Court Opinion

ID: 9681109
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:44:09.290971+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:32.293013
License: Public Domain

SPEARS, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent and agree with the dissenting opinion of Justice Culver. If the renewal and extension agreement executed by Benser and the debtor is found to be usurious, it would taint the Benser lien and render the lien invalid. The original indebtedness giving rise to the Benser lien and the subsequent renewal and extension agreement are so interwoven that they must be considered a single transaction. The renewal and extension agreement, by its terms, extends the original notes and deed of trust. Further, Benser applied the payments made by the debtor to the indebtedness as renewed and extended by that agreement.
Had Allee, as a junior lienholder, offered to tender the balance due under Benser’s senior lien, Benser would have demanded payment of the full amount owed by the debtor, including the sum remaining unpaid under the renewal and extension agreement. Upon satisfying the Benser lien, Allee would have gained the right to recover the amount she tendered from the debt- or. If usury tainted the amount owed by the debtor under the senior lien, the debtor could have asserted usury against Allee and, thereby, invalidated Allee’s entire claim against him. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5069-1.06 (Vernon 1987). Usury in the subsequent renewal and extension agreement, therefore, would not only infect that agreement; it would permeate the entire transaction between the senior lienholder and the debtor, and would taint the original indebtedness.
The renewal and extension agreement in this case was negotiated by Benser and, if usurious, would establish Benser’s violation of usury laws. Gold v. Alamo Lumber Co., 661 S.W.2d 926, 928 (Tex.1984). Benser’s contention that the original indebtedness and the renewal and extension agreement were separate and distinct is merely a subterfuge to evade the laws prohibiting usury. See Lawler v. Lomas & Nettleton Mortgage Investors, 691 S.W.2d 593, 597 (Tex.1985) (Spears, J., concurring); RepublicBank Dallas N.A. v. Shook, 653 S.W.2d 278, 283 (Tex.1983) (Spears, J., dissenting). If the renewal and extension agreement is usurious, Allee is entitled to a *66declaratory judgment that the Benser lien is invalid.
MAUZY, J., joins in this dissent.