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Green Tree Acceptance of Texas Inc. v. McGrath6/24/1998
From the 288th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas
Trial Court No. 91-CI-11455
Honorable John Gabriel, Judge Presiding
AFFIRMED
Appellant, Green Tree Acceptance of Texas, Inc., appeals a judgment entered against it in favor of appellees, Tim and Linda McGrath. The jury, finding that Green Tree maliciously trespassed on Tim and Linda McGraths' property, awarded $64,250 in damages. The trial court reformed the damages to $60,000. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Factual and Procedural Background
This case revolves around the repossession of a manufactured home. The home was originally purchased by Kelly Junker, who sold it to Arthur and Jenny Dooley. Green Tree Acceptance of Texas, Inc. had a lien on the home. The Dooleys, without telling Green Tree, moved the home to their own property. Eventually, the Dooleys fell behind in their payments. In April, 1990, the McGraths bought the Dooleys' property, but not the manufactured home. Because the Dooleys told the McGraths they did not intend to continue making payments on the home, the McGraths contacted Green Tree about buying the home.
Green Tree told the McGraths it would obtain a Federal Housing Authority (FHA) appraisal to determine the sales price, and that this appraisal would take about three weeks. The McGraths told Green Tree that no one was allowed on the property without notifying them and that the gate to the property was locked.
The McGraths gave Kathy Lucas, a Green Tree employee, permission to meet a neighbor at the property on April 7, 1990, to conduct an FHA appraisal on the home. However, Lucas entered the property on April 5, 1990, by crawling under the fence, and conducted a repossession inspection. On her inspection form, Lucas noted that the home's skirting was solid rock and that the "movers must remove fence and prune trees from drive."
Green Tree hired AAA Transit, an independent contractor, to repossess the home. Bill Capps, inventory control manager for Green Tree, told AAA's owner, Ken Lee, that this home would be difficult to remove because of the rock skirting and the trees. Green Tree sent AAA a map and a landlord's waiver, which AAA required before they would repossess a manufactured home. The map was to the McGraths' property, but the landlord's waiver was signed by Junker, the original purchaser of the home.
When the AAA repossession crew arrived at the McGraths' property, the gate to the property was not locked. They entered the property and removed the home. In doing so, the repossession crew removed the rock skirting surrounding the home and cut down and trimmed trees. The crew also removed the fence by cutting down the fence posts.
The McGraths sued Green Tree and AAA for malicious trespass and damages. The parties stipulated that the proper measure of actual damages was $1,250.00. The McGraths and AAA settled before trial for $7,000.00.
The jury found that Green Tree, through AAA, trespassed on the McGraths' property. The jury awarded the McGraths $1,250.00 for loss of fair market value to the property, $3,000.00 for necessary clean up expenses, and nothing for mental anguish. The jury also found that Green Tree, through AAA, committed the trespass maliciously or in wanton disregard of the McGraths' rights. For the malicious trespass, the jury awarded the McGraths $60,000.00 in exemplary damages. The court reformed the clean up damages to $1,995.00, to reflect the actual money the McGraths paid for the clean up. The court also gave Green Tree credit for the $7,000.00 AAA paid the McGraths.
MBANK v. Sanchez
Green Tree l
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