Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Patrick O'brien Murphy A/K/A O'brien Murphy and Beverly Murphy

In this dispute between two home-equity borrowers and their lender, we must determine whether the parties’ loan agreement or the Texas Constitution prohibits an award of attorney’s fees in the borrowers’ separate and original declaratory judgment action that invoked the automatic stay and dismissal provisions of Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 736.11. The court of appeals held that neither party had pleaded a cognizable claim for declaratory relief and the nonrecourse status of the home-equity loan prohibited a personal judgment for attorney’s fees against the borrowers. 455 S.W.3d 621, 629…