Filed: Apr. 28, 1999
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _ No. 98-20618 Summary Calendar _ FARRYL D. HOLUB, Appellant, versus FIRST NATIONAL BANK, OF EL CAMPO, Appellee. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (H-95-CV-3511) _ April 27, 1999 Before HIGGINBOTHAM, JONES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges. EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:* The debtor Farryl D. Holub contests a judgment of the bankruptcy court, affirmed by the district court, that held non- dischargeable
Summary: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _ No. 98-20618 Summary Calendar _ FARRYL D. HOLUB, Appellant, versus FIRST NATIONAL BANK, OF EL CAMPO, Appellee. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (H-95-CV-3511) _ April 27, 1999 Before HIGGINBOTHAM, JONES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges. EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:* The debtor Farryl D. Holub contests a judgment of the bankruptcy court, affirmed by the district court, that held non- dischargeable ..
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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
_______________________
No. 98-20618
Summary Calendar
_______________________
FARRYL D. HOLUB,
Appellant,
versus
FIRST NATIONAL BANK, OF EL CAMPO,
Appellee.
_________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas
(H-95-CV-3511)
_________________________________________________________________
April 27, 1999
Before HIGGINBOTHAM, JONES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:*
The debtor Farryl D. Holub contests a judgment of the
bankruptcy court, affirmed by the district court, that held non-
dischargeable certain debts he incurred to First National Bank of
El Campo. On appeal, Holub contends that four elements of 11
U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A),1 which are essential to a finding of non-
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that
this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except
under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4.
1
This provision renders debts nondischargeable when they are
for money or extensions or renewals of credit obtained by false
pretenses, false representations, or actual fraud.
dischargeability, were not proven by the bank: actual and
justifiable reliance; knowledge of falsehood; deception; and
proximate cause. As all of these elements are factual, we review
the bankruptcy court’s findings for clear error.
Two misrepresentations to the bank are at issue: Holub’s
homestead affidavit, which claimed homestead protection on 51.018
acres garnered, unbeknownst to the bank, from a spendthrift trust;
and a crop projection letter, which misrepresented the amount of
cotton Holub had available to serve as collateral for part of the
bank’s loan.
Holub’s dealings with the bank began in the early 1980's
when he secured interim financing for a home loan on a house in
Houston. In the late 1980's Holub and his wife returned to El
Campo, their childhood residence, where he took up farming as an
occupation. To refinance the overdue home loan, Holub executed a
deed of trust granting what was purported to be a first lien on the
north sixty acres of a 120-acre tract of real property that he
owned in Wharton County. (Holub never informed the bank that he
had executed a prior deed of trust in favor of his father on the
same property.)
The bank began financing Holub’s farming operations until
the 1991 crop year, when the bank insisted on additional collateral
or a reduction in principal. At this point, the bank agreed to
accept a lien on the additional 60 acres of the 120-acre tract. To
ensure that the lien was not being granted on homestead property,
the bank’s lawyer procured a homestead affidavit from Holub which
2
described as homestead a tract of approximately 149 acres of real
property owned by his wife and an additional 51 acres being an
undivided 1/4 interest in approximately 204 acres of real property
in Wharton County. (A person may claim a 200-acre rural homestead
in Texas.) The bank’s attorney asked Holub whether the 51-acre
property, described as being “in trust,” had been distributed, and
Holub answered falsely that it had. Holub also executed a deed of
trust on January 2, 1991, which provides that no part of the 120
acres pledged to the bank was part of his homestead.
Based on these representations and the extra collateral,
the bank renewed the existing indebtedness and extended additional
credit in late in 1991 or early 1992.
In late 1991, Holub sought additional financing for the
1992 growing season although a significant amount of the 1991
indebtedness had not yet been repaid. Holub gave the bank a
computerized summary purporting to show the cotton which had been
ginned and for which he was waiting payment and cotton which was
stored in modules waiting to be ginned. Based on the summary, the
bank agreed to cover overdrafts in Holub’s checking accounts
related to 1992 crop expenses until Holub collected all of the 1991
crop proceeds. Unfortunately, by the time the crop summary was
provided to the bank, the cotton crop was already in the process of
being sold.
Holub commenced a Chapter 12 bankruptcy in June, 1992,
but he agreed voluntarily to convert the case to Chapter 7. Holub
then claimed that the bank’s foreclosure on the 120-acre tract
3
violated his homestead rights. The bankruptcy judge tried the
homestead litigation before the nondischargeability case and found
that Holub could belatedly assert the homestead right in that
tract, notwithstanding his disclaimer to the bank in late 1991.
See Truman v. Deason, (In re Niland),
825 F.2d 801 (5th Cir. 1987).
During that litigation, however, the bankruptcy court warned Holub
that his victory might be short-lived.
In the current case, the bank first sought a declaration
of nondischargeability2 based on Holub’s misrepresentations that
the 120-acre tract was not subject to a homestead claim. Holub’s
defense consists, inter alia, of assertions that the bank should
not have believed that he would claim homestead protection over the
“trust” property, although he never informed the bank that the
trust was a spendthrift trust. Holub asserts that the bank should
have known about the spendthrift trust, because its lawyers
represented Holub’s father some years previously, when the father
established the spendthrift trust.
The bank also asserted that it renewed and extended crop
financing for Holub based on the false representations concerning
his cotton crop. Holub argues, by contrast, that the projections
were “a statement of the debtor’s financial condition” on which the
bank could not properly rely. Section 523(a)(2)(A).
2
The bank also sought a denial of Holub’s discharge under 11
U.S.C. §727, but the bankruptcy court denied the broader remedy,
and the bank has not appealed this ruling.
4
Holub generally protests the bankruptcy court’s
credibility determinations and avers that the court did not find
that he displayed moral turpitude.
The bankruptcy court’s findings reject all of Holub’s
contentions. The court specifically found that Holub, trained as
an accountant, was well aware of the consequences of the loan
documents he was signing, and he deliberately misled the bank. The
court also found that the bank justifiably relied on Holub’s
representations. Field v. Mans,
516 U.S. 59,
116 S. Ct. 437 (1995);
Allison v. Roberts (In re Allison),
960 F.2d 481 (5th Cir. 1992).
Further, the court distinguished among the various loans and
allocated the judgment carefully to the amounts which were based on
the false representations. Based on our review of the briefs, the
court’s opinion, and pertinent portions of the record, we find no
clearly erroneous fact findings. Holub’s arguments might have
served well as a closing argument to the trial court, but they do
not meet the heavy burden of showing clear error.
AFFIRMED.
5