Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.303 – Alienability of Party’s Interest Under Lease Contract or of Lessor’s Residual Interest in Goods; Delegation of Performance; Transfer of Rights
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(a) As used in this section, “creation of a security interest” includes the sale of a lease contract that is subject to Chapter 9 of this code, Secured Transactions, by reason of Section 9.109(a)(3).
(b) Except as provided in Section 9.407(c), a provision in a lease agreement which (1) prohibits the voluntary or involuntary transfer, including a transfer by sale, sublease, creation or enforcement of a security interest, or attachment, levy, or other judicial process, of an interest of a party under the lease contract or of the lessor‘s residual interest in the goods, or (2) makes such a transfer an event of default, gives rise to the rights and remedies provided in Subsection (d), but a transfer that is prohibited or is an event of default under the lease agreement is otherwise effective.
Terms Used In Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.303
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Consumer lease: means a lease that a lessor regularly engaged in the business of leasing or selling makes to a lessee who is an individual and who takes under the lease primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose, if the total payments to be made under the lease contract, excluding payments for options to renew or buy, do not exceed $25,000. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Goods: means all things that are moveable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (Section Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Lease agreement: means the bargain, with respect to the lease, of the lessor and the lessee in fact as found in their language or by implication from other circumstances including course of dealing or usage of trade or course of performance as provided by this chapter. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Lease contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the lease agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Sublease: means a lease of goods the right to possession and use of which was acquired by the lessor as a lessee under an existing lease. See Texas Business and Commerce Code 2A.103
(c) A provision in a lease agreement which (1) prohibits a transfer of a right to damages for default with respect to the whole lease contract or of a right to payment arising out of the transferor’s due performance of the transferor’s entire obligation, or (2) makes such a transfer an event of default, is not enforceable, and such a transfer is not a transfer that materially impairs the prospect of obtaining return performance by, materially changes the duty of, or materially increases the burden or risk imposed on, the other party to the lease contract within the purview of Subsection (d).
(d) Subject to Section 9.407(c):
(1) if a transfer is made which is made an event of default under a lease agreement, the party to the lease contract not making the transfer, unless that party waives the default or otherwise agrees, has the rights and remedies described in Section 2A.501(b); and
(2) if Subdivision (1) is not applicable and if a transfer is made that (A) is prohibited under a lease agreement or (B) materially impairs the prospect of obtaining return performance by, materially changes the duty of, or materially increases the burden of risk imposed on, the other party to the lease contract, unless the party not making the transfer agrees at any time to the transfer in the lease contract or otherwise, then, except as limited by contract, (i) the transferor is liable to the party not making the transfer for damages caused by the transfer to the extent that the damages could not reasonably be prevented by the party not making the transfer and (ii) a court having jurisdiction may grant other appropriate relief, including cancellation of the lease contract or an injunction against the transfer.
(e) A transfer of “the lease” or of “all my rights under the lease,” or a transfer in similar general terms, is a transfer of rights and, unless the language or the circumstances, as in a transfer for security, indicate the contrary, the transfer is a delegation of duties by the transferor to the transferee. Acceptance by the transferee constitutes a promise by the transferee to perform those duties. This promise is enforceable by either the transferor or the other party to the lease contract.
(f) Unless otherwise agreed by the lessor and the lessee, a delegation of performance does not relieve the transferor as against the other party of any duty to perform or of any liability for default.
(g) In a consumer lease, to prohibit the transfer of an interest of a party under the lease contract or to make a transfer an event of default, the language must be specific, by a writing, and conspicuous.