Commercial Reasonableness and Limitations Defenses in Secured Party Deficiency Actions: Christian v. First National Bank

The Fort Worth Court of Appeals reversed a directed verdict in a deficiency judgment action, holding that a bank's failure to affirmatively plead limitations barred it from asserting the statute against defendants' offsets, credits, and claims regarding commercially unreasonable sale of collateral. The court further held that defenses of offsets, credits, and payments were not barred by limitations to the extent they did not exceed the amount of the alleged debt, even if they would have been time-barred as independent claims.