second statute is 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(14), which also applies to contract actions brought by the FDIC or its assignees. Id. This statute was promulgated in 1989 and was intended to clarify exactly when the six-year limitations period applicable to contract actions begins to run, Jackson v. Thweatt, 883 S.W.2d 171, 177 n. 7 (Tex.1994), an issue which had become a point of conflict among the federal circuits. Jackson, 883 S.W.2d at 173 n. 3. Both parties admit that 1821(d)(14) controls the date on which the limitations period begins to run.

The parties’ disagreement pertains to the applicability of a provision in section 2415(a) which restarts the accrual of otherwise expired limitations periods on contract claims when breaching parties either acknowledge or partially pay their debts. Section 1821(d)(14) has no such provision. Midstates argues that since section 2415(a)’s provision does not contradict the later-enacted section 1821(d)(14), the provision is applicable. Defendants argue that section 1821(d)(14) wholly supersedes section 2415(a), and, accordingly, none of section 2415(a)’s provisions apply to matters covered by section 1821(d)(14). The parties have not identified, and the Court could not find, any cases directly addressing this issue. Consequently, the Court will treat this issue as one of first impression. 3

This issue is one of statutory construction. Two statutes, one broad (section 2415(a)) and one narrow (section 1821(d)(14)), each purport to cover the instant transaction. The general issue is whether the later-promulgated narrow statute, 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d), was intended to completely replace the formerly promulgated broad statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2415. If section 1821(d) were intended to completely replace section 2415(a), then section 2415(a) has no application to matters covered by section 1821(d)(14). If section 1821 were not intended to wholly supersede section 2415, then section 1821(d)(14) should be read harmoniously with the broad statute when possible.

While no court has directly decided whether section 2415’s acknowledgment provision applies to matters also covered by section 1821(d)(14), the Fifth Circuit has explained that section 1821(d)(14) controls only when one of its specific statutory “rules” conflicts with one of section 2415’s general statutory rules. Resolution Trust Corp. v. Seale, 13 F.3d 850, 854 (5th Cir.1994). The Seale court was careful to use the word “rule” instead of statute. One statute can contain many rules. Therefore, “rules” indi *1427 cate the narrow principles contained within a statute as opposed to a statute as a whole. In other words, the Seale court concluded that section 1821(d)(14) did not completely supersede section 2415(a). The Texas Supreme Court reached this same conclusion. Jackson v. Thweatt, 883 S.W.2d 171, 177 (Tex.1994) (explaining that Section 1821(d)(14) does “not create an entirely new limitations scheme, but rather merely clarifies and amends existing law under 28 U.S.C.

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914 F. Supp. 1424, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1488, 1996 WL 69572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/midstates-resources-corp-v-farmers-aerial-spraying-service-inc-txnd-1996.