Wright v. Kaler

293 S.W. 315, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 110
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 16, 1927
DocketNo. 7724.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 293 S.W. 315 (Wright v. Kaler) 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
Wright v. Kaler, 293 S.W. 315, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 110 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Mrs. Mary Frances Kaler, as plaintiff, on the 31st day of January, 1925, brought this suit in the district court of Nueces county, Tex., against John M. Scott, as commissioner of insurance of the state of Texas, and G. G. Wright, as receiver of the United Home Builders of America, as defendants.

To plaintiff’s original petition, the defendant John M. Scott filed a disclaimer, and no other pleadings were filed by him at any time. The defendant G. G. Wright filed a plea of privilege to be sued in Dallas, Tex.

The plaintiff thereafter, on. June 8, 1925, filed her first amended original petition, alleging substantially as follows:

That she was a widow and a resident of Nueces county, Tex., and that the defendant G. G. Wright is a resident of Dallas county, Tex., and is the receiver of the United Home Builders of America under appointment of one of the district courts of Dallas county, Tex.

That she is the owner of certain real estate situated in Nueces county, Tex., and on or about January 15, 1922, she executed to said United Home Builders of America a deed of trust on said property to secure the payment of a promissory note made by her of even date -with said deed of trust, payable to the order of the trustees of the said United Home Builders of America, in the principal sum of $2,550, and $309.60 interest, all due on or before 85 months after date, in monthly installments upon the principal and interest, at the office of said company in Dallas, Tex. That said deed of trust was recorded in the proper records in Nueces county, Tex., and constitutes and is a lien apparently valid and subsisting to the full extent of the amount of the principal and interest of said indebtedness, and is unreleased of record in said county.

That plaintiff was induced to execute and deliver said note and deed of trust by reason of certain statements and promises made by the agents of said company to the plain *316 tiff’s agent, Bertha Kaler, in Nueces county, Tex., and by her communicated to the plaintiff. Said statements were to the effect that, if plaintiff would take what was called memberships in said company, and pay therefor the sum of $450, she would be entitled to a loan of $3,000 on her property, and would only be required to pay 3 per cent, interest •per annum, and to repay the principal and interest in small monthly installments. That all the money on said loan would not be paid to her at the time of the making of the same, but there would be a deduction of a bonus of $600 and 15 per cent, of the amount of said loan, plus transfer fees, all of which amounts would subsequently be paid or refunded to plaintiff, and that she would be required to furnish an abstract of title and pay the expenses of examination of the same and the preparation of the instruments. That said company was solvent and able to fulfill its contracts. That said • statements were false and fraudulent, and were known by the company so to be at the time, and were made to induce her to execute the note and deed of trust. That the whole scheme of said company was false and fraudulent to induce plaintiff and others to take the memberships and apply for loans therein and cloud and incumber the title of their property by reason of said false statements.

That, believing said promises, and relying on the same, she was induced to make application for said loan through her agent, Bertha Kaler, and did furnish abstract of title at a cost of $100, and, in the name of her said agent, Bertha Kaler, took out memberships in said company amounting to $3,000, for which the plaintiff paid through her said agent the sum of $450 to said company, and thereafter said loan was approved, and she executed the note and deed of trust, but she did not receive any money until about the 29th day of April, 1922, when she received the sum of $1,881, and no more and has never at any time received any further sums of money from said company.

That she was advised by said company that the sum paid to her was a balance of the $3,000 for which she had applied after deducting the bonus of $600 with 15 per cent, refund on contracts amounting to $450 transfer fees in the sum of $3 attorney’s fees for examination of abstract and preparation of papers $46.25, and an amount reserved for expenses of $19.75, which last sum was subsequently paid to plaintiff. That she did not then and does not now know what the transfer fees represented, and that in fact she received on said note the sum of $1,881 and not the sum of money agreed to be loaned to her.

Thereafter, still relying on said promises, she made installment payments on the note amounting to the total of $649.44 and $450 paid on contracts, or a total of $1,099.44.

That in the fall of 1922 she was advised that said company was in financial difficulties, and would not be able to perform the promises made to her and to pay the balance of the money agreed to be loaned, and that thereafter, in January, 1923, on the application of certain contract holders, G.' G. Wright was appointed by the district court of the Sixty-Eighth district of Texas at Dallas, and qualified as receiver of said company, and has-ever since been acting as such. That a short time after his qualification he demanded of plaintiff payment of the installments of principal and interest on said note to him as receiver, and insisted on the full compliance by plaintiff of the terms of said contract, at the same time declining and admitting his inability to perform the promises of said company, and about the same time John M. Scott, deputy insurance commissioner of the state of Texas, acting for his department, notified plaintiff that said department held her note and deed of trust as a part of the legal reserve of said company, as a deposit required by law, and that said department would administer said legal reserve and demanded that plaintiff make her payments on her note to said department .and not to said receiver. About the same time she was advised by the receiver that payments made to the department of insurance would not be recognized by him, and, as both were asserting the exclusive right to collect and declining to allow as credits the payments and membership and the bonus of the 15 per cent, and admitting their inability to perform the contract and insisting that she pay the full amount of principal of the note with 6 per cent, interest, and were threatening to foreclose said deed of trust, she was at a loss to determine to whom payments should be made, or what should be paid, and she therefore refused to make any payments, but she has at all times been, and now is, ready and willing to pay whatever sum of money she justly owed, provided her land is relieved of the lien, and is unwilling to pay more than she justly owes, and that she justly owes the sum of about $750.

That said deed of trust contains the usual provisions for default, and for attorney’s fees, and the usual power of sale, and the defendants are threatening to declare the entire amount of said note and foreclose said deed of trust by suit in Dallas county, or in Nueces county, or by the exercise of the power of sale provided in said deed of trust, and in case of foreclosure they will assert and claim said attorneys’ fees and costs and expenses.

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Bluebook (online)
293 S.W. 315, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-kaler-texapp-1927.