Title: Pate v. Merchants Nat. Bank of Mobile
Citation: 409 So. 2d 797
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: January 22, 1982

409 So. 2d 797 (1982)
Cornelia G. PATE
v.
The MERCHANTS NATIONAL BANK OF MOBILE.
80-627.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 22, 1982.
Joseph J. Boswell, Mobile, for appellant.
*798 R. Gregory Watts of Butler &amp; Sullivan, Mobile, for appellee.
MADDOX, Justice.
Where a cause of action involves the original claim and, also, a counterclaim, can, under the appropriate facts, a trial court enter a partial summary judgment and thereby finally adjudicate the original claim and leave the counterclaim undecided so that the parties involved can further litigate the issues pertaining to that counterclaim? By answering this question in the affirmative, we deem the findings and order of the trial court to be proper and, therefore, affirm its holding.
On July 10, 1978, Gordon R. Pate, Phillip R. Pate, Susan Pate, J. Richard Pate, Brenda Pate and Cornelia Pate executed a personal guaranty agreement with Merchants National Bank of Mobile whereby they jointly and severally guaranteed the payment at maturity of all and various loans and notes executed by Pate Foundation and Pile Driving, Inc., to Merchants National, to the extent that those various notes did not exceed the sum of $20,000.
On or about April 2, 1980, Pate Foundation defaulted on a promissory note in the amount of $13,000 payable to Merchants National, and Merchants National filed suit against Pate Foundation and against the individual guarantors listed previously.
All the defendants filed an answer to Merchants National's complaint and, thereafter, Merchants National filed its motion for summary judgment.
On March 31, 1981, after Merchants National had filed its motion for summary judgment, the defendants filed an amended answer to Merchants National's complaint which contained a counterclaim by one of the defendants, Mrs. Cornelia Pate (hereinafter referred to as Mrs. Pate), alleging that Merchants National had wrongfully converted funds belonging to Mrs. Pate which had been deposited in a checking account at Merchants National. The conversion allegedly took place during the year 1979, prior to the execution of the March 3, 1980, note sued on by Merchants National in this action.
On April 3, 1981, the trial judge granted Merchants National's motion for summary judgment on its complaint and entered judgment against all defendants. The trial judge later amended this judgment of April 3, 1981, by entering a final order pursuant to Rule 54(b), ARCP. In this order the trial judge ordered that the judgment in favor of Merchants National on its motion for summary judgment be made final, but expressly reserved Mrs. Pate's right to pursue her counterclaim against Merchants National.
It is from this final order of the trial court that Mrs. Pate brings her appeal and presents this issue for our determination:
Did the trial court err in ordering a final judgment against Mrs. Pate and for Merchants National on its guaranty and promissory note claims while leaving her counterclaim against Merchants National still pending? In arguing that the trial court was in error by issuing the order of final judgment, the appellant sets forth the following in her brief:
Rule 54(b), ARCP, states:
The committee comments following this rule go on to say the following:
This rule and its comments clearly provide that under the appropriate facts partial summary judgment on fewer than all the claims involved can be appropriate. See Donald v. City National Bank of Dothan, 295 Ala. 320, 329 So. 2d 92 (1976). The fact that the claims may have arisen out of the same set of facts does not prevent them from being multiple claims. Cates v. Bush, 293 Ala. 535, 307 So. 2d 6 (1975).
*800 In a case where the complaint asked that certain land be sold, and the defendants answered and filed a counterclaim seeking an accounting, this Court stated:
Cates v. Bush, 293 Ala. 535, 540, 307 So. 2d 6 (1975).
The claim and counterclaim in the case at bar clearly presented more than one claim for relief. Merchants National's claim under the note constituted one claim and Mrs. Pate's claim for conversion of the funds in her checking account gave rise to another claim. Either of these claims could have been separately enforced. This case too is an example of the type of situation Rule 54(b) was intended to cover.
The trial court, in its final order, made an express determination that there was no just reason for delay and made an express direction for entry of judgment for Merchants National on its complaint, reserving to Mrs. Pate her right to pursue her counterclaim against Merchants National. As was stated earlier, this case presented the very facts that Rule 54(b) was intended to cover, and the trial judge certainly did not abuse his discretion by applying the rule to it. The findings and order of the trial court are due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C. J., and JONES, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.