Opinion ID: 1165003
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: stipulation of facts by litigants

Text: The parties, Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., a Montana Corporation, and First Wyoming Bank, N.A. Sheridan, Wyoming, a Wyoming Corporation, by and through their undersigned attorneys enter into the following Stipulations and Admission of Facts for the purpose of simplifying the factual issues to expedite the litigation. I. The Defendant, First Wyoming Bank, is the payor bank on a check drawn on account # XX-XXX-X of Quality Kitchens, a division of Flynn's Inc., for Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00). That check is Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' and is dated May 6, 1978. Plaintiff, Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., is the payee pursuant to that check. The parties stipulate that said check shall be admitted in evidence as Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' for all purposes. II. Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' was delivered to Jerry Franz of of [sic] Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., on May 6, 1978, as partial payment for cabinets and other related kitchen ware sold by Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., to Quality Kitchens prior to that date. III. Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' was then deposited in the account of Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., in the Security Bank of Billings on May 8th, 1978. Security Bank as the depository bank then credited the account of Cabinet Craft Distributors, Inc., in the amount of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) and proceeded to send the check throught [sic] the bank collection system. IV. Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' was mailed from the Denver Federal Reserve Bank on May 20, 1978, to the Defendant, First Wyoming Bank of Sheridan, for payment. V. Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' was received by the First Wyoming Bank of Sheridan, at the office of the bank as a cash item for payment on Monday, May 22, 1978, prior to 3:00 o'clock P.M. On May 22, 1978, the check was sent from the First Wyoming Bank Sheridan, to a computer center in Billings, Montana, run by Data Share, Incorporated, which the First Wyoming Bank uses to process its checks in the normal course of business. The check was taken by Jack Burns, an employee of Robert Collins, who contracts for the First Wyoming Bank as a courier to transport checks to the computer center in Billings. The courier would have left Sheridan [at] approximately 6:00 P.M. on May 22 and arrived in Billings between 8 and 10 P.M. The material would have been processed within an hour or two after its arrival in Billings. VI. The computer center printed Plaintiff's Exhibit `2' admitted in evidence for all purposes by stipulation of the parties, which Exhibit is entitled `Unposted Transaction Journal' and dated May 22, 1978. VII. In the Unposted Transaction Journal the catagory [sic] for Reason Not Posted was labeled Non Sufficient Funds due to a hold. VIII. In the normal course of business the courier would wait at the computer center until the checks have been processed and then return immediately with the checks and a computer print out to Sheridan showing all the checks processed by the computer center. On May 22, 1978, after the courier had gone through toward Billings, the main road between Sheridan, Wyoming, and Billings, was closed due to flooding for a period of several days. If the courier had delivered the checks through Lovell, Wyoming, and come across the Big Horn Mountains it would have been possible to have provided the checks to the First Wyoming Bank during the banking day of May 23, 1978. IX. Since the courier did not drive back to Sheridan, Wyoming, from Billings, the checks were placed by Data Share, Incorporated on Western Airlines, which was the normal procedure when the courier could not travel or when for computer reasons it took longer to run the checks than the courier could wait. Data Share turned the checks over to Western Airlines on May 22, 1978, to be taken to Sheridan in the early morning run of Western Airlines on May 23, 1978. The Western Airlines flight did leave Billings and did arrive at Sheridan at 8:13 A.M. but no checks were left in Sheridan for the First Wyoming Bank on May 23, 1978. The reason the checks were not delivered is unknown. Western Airlines destroys all records after one year. On May 25, 1978, the employees of First Wyoming Bank were notified by the First Wyoming Bank in Casper, Wyoming, that the checks had been received in Casper and the checks were subsequently placed on Continental Trailways and were received in Sheridan by Ruth Zimdars of the First Wyoming Bank on May 25, 1978. The Plaintiff's Exhibit `1' was posted out marked insufficient funds on May 25, 1978. X. On May 25, 1978, First Wyoming Bank President, Everett Cassidy, made the decision to dishonor the check, which is Plaintiff's Exhibit `1'. First Wyoming Bank employee Mary Seibel placed a stamp on the check showing that it was dishonored for insufficient funds. XI. Following the dishonor of the check at the First Wyoming Bank on May 25, 1978, the check was returned through the bank collection system through the Security Bank of Billings, which then reversed the credit placed on the account of the Plaintiff as of June 5, 1978. At all times between the receipt of the check on May 6, 1978, and June 5, 1978, the payee Cabinet Craft had no knowledge that there were insufficient funds to cover the check and the payee was at all times acting in good faith. XII. That from the 6th of May, 1978, when the check was received to the 16th of May there were not funds in the account of Quality Kitchens sufficient to pay the check. On the 16th of May, 1978, Tim Flynn deposited a check for Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) in the account, written on an account in the Stockmen's Bank in Gillette, Wyoming, where he did not have Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) on deposit. On May 22, 1978, after a meeting with Everett Cassidy, the President of the First Wyoming Bank, Tim Flynn made known that the Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) deposit would not be covered by accounts in the Stockmen's Bank in Gillette. Everett Cassidy therefore from that date ordered a hold placed on all of Tim Flynn's accounts and there were not sufficient funds to pay the face amount of Exhibit `1' at any time. The hold was placed on the account on May 22, 1978.