Opinion ID: 2464762
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Meetings with Jobe

Text: In late April, Safar and Bjorn-Roli met with Jobe to discuss cost overruns on the Project. They informed Jobe that overruns totaled approximately $250,000, and Jobe asked them to refine and confirm the number. When Safar and Bjorn-Roli met with Jobe a second time on May 7, 2007, Safar gave Jobe a written cost estimate of $590,000 to complete the Project but did not disclose that there were unpaid bills. Bjorn-Roli told Safar and Jobe that he was not going to put any of his own money into the Project to cover overruns or pay Safar any more than the contract price of $2.9 million. According to Bjorn-Roli, Jobe stated that it would take a couple more weeks to get some sort of approval to go above the bank loan limit, and that she would need approval from others at the bank before she could provide additional funds. According to Bjorn-Roli, Safar told Jobe that he could take part of his down payment for the condominium he was planning to purchase to cover payroll if Jobe promised that he would get his money back, and Jobe assured Safar that he would get his money back. [1] According to Jobe, she made no promise to reimburse Safar. She testified that the parties discussed releasing some of the funds from the expected closing of Safar's unit to help fund the overruns but that she made no commitments, no agreements were reached on the material terms of such an arrangement, and there was no discussion of Safar's down payment. She also testified that the resolution they agreed upon was that Wells Fargo would try to increase Norway's loan by $250,000 to $300,000. [2] According to Jobe, neither Safar nor Bjorn-Roli said anything about not proceeding with construction at the late April or May 7th meetings. Safar testified that he informed Jobe and Bjorn-Roli at the April meeting that he was running out of money and would have to shut down the Project unless they came up with some solution as far as funds. Safar testified that Bjorn-Roli and Jobe discussed the possibility of using proceeds from the sale of Safar's unit, for which a Certificate of Occupancy [3] had been issued, to complete the Project. According to Safar and Bjorn-Roli, Safar told Jobe and Bjorn-Roli at the May 7 meeting that Safar Construction had no more funds and would need to stop working if Wells Fargo could not provide any additional funding. Safar testified that Bjorn-Roli and Vice President Cindy Jobe definitely didn't want to stop the construction because of two pending sales, so Safar offered to use his own funds to cover payroll for a week until Jobe could find another solution. Safar claims that Jobe made a direct promise to him that the personal money he used to cover the payroll would be returned to him. After the May 7, 2007 meeting, Bjorn-Roli left for a planned vacation in Europe. When Bjorn-Roli returned to Anchorage, he met with Jobe to discuss possible solutions to overruns; Safar was not present. Jobe proposed loaning Norway an additional $250,000 to $300,000 to be secured by a personal guarantee from Bjorn-Roli, with Bjorn-Roli or Safar to fund any additional sums needed to complete the Project; Bjorn-Roli refused to guarantee any loan personally, and no agreement was reached. According to Jobe, she also suggested the idea of taking a partial payment at the closing of the unit Safar planned to purchase and putting the rest back into the Project, and Bjorn-Roli was receptive to the idea. Jobe testified that this never occurred, however, because the bank was waiting for a unit to close, which never occurred.