Title: Vermont National Bank v. Clark

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 of any errors in order
that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                No. 90-235


Vermont National Bank                        Supreme Court

                                             On Appeal from
     v.                                      Windsor Superior Court

Michael J. Clark and                         December Term, 1990
Brenda D. Clark


         Silvio T. Valente, J.

Kristensen, Cummings, Murtha & Stewart, P.C., Brattleboro, for plaintiff-
  appellee

Jerome I. Meyers, White River Junction, for defendants-appellants


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley and Morse, JJ.


     ALLEN, C.J.   Defendants appeal from an order granting summary judgment
to plaintiff bank in a foreclosure suit and denying defendants' motion for
permission to appeal pursuant to 12 V.S.A. { 4601.  We reverse and remand.
     The essence of defendants' argument is that the bank wrongfully induced
them to buy the business, failure of which triggered the foreclosure.
Defendants had filed a tort claim of their own on these grounds prior to the
foreclosure action and thereafter included the same grounds as affirmative
defenses in their answer to the foreclosure complaint.  Plaintiff moved for
summary judgment, and the trial court granted the motion, rejecting these
defenses as insufficient in a foreclosure suit and concluding that the only
issues to be considered were "the validity of the mortgage, the amount of
indebtedness due on the mortgage, and the right of the mortgagee to seek
satisfaction of the indebtedness from the mortgaged property," citing LaFarr
v. Scribner, 150 Vt. 159, 161,