South Texas Crane Service, Inc., Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Group, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 7, 2025
Docket13-24-00450-CV
StatusPublished

This text of South Texas Crane Service, Inc., Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Group, Inc. (South Texas Crane Service, Inc., Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Group, Inc.) 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
South Texas Crane Service, Inc., Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Group, Inc., (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-24-00450-CV

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

SOUTH TEXAS CRANE SERVICE, INC., SANDRA JOYCE VAUGHT, JERRY YOUNG, THOMAS RANDAL YOUNG, TRY EQUIPMENT RENTALS, LLC, AND YOUNG HEAVY HAULING, INC., Appellants,

v.

COMMERCIAL CREDIT GROUP, INC., Appellee.

ON APPEAL FROM THE 267TH DISTRICT COURT OF VICTORIA COUNTY, TEXAS

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REVIEW OF SUPERSEDEAS ORDER

Before Justices Silva, Peña, and Cron Opinion by Justice Cron

In this commercial lending dispute, appellants South Texas Crane Service, Inc.,

Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. (Judgment Debtors) appeal from a summary

judgment entered in favor of appellee Commercial Credit Group, Inc. (Judgment Creditor)

on its claims for breach of contract, possession of personal property, and foreclosure on

real property. The judgment awards Judgment Creditor nearly $3.9 million in unpaid debt

and default interest, the right to possess and sell personal property pledged as security,

and the right to foreclose on real property pledged as security. Judgment Debtors filed

negative net-worth affidavits, and the trial court determined that “no additional

supersedeas or security is required” to suspend the entire judgment.

Judgment Creditor has filed a motion in this Court challenging that ruling. See TEX.

R. APP. P. 24.4. Judgment Creditor acknowledges that the negative net-worth affidavits,

which went unchallenged in the hearing below, are currently sufficient to suspend the

money portion of the judgment. See id. R. 24.2(a)(1)(A). Judgment Creditor argues,

however, that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to require Judgment Debtors

to post sufficient security to protect Judgment Creditor’s property interests in the

collateral. See id. R. 24.2(a)(2). We grant Judgment Creditor’s motion in part, vacate the

trial court’s November 8, 2024 bond order, and remand for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

The parties entered into a series of secured loan agreements and guarantees

whereby Judgment Debtors granted Judgment Creditor security interests in certain

collateral, including commercial cranes, vehicles, and trailers, as well as a parcel of land.

Judgment Debtors allegedly defaulted on their loan obligations, leading to the underlying

litigation.

2 The trial court granted Judgment Creditor’s motion for summary judgment and

entered a final order that provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that [Judgment Creditor] be awarded $3,879,069.64 for actual damages constituting the total amount of unpaid debt and default interest.

....

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that [Judgment Debtors] or any other person or entity in possession of any personal property or other assets of [Judgment Debtors] used as collateral to secure the loan agreements be required to tender the personal property and assets to [Judgment Creditor] and permit [Judgment Creditor] to recover the personal property and assets covered by the liens.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that [Judgment Creditor] be authorized to foreclose on its security interest in the real property contained in the Deed [of Trust], and the sheriff or constable be directed to seize and sell the real property in satisfaction of the unpaid debt in the Final Judgment.

Two days after Judgment Debtors filed their notice of appeal, Judgment Creditor

sent Judgment Debtors notice that some of the personal property collateral would be sold

at public auction. That same day, Judgment Debtors filed net-worth affidavits with the

district clerk claiming that their liabilities exceeded their assets. Based on these negative

net-worth affidavits, the trial court ordered the district clerk to immediately issue a writ of

supersedeas suspending all collection efforts and execution on the judgment. The district

clerk complied with the order, and Judgment Creditor canceled the auction.

Judgment Creditor filed a motion to vacate or modify the writ of supersedeas in the

trial court, arguing that because the judgment awarded both money and an interest in

personal and real property, the net worths of the Judgment Debtors were irrelevant to the

amount of security necessary to suspend the portion of the judgment awarding Judgment

3 Creditor an interest in property. 1 Judgment Creditor submitted a supporting affidavit from

its Regional Vice President, Justin Mock, who attested to the following facts: (1) the total

fair market value of the personal property collateral is $702,000; (2) the “tax value” of the

real property collateral is $270,454; (3) Judgment Debtors are in possession of two cranes

pledged as collateral, and at least one of those cranes is being used in the Judgment

Debtors’ normal course of business; (4) the two cranes are collectively valued at

$350,000, thereby representing nearly fifty percent of the total value of the personal

property collateral; (5) continued use of the cranes causes wear and tear that depreciates

the value of the collateral; and (6) the insurance policy that protected the cranes from loss

or damage was canceled, and Judgment Debtors have not provided Judgment Creditor

with proof that the cranes are currently insured, as required by the security agreements.

Judgment Creditor requested that the trial court require Judgment Debtors to post security

under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 24.2(a)(2) to protect its property interests in the

collateral.

Judgment Debtors filed a response contending that the “primary nature” of the

judgment is for money, and thus, their negative net-worth affidavits were sufficient to

suspend the entire judgment. Alternatively, they argued that, given their negative net

worths, requiring them to post any security would cause them substantial economic harm.

See id. R. 24.2(b). Finally, as a second alternative argument, Judgment Debtors asserted

that requiring them to post a security would interfere with their use of the operational crane

1 Judgment Creditor additionally argued that the net-worth affidavits were deficient for various

reasons and should be struck. See TEX. R. APP. P. 24.2(c)(2).

4 in the normal course of business. See id. R. 24.2(d).

At the beginning of the hearing on Judgment Creditor’s motion, the parties agreed

that the scope of the hearing should be limited to an initial determination about “the nature

of the judgment” and whether Rule 24.2(a)(2) applied, along with testimony about the

value of the collateral. Judgment Creditor also informed the trial court that it was reserving

its right to conduct discovery and contest the validity of Judgment Debtors’ claimed net

worths at a later time. See id. R. 24.2(c)(2).

During argument, Judgment Debtors conceded that the judgment authorizes the

Judgment Creditor to possess and sell the personal property collateral but argued that

these property interests are merely “part of the money judgment” because the proceeds

would be credited against the unpaid debt. According to Judgment Debtors, a judgment

does not award an interest in property for purposes of supersedeas unless the property

interest is “on top of the money owed.” For those reasons, Judgment Debtors asked the

trial court to find “that this is strictly a money judgment.”

Judgment Creditor responded that Rule 24.2(a) does not present an either-or

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South Texas Crane Service, Inc., Sandra Joyce Vaught, Jerry Young, Thomas Randal Young, TRY Equipment Rentals, LLC, and Young Heavy Hauling, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Group, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-texas-crane-service-inc-sandra-joyce-vaught-jerry-young-thomas-texapp-2025.