Opinion ID: 552196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: aubin party causes of action

Text: 137 For reasons given below, we affirm the district court's summary judgment that the Aubin parties take nothing of Hutton.
138 As the district court held, New York General Obligation Law Sec. 5-501(6)(b) (McKinney Supp.1988) absolutely bars RBI's usury claim. New York's legislature removed interest limits on loans of $2.5 million or more and both RBI and Haralson agreed to be bound by New York law. Because Hutton loaned more than $2.5 million under the Promissory Note, the usury claims of RBI and Haralson fail as a matter of law. 139 Grant and the Aubins allege that Hutton charged them usurious interest independent of the Facility Agreement and Note. They point to Hutton's pleadings wherein Hutton sought to hold Grant and the Aubins personally liable for RBI's debts on various legal and equitable theories. The district court held that Grant could not assert a usury claim because she was not an obligor within the meaning of Texas' usury statute. 18 140 We agree. A pleading by itself cannot make a person into an obligor under Texas' usury statute. See Najarro v. Sasi Int'l Ltd., 904 F.2d 1002, 1005 (5th Cir.1990) (two of the three essential elements of a usurious transaction are a loan and an absolute obligation that the principal be repaid); Fibergrate Corp. v. Research-Cottrell, Inc., 481 F.Supp. 570, 572 (N.D.Tex.1979) (a usurious interest claim must be rooted in a free contractual relationship between two private parties). We affirm the district court's summary dismissal of Grant's usury claim and dismiss the Aubins' usury claims on their merits.
141 Haralson and RBI claim that Hutton's agreement to sell the S&Ls for Haralson and RBI gave rise to fiduciary duties on Hutton's part. They claim that Hutton breached its brokerage agreement and its fiduciary duties by encouraging government regulators to scrutinize and ultimately take over the S&Ls. But Hutton interacted with regulators to protect its collateral under the Facility Agreement, which provides that neither Haralson nor [RBI] shall make any claim or allegation against or with respect to Hutton ... based on any asserted conflict of interest arising out of [Hutton's broker and secured creditor] relationship[s] to the S&Ls. Thus, pursuant to the Facility Agreement, we affirm the district court's summary dismissal of the breach of brokerage agreement and fiduciary duty claims against Hutton.