" What happened in my case"
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What Happened in my case"
What Happened in My Case: Wells Fargo Legal Order Debit on a Texas Small‑Business Account
In November 2025, a New York default judgment that I never properly received was used to freeze and empty my Texas Wells Fargo business bank account with a “legal order debit.” That account was a debtor‑in‑possession account for A&R Construction under a Chapter 11 reorganization, and the money was taken without any court in Texas ever signing off.
Who I Am and How I Ended Up Here
My name is Tyler Mason. I own A&R Construction LLC and started BroncBuster LLC, an off‑road parts company that grew out of my Ford Bronco breaking parts on the trail and me designing fixes. Like a lot of small‑business owners, I juggle construction work, product development, and racing, all while trying to keep my family afloat.
In 2024, A&R Construction was hit by an internal embezzlement and diversion of jobs that wiped out a big part of our revenue and forced us into a Subchapter V Chapter 11 reorganization so we could keep operating and pay creditors over time. My son Levi ran most of the field work while I focused on getting a plan confirmed. That plan depended on one key Wells Fargo debtor‑in‑possession (DIP) account where money came in and plan payments, payroll, materials, and our family’s small salary would go out.
The Merchant Cash Advance With Monday Funding
In mid‑2025, when traditional banks would not lend to a business coming out of bankruptcy, BroncBuster took a merchant cash advance (MCA) from Monday Funding LLC. The “Standard Merchant Cash Advance Agreement” was typical of these high‑cost products:
It treated the deal as a “sale of future receivables” instead of a loan.
It allowed Monday Funding to pull money from a designated bank account every business day.
It stacked on large fees and penalties, making the real cost extremely high.
Importantly, the MCA was between Monday Funding and BroncBuster LLC, not A&R Construction. A&R never received the advance and was not the operating merchant on that contract.
A New York Lawsuit I Never Really Got
Without my knowledge, Monday Funding and its collector, Empire Recovery, filed a lawsuit in New York on the BroncBuster MCA. The contract allowed them to try to serve me by certified mail.
When I later pulled the New York court records, I found:
An affidavit from the attorney swearing that I, A&R Construction, and BroncBuster had been properly served.
A certified‑mail tracking number attached to that affidavit as proof.
USPS tracking for that same number showing the letter was never delivered and was returned to sender as unclaimed.
In other words, the only “proof” of service in the file showed that no one at my address ever signed for or received the lawsuit. Because I never knew the case existed, no answer was filed and a default judgment was entered in New York for roughly 30,000 dollars plus extra costs.
Under basic due‑process rules, a judgment entered without proper notice and service is supposed to be void, because the court never really had jurisdiction over the person it is judging.
November 4: Wells Fargo Legal Order Debit Empties a Texas DIP Account
On November 4, 2025, my son texted me a screenshot of our Wells Fargo debtor‑in‑possession account at a zero balance. A line item labeled “legal order debit” showed more than 31,000 dollars pulled out in one shot—more than the New York judgment amount itself.
This account:
Was located in Texas, at a Texas Wells Fargo branch.
Was the confirmed DIP account in our A&R Construction Chapter 11 case.
Held funds earmarked for payroll, materials, fuel, subcontractors, bankruptcy plan payments, and the salary that was about to restart so we could stop our home from being foreclosed.
No Texas judge had signed any order allowing a garnishment or levy against that account. There was no Texas judgment against A&R Construction or BroncBuster based on the New York case. The money was taken entirely on the strength of a New York judgment that I say is void and that was never run through a Texas court.
Wells Fargo not only froze and emptied the account, it allowed more than the face amount of the judgment to be taken once fees were added, pushing the account past what the New York paper even claimed was owed. This is the kind of bank overreach that many small‑business owners have no idea can happen until it hits them.
What “Out‑of‑State Judgment” and “Domestication” Really Mean
Here’s the part most people—including many branch employees—never think about:
A judgment from another state (like New York) is often called a foreign judgment or out‑of‑state judgment.
In almost every state, including Texas, that judgment is not automatically enforceable like a local judgment. It has to be domesticated—which means filed and recognized in a local court—before it can be used to seize property or bank accounts in that state.
Texas has adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA). That statute lays out the steps a creditor must take to turn an out‑of‑state judgment into something Texas courts treat as a Texas judgment. In my case, there was no domesticated New York judgment against A&R Construction or BroncBuster in any Texas court when Wells Fargo hit the DIP account with a legal order debit.
So the core problem is simple enough for any small‑business owner to understand:
A bank used a judgment from another state—which I never really got notice of—to drain a Texas business account, without any Texas judge ever reviewing that judgment or authorizing the seizure.
A New Texas Law on Merchant Cash Advances
In 2025, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 700, a law aimed at commercial sales‑based financing, which includes merchant cash advances like the one BroncBuster took. HB 700 requires:
Clear written disclosures before these deals are finalized, including total repayment amounts, fees, and how payments will be calculated.
Registration of MCA providers and brokers with the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner.
A ban on confessions of judgment in these contracts.
The law reflects a clear policy choice by Texas: MCA transactions are high‑risk, high‑cost deals that need more transparency and oversight, not less. Yet the New York judgment tied to my MCA was used to hit a Texas DIP account without any Texas court ever reviewing the merits, the service, or whether the MCA complied with this new Texas law.
How Wells Fargo Answered When I Pushed Back
After the November 4 legal order debit, I made documented phone calls and filed written complaints with:
Wells Fargo customer service and the bank’s legal department.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
In those complaints, I explained:
The New York service problem and why the judgment is void.
The lack of any domesticated judgment in Texas.
The impact on a Chapter 11 debtor‑in‑possession account and a confirmed plan.
A Wells Fargo attorney later told me, in substance, that Wells Fargo “only needed the New York judgment” and that the bank takes no position on whether the judgment is valid or properly domesticated. In writing, Wells Fargo pointed to its deposit agreement language that says it may honor “any legal process we believe to be valid” while at the same time admitting that the agreement is “subject to applicable law.”
To a small‑business owner, that effectively means:
If any court in the country issues paperwork that looks official, Wells Fargo may freeze or drain your account—even if that judgment was never approved by a court in your state and even if basic notice and service rules were never followed.
What This Did to My Plan and My Family
The Wells Fargo legal order debit didn’t just hurt my feelings; it blew up the financial structure that kept my business and family afloat.
A&R Construction’s confirmed Subchapter V plan depended on that DIP account for ongoing plan payments to creditors.
The money in the account was budgeted for payroll, materials, fuel, insurance, and subcontractors on active jobs.
My family’s home was already in foreclosure proceedings, and our plan to save it depended on restarting a modest salary from A&R that this account was supposed to fund.
When the account went to zero, all of that collapsed at once. We had to tell our son to spin off his own company so he could keep working, while I turned to full‑time damage control: state‑court litigation, regulatory complaints, and now building this site so that other people who search for phrases like “Wells Fargo legal order debit,” “Wells Fargo froze my account,” or “New York judgment Texas bank account” have somewhere to start.
Why I’m Publishing This and How You Can Help
More than one attorney and friend has told me I’m probably spending more time and energy than I’ll ever recover in dollars by fighting a giant bank over this one legal order. They’re probably right if the only goal is to get my money back. But that’s not the only goal.
This site exists because:
Small‑business owners and consumers deserve to know that out‑of‑state judgments can be used to hit local bank accounts if banks don’t respect domestication and notice rules.
People searching for answers about a Wells Fargo legal order debit should be able to see a real case, with real documents, not just generic FAQ pages.
Regulators and lawyers who care about merchant cash advance abuse and bank account seizures need concrete, documented examples they can study and compare.
If you have experienced:
A Wells Fargo legal order debit or garnishment that froze or emptied your account.
A bank account seizure based on a judgment from another state that never went through your local courts.
Aggressive collection on a merchant cash advance that targeted your business bank account in a way that feels wrong but you were told was “just how it works.”
please consider sharing your story through the contact page. The more patterns we can document, the better chance there is that courts, regulators, and lawmakers will take a hard look at how banks like Wells Fargo handle legal orders against small‑business and consumer accounts.