Opinion ID: 2508101
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: [¶3] On May 21, 1997, Mr. Lewis, d/b/a Cowley Mercantile, obtained a personal commercial loan for $240,216.00 from the bank's branch in Powell, Wyoming. Lewis Holding Company, of which Mr. Lewis was president, was not a party to the loan transaction. According to the loan payment schedule, Mr. Lewis was required to repay the loan in fifty-nine (59) installment payments of $2,450.00 beginning June 20, 1997, and continuing monthly thereafter with a final payment of the unpaid principal balance plus interest on May 20, 2002. In late July 2000, the bank received two loan payment checks from Mr. Lewis that were returned for insufficient funds. When Mr. Lewis did not bring his loan payments current by September 21, 2000, the bank debited a checking account maintained by the company with Mr. Lewis as a signatory at the bank's Sheridan branch and transferred the funds to Mr. Lewis' loan account in Powell to cover the past due loan amounts. The bank performed the same sort of transfer from the company's account on three other occasions when Mr. Lewis defaulted again in 2000 and 2001. The total amount of the four debits was $14,700.00. [¶4] On March 2, 2001, Mr. Lewis called the bank to complain about the transfers. After reviewing the bank's file, a bank representative offered to return the $14,700.00 to the company's Sheridan account. Mr. Lewis refused the offer and, on April 30, 2002, he and the company filed complaints against the bank, one in the Fourth Judicial District, Sheridan County, and the other in the Fifth Judicial District, Park County. Both complaints alleged that the bank negligently breached its duty of good faith by debiting the company's account and transferring the funds to cover Mr. Lewis' personal loan payments. Mr. Lewis and the company sought general and punitive damages. [¶5] The bank answered the complaints and filed a counterclaim and third party complaint in the Park County action seeking foreclosure of the mortgage and repossession of the property pledged as collateral for the loan. The bank also moved to consolidate the two cases into one action in the Fifth Judicial District. The Fourth Judicial District court made a limited assignment of the Sheridan County case to the Fifth Judicial District court for hearing and deciding the motion to consolidate. Following the hearing, the Fifth Judicial District court granted the motion and consolidated the claims. [¶6] On December 12, 2002, the bank filed a motion to dismiss the claims on the ground that the bank's relationship with Mr. Lewis and the company was contractual and all of Mr. Lewis' and the company's claims sounded in negligence. Citing the rule that tort liability cannot be premised solely upon contractual duties, the bank asserted the complaint failed to state a claim under W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6). The district court entered an order granting the motion but allowing Mr. Lewis and the company to file an amended complaint. Mr. Lewis and the company did so, with Mr. Lewis alleging two counts of breach of duty of good faith and requesting an accounting, and the company alleging five counts of breach of duty of good faith. [1] Mr. Lewis sought unspecified general and special damages. The company sought unspecified general damages and special damages in the amount of $13,900.00. [¶7] The bank filed an amended answer and counterclaim followed by a partial motion for summary judgment in which it asserted that Mr. Lewis' and the company's claims were precluded because Mr. Lewis, not the bank, caused any damages he and the company suffered by his refusal to accept the bank's offer to return the funds. The district court granted the motion, finding that no genuine issue of material fact existed on the issue of damages because all of the damages claimed by [Mr. Lewis and the company] to have allegedly resulted from [the bank's] withdrawal of funds from the Sheridan checking account occurred after [the bank] offered to put the withdrawn funds back and [Mr. Lewis] refused to accept return of the funds. The district court dismissed all of Mr. Lewis' and the company's claims.