Opinion ID: 416545
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The loan plan

Text: 53 The court correctly granted summary judgment with respect to the $750,000 floor loan. 54 Brown-Marx maintains that when it arrived in New York on the abortive closing day it was prepared to accept the floor loan if it could not qualify for the ceiling loan. The loan commitment provided that for Brown-Marx to receive the loan, whether in ceiling or floor amount, it was to provide the bank with a mortgage conveying a first mortgage lien. Under Alabama law, for Brown-Marx to recover for a breach it was required to show that it was able and ready to perform. See Mobile Electric Co. v. Nelson, 209 Ala. 554, 96 So. 713, 717 (Ala.1923). But no facts show that on November 1 Brown-Marx was either able or ready to close a loan for $750,000. There is no evidence that Brown-Marx even mentioned the floor loan alternative. Brown-Marx argues that the bank was not ready to close any loan on November 1, therefore it was not required to offer to close the floor loan. This misconceives the requirement of being able and ready. Before Brown-Marx can recover for alleged breach of the commitment to lend $750,000, it has to establish that it wanted to avail itself of the $750,000 loan. This it never did, on November 1 or afterwards. Before, on, and after closing day and until early December Brown-Marx's communications with the bank focused on only the ceiling loan. The bank knew of the $1.1 million of liens on the building that Brown-Marx was to pay off with the proceeds of the ceiling loan. In its telegram to the bank on October 31 Brown-Marx said that its interim lenders would not extend their loans. So far as the bank knew Brown-Marx could not, with a $750,000 loan, be in a position to convey a first mortgage lien. On December 3 the bank expressly raised the possibility of closing the loan in the floor amount; Smith responded with a rebuff and continued to insist on receiving the ceiling amount. 55 Under the undisputed material facts, Brown-Marx cannot recover for breach of the agreement to make a loan in the floor amount.