Title: Braswell Wood Co., Inc. v. Fussell

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

474 So. 2d 67 (1985)
BRASWELL WOOD COMPANY, INC.
v.
Paul FUSSELL.
No. 83-1361.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 21, 1985.
*69 William M. Russell, Jr., Tuskegee, for appellant.
Carl O. Pilgrim of Pilgrim & Gooden, Montgomery, for appellee.
BEATTY, Justice.
Appeal by Braswell Wood Company, Inc. (Braswell Wood) from a summary judgment entered against it in the amount of $15,000, together with interest and costs, in favor of plaintiff, Paul B. Fussell, Sr. We reverse and remand.
The action grows out of a mortgage and promissory note on 240 acres of land lying in Macon and Bullock Counties. The land was owned by Ronald K. and Sandra K. Pirnie, who had purchased it from Fussell, giving him a purchase money mortgage and note in exchange. Fussell, as mortgagee, filed a complaint seeking to foreclose, and also seeking damages from Braswell Wood for alleged conversion of timber on the mortgaged land.[1]
The mortgage was foreclosed, and a deficiency judgment was awarded to Fussell. The propriety of those proceedings is not in issue here.
Fussell, the mortgagee, moved for summary judgment against Braswell Wood. The gist of his claim against Braswell Wood was that, after the sale of the land to the Pirnies and while their mortgage to Fussell was extant, the Pirnies executed a timber deed to Braswell Wood, which proceeded to cut $15,000 worth of timber from the mortgaged lands, paying that amount into a bank on the directions of Ronald K. Pirnie instead of to the mortgagee Fussell. In support of this motion, Fussell attached part of the deposition of John Braswell, owner of Braswell Wood, the bank check evidencing payment for the timber drawn by Braswell Wood, the mortgage from the Pirnies to Fussell, the timber deed from the Pirnies to Braswell Wood, and the two affidavits of Fussell himself. Braswell Wood did not respond to this motion by affidavit or otherwise, nor did Braswell Wood file any post-judgment motions. Braswell Wood did appeal from the summary judgment.
The controlling question on appeal is whether or not summary judgment was appropriate in this case. Rule 56, A.R. Civ.P., provides in pertinent part:
Fussell contends that summary judgment was proper in this case because Braswell Wood never, by affidavit or otherwise, responded to Fussell's motion, and thus Braswell Wood failed to meet the requirement of showing that there was a genuine issue for trial. We disagree.
When Braswell Wood answered Fussell's complaint, it raised certain defenses, set forth below, based on an agreement between Fussell and the Pirnies to reinstate the mortgage:
Here, as in Imperial Group, Ltd. v. Lamar Corp., 347 So. 2d 988, 989 (Ala. 1977), the "plaintiff-movant [here, Fussell] offered no allegations to negative" the defenses raised by Braswell Wood in its answer. In Imperial Group this Court reiterated the well established rule that:
Furthermore, even though no affidavits were filed by Braswell Wood in opposition to Fussell's motion for summary judgment, the court, nevertheless had to consider
Fountain v. Phillips, 404 So. 2d 614, 618 (Ala.1981). Accord Speigle v. Lott, 423 So. 2d 163 (Ala.1982).
In addition, the following quotation taken from C. Wright, Handbook of the Law of Federal Courts, § 99 at 664 (4th ed. 1983), is apropos:
*71 Because Fussell offered nothing to contradict the defenses raised by Braswell Wood in its answer, summary judgment was improper if granted merely because Braswell Wood rested on its pleadings. Nevertheless, we find the following caution given in Imperial Group, Ltd. v. Lamar Corp., supra, at 989-900, instructive, and it bears repeating in this case:
Notwithstanding all of the above, Fussell contends, in essence, that all of the defenses raised by Braswell Wood must fail as a matter of law, and therefore, that summary judgment was proper. We do not agree as to the first four defenses.
Because our analysis depends, in part, on the construction of the agreement to reinstate the mortgage entered into by Fussell and the Pirnies after the timber was cut, it is set forth in its entirety below:
(Emphasis added.)
Before this agreement was reached, the mortgage note was in default, the timber had been cut, and Fussell had accelerated the debt and begun foreclosure proceedings. Pursuant to this agreement, however, foreclosure proceedings were withdrawn subject to reinstitution if the Pirnies failed to perform the required clearing of the property, which they did fail to perform.
As between Fussell and the Pirnies, this agreement operated as a ratification of the sale of timber, thereby releasing the Pirnies of their liability in conversion if performed. However, whether Fussell intended to look to the Pirnies' performance of this agreement as a full satisfaction, thereby intending to release Braswell Wood from its liability in conversion, was properly a question for a jury.
By statute, Code of 1975, § 12-21-109, written releases or discharges generally must be given effect according to the parties' intention:
In Steenhuis v. Holland, 217 Ala. 105, 107, 115 So. 2, 4 (1927), the Court pointed out:
In Dwight Mfg. Co., v. Word, 200 Ala. 221, 226, 75 So. 979, 984 (1917), cited in Steenhuis, *73 supra, just as in the present case, the release in question named only one of the defendants. The Court held as follows:
From the material before the trial court, it cannot be held as a matter of law that Fussell, the mortgagee, by entering into the agreement with the Pirnies, did not intend to ratify the sale of the timber to Braswell Wood and look only to the performance of the agreement by the Pirnies as full satisfaction of his damage from the sale of the timber. Nor is it clear, as a matter of law, that Fussell intended the performance by the Pirnies to operate only as satisfaction pro tanto. The question of Fussell's intent was for a jury to decide. Accord, Thompson v. Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry., 160 Ala. 590, 49 So. 340 (1909).
Furthermore, "it is well settled that no person ... will in equity be permitted to receive and retain that which forms the consideration for an invalid sale or disposition of his property, and at the same time to retake the property [or claim damages therefor], to the prejudice of those who have in good faith acted upon the transaction as valid." Hobbs v. Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 122 Ala. 602, 609, 26 So. 139, 141 (1899). Such conduct is subject to the defense of equitable estoppel or estoppel in pais asserted by Braswell Wood in its answer. In Ellison v. Butler, 271 Ala. 399, 124 So. 2d 88 (1960), the following definition of equitable estoppel was approved:
In Courington v. Birmingham Trust National Bank, 347 So. 2d 377, 380 (Ala.1977), this Court recognized that "[a]cquiescence is a form of estoppel, ... and is applicable when there is some element of neglect." Furthermore, in Cochran v. Cochran, 247 Ala. 588, 590, 25 So. 2d 693, 694 (1946), the Court espoused the following basis for asserting the defense of estoppel, quoting 2 Pomeroy on Equity, § 965, p. 2094:
See also Porter v. Peeke, 429 So. 2d 948, 951 (Ala.1983), where this Court held as follows:
In the context of a summary judgment, this Court, in Imperial Group, Ltd. v. Lamar Corp., supra, at 989, held that "[b]ecause `estoppel' is a mixed question of law and fact [where plaintiff/movant offered nothing to negative this defense], it is plain that material issues of fact remain, and, therefore, summary judgment was premature." In so concluding, the Court relied on Humphrey v. Boschung, 287 Ala. 600, 608, 253 So. 2d 769, 775 (1971), in which the following quotation from 28 Am.Jur.2d Estoppel and Waiver, § 149, p. 831, was approved:
Braswell Wood also raised the defense of waiver, which is defined as the intentional relinquishment of a known right. Bell v. Birmingham Broadcasting Co., 263 Ala. 355, 82 So. 2d 345 (1955). The Court in Bell went on to hold:
Furthermore, "[a]n intention to waive a right may be found where one's course of conduct indicates the same or is inconsistent with any other intention." Givens v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 56 Ala. App. 561, 564, 324 So. 2d 277, 270 (1975).
As with the defense of release, we cannot say as a matter of law that Fussell did not intend to waive his right to bring an action in conversion against Braswell Wood. Here again, intention is appropriately an issue for the jury. Nor can we say, with respect to the defense of estoppel, that only one reasonable inference can be drawn from the evidence in the present case, making the issue one of law for the trial court. In reviewing the grant of a motion for summary judgment, all reasonable inferences from the evidence must be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. Houston v. McClure, 425 So. 2d 1114 (Ala. 1983).
In the present case, not only was there nothing submitted by Fussell to refute or negative the defenses of waiver and estoppel raised by Braswell Wood in its answer, Imperial Group, Ltd., supra, but also there was evidence of record which, when viewed most favorably toward Braswell Wood, would support these defenses. First, there is John Braswell's deposition in which he testified that, based on what he had been told by the Pirnies, he believed that the matter had been "straightened out" between the Pirnies and Fussell. In addition, with respect to the agreement between the Pirnies and Fussell, it is factually relevant that it was not until after the *75 Pirnies had failed to perform under the terms of the agreement, by failing to clear the property for farming, that Fussell brought his action in conversion against Braswell Wood. As in the case of Porter v. Peeke, quoted from supra, this is not to say that the action is barred as untimely filed; rather, a reasonable inference which could have been drawn from the timing of the action is that Fussell had intended the performance by the Pirnies to suffice as his satisfaction, and that he had acquiesced in the cutting of the timber insofar as Braswell Wood's liability was concerned, because he intended to waive his right to sue in conversion.
Nevertheless, we can say, as a matter of law, that the agreement to reinstate the mortgage did not operate as a substitution or novation with respect to the original mortgage agreement between Fussell and the Pirnies. In order for there to have been a novation, the pre-existing debt must have been extinguished. 58 Am. Jur.2d Novation, §§ 22, 23 (1971). Here, the terms of the original mortgage were reinstated without any changes. The promise by the Pirnies to clear the property and catch up the delinquent payments furnished the consideration for the withdrawal of foreclosure proceedings begun as a result of the mortgage being in default for nonpayment and the cutting of the timber. The terms of the original reinstated mortgage, however, were not varied.
Based on the foregoing, we conclude that at least a scintilla of evidence was furnished on each of the defenses raised, except novation or substitution, thereby precluding summary judgment. We need not reach any other issues raised by Braswell Wood. Accordingly, the judgment is due to be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, JONES and SHORES, JJ., concur.
[1]  Other parties were subsequently joined and other issues litigated; however, those parties and issues are not involved in this appeal.