Court Opinion

ID: 9660532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:15:19.394063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:20.293847
License: Public Domain

DAVID B. GAULTNEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The Property Code requires that the holder of the debt serve the debtor with written notice by certified mail that the debtor is in default under the deed of trust on real property used as his residence. See Tex. Prop.Code Ann. § 51.002(d) (Vernon 1995). The statutory notice requirement is not waiveable by agreement. Id. The holder of the debt is also required to give written notice to each debtor of the sale of the property by certified mail. Tex. Prop.Code Ann. § 51.002(b)(3) (Vernon 1995).
Service by certified mail of the required notices is complete when notice is deposited in the U.S. mail, postage prepaid, and addressed to the debtor at the debtor’s last known address as shown by the records of the holder of the debt. See Tex. Prop.Code Ann. § 51.002(e) (Vernon 1995). A violation of section 51.002(e) is established when it is shown that the holder of the debt (1) had in its records the most *821recent address of the debtor, and (2) failed to mail the notice by certified mail to that address. See WTFO, Inc. v. Braithwaite, 899 S.W.2d 709, 720 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1995, no writ). A foreclosure sale may be set aside if the creditor fails to provide the required notice. See Mills v. Haggard, 58 S.W.3d 164, 166-67 (Tex.App.-Waco 2001, no pet.).
In response to the creditor’s no-evidence motion for summary judgment, Thomas Stanley filed an affidavit stating he received letters from appellee, but was never provided with the required notices. I see no indication in this record the required notices were sent. I recognize that, if we were to remand the case, the creditor may be able to establish through a traditional motion for summary judgment that proof of service was accomplished by certified mail, and that Stanley simply never accepted the certified mail. But on this slim record, I would give the Stanley affidavit its broadest reading. I would hold that Stanley’s affidavit raises a fact issue on notice.