Opinion ID: 1634710
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: summary of the facts and case

Text: Merchants and Manufacturers Bank, regularly provided loans to Archie Courtney, owner of Courtney Plumbing, Inc., in connection with Courtney's plumbing and septic tank business. These loans typically took the form of promissory notes, which were secured by both purchase money and nonpurchase money security interests in Courtney's heavy equipment used in his business. Over a period of time, these separate promissory notes would typically be combined or consolidated into one. Courtney experienced severe financial problems, and he filed for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy on February 18, 1992. On April 14, 1992, the Bank filed suit against Courtney, alleging that he was in default on two of the promissory notes. The Bank requested that Courtney, who was serving as his own attorney, be required to pay the balance on the notes and to surrender possession of various collateral which he had pledged as security on the notes. Courtney does not dispute the monies owed to the Bank; he only contests whether the Bank holds a proper security interest in one piece of equipment which it seized. At the hearing on the Bank's complaint on May 7, 1992, the primary dispute centered around a 1986 Case 580E Super E backhoe, which was listed as security on the Bank's copy of one of the promissory notes, but not on Courtney's copy thereof. When asked about this discrepancy, Tommy Stroud, vice-president of the Bank, testified that his secretary had originally forgotten to type the backhoe on the note and, realizing her mistake at a later date, had added the backhoe to the instrument. The Bank did not seek Courtney's ratification of the addition of the backhoe, however, nor did they inform him that the note had been altered. Following a hearing, the trial judge entered an order of possession in favor of the Bank with regard to the equipment listed as security on the promissory note, including the backhoe. Courtney subsequently filed a complaint against the Bank for allegedly seizing property in addition to that which they were entitled to pursuant to the order of possession, to which the Bank responded with a motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted the summary judgment motion, and Courtney timely filed an appeal from said ruling as well as from the order of possession entered in favor of the Bank with regard to the backhoe.