Opinion ID: 1164418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the superior court correctly disposed of the issue of the enforceability of the October 28 agreement by summary Judgment.

Text: Peterson's first contention in this appeal is that to reach the conclusion that the October 28 agreement was enforceable, despite the failure to obtain the loan from Pacific Mutual, the superior court must have determined that the parties considered the source of the loan to be immaterial. Peterson argues that this reasoning required the superior court to consider and weigh extrinsic evidence regarding the intent of the parties, and thus that summary judgment in favor of the Wirums was inappropriate under Civil Rule 56. [4] Peterson is correct in asserting that summary judgment is inappropriate when the affidavits and other evidence before the trial court establish that a factual dispute exists as to the expressed intent of the parties. Kincaid v. Kingham, 559 P.2d 1044, 1047 (Alaska 1977); Smalley v. Juneau Clinic Building Corp., 493 P.2d 1296, 1305 (Alaska 1972). But in the present case, the evidence before the superior court at the time of the cross-motions for summary judgment did not indicate any dispute as to the material facts pertaining to the intent of the parties. In such circumstances, summary judgment is appropriate. Alaska R.Civ.P. 56(c); Wilcox Associates v. Fairbanks North Star Borough, 603 P.2d 903, 906 (Alaska 1980). [5] Differences of opinion among the parties as to their subjective intent, expressed during the litigation, do not establish an issue of fact regarding the parties' reasonable expectations at the time they entered into the contract, since such self-serving statements are not considered to be probative. [6] Rather, the court must look to express manifestations of each party's understanding of the contract in attempting to give effect to the intent behind the agreement. [7] The contract clause in question appears on a page of the agreement which tabulates the financial interests of the various partners in chart form. This chart lists $650,000 as a deduction from the Hickel/Palmer share, with the notation that that amount was to be paid to Hickel/Palmer upon receipt of financing from Pacific Mutual. The extrinsic evidence submitted to the court included two letters written by Mary Wirum. One, dated the same day as the agreement, was sent to PTA's tax accountants for use in keeping the partnership books. It states in pertinent part: The agreement is based on the assumption that we will receive from Pacific Mutual an increase of $650,000.00 in the existing first deed of trust. We expect their final approval of this amount by the end of next week. If the increase is not approved (and at this point we feel rather confident that it will be), we'll have to face that problem with some other solution. The other letter was sent to Peterson on November 21, 1978, after Pacific Mutual denied the loan, and largely concerned Hickel's intent to sell his partnership interest. This letter referred to disbursements of PTA funds to the partners in accordance with the October 28 agreement, but Wirum observed that she anticipated that Hickel will object that all monies did not go to him since the Pacific Mutual thing fell through. The letter went on to state: According to that 10/28 agreement, which I suppose isn't worth much now since the $650,000.00 wasn't received from Pacific Mutual, Vern was owed $280,000.00 + $732,835.17 + $650,000.00 from the partnership = $1,662,835.17 total.[ [8] ] In our opinion, the admissible extrinsic evidence cited by the parties thus reveals no dispute over any material issue of fact pertinent to discerning the intent of the parties in executing the October agreement. Therefore the superior court did not err in disposing of the dispute by way of summary judgment.