Opinion ID: 544302
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 6 On September 19, 1980, Theodore Binzel, Larry Guerzon and Ronald Bauer executed a $240,000 promissory note to the Colonial Bank & Trust Company on behalf of their respective businesses, Binzel Industries, Inc., Transcontinental Steel Corp. and Kinetic Industries, Inc. The note was guarantied by the SBA and was secured by the personal guaranties of Binzel, Guerzon and Bauer. When the debtors defaulted, the Bank collected the balance due on the loan from the SBA under its guaranty, and assigned the note and its right of action against the individual guarantors to the SBA. 7 The SBA filed suit against two of the guarantors, Binzel and Guerzon. 1 Guerzon was defaulted for failing to appear or to answer the complaint. The SBA subsequently moved for summary judgment against Binzel under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. The motion was supported by the affidavits of Robert Jacobini, a loan specialist for the SBA, and Arnold Becker, the loan officer at Colonial Bank & Trust Company who handled the original loan. 8 When the debtors defaulted on the loan, the SBA paid off the balance due under the note, and in return took an assignment of the note and the personal guaranties which secured the note. Robert Jacobini, as a representative of the SBA, was assigned responsibility for all matters pertaining to that loan, and is the current custodian of the records pertaining thereto. In his affidavit, Jacobini stated that a $240,000 loan was made by Colonial Bank to Binzel Industries, Transcontinental Steel and Kinetic Industries on September 19, 1980, and that the loan was secured by the SBA and by the unconditional guarant[ies] of Theodore Binzel and Ronald Bauer. A copy of the Bauer guaranty was attached to the affidavit. The remainder of Jacobini's affidavit addressed facts which are generally uncontested, regarding the default by the debtors, assignment of the note and guaranties to the SBA, demand for payment under Binzel's personal guaranty, and the amount of the unpaid principal and interest which was due and owing. 9 Arnold Becker, the loan officer at Colonial Bank, stated in his affidavit that he personally handled the closing of the loan to Binzel Industries, Transcontinental Steel and Kinetic Industries on September 19, 1980, and obtained Bauer's personal guaranty as security therefor. Becker further attested that the guaranty which was attached to the Jacobini affidavit was, in fact, the guaranty which he witnessed Bauer execute at the time of closing. 10 In responding to the complaint, Binzel contended that the guaranty which he signed was a conditional guaranty which would have made him liable for the note only if the Bank also obtained written guaranties from Guerzon and Bauer. Although he did not dispute the existence of the Guerzon guaranty, he contended that Colonial Bank had failed to obtain a written guaranty from Bauer, and that he was therefore absolved from any liability. When the Bank subsequently produced the Bauer guaranty, Binzel modified his defense rather dramatically, contending for the first time in his response to the summary judgment motion that the Bauer guaranty was a forgery. In support of his contentions, Binzel submitted his own affidavit and selected portions of a deposition of Arnold Becker. 11 In his affidavit, Binzel asserted the formation of an oral condition precedent to his guaranty which occurred during a phone conversation with the president of Colonial Bank. He also stated that he was familiar with Bauer's signature, and that he believed the guaranty which was produced by the SBA as Bauer's was a forgery. 12 Binzel attempted to discredit the Becker affidavit, using a later deposition in which Becker testified that, after eight years, he could not readily recognize the signature of Bauer on the guaranty produced by the SBA. Becker, however, reiterated during that deposition that he had been introduced to Bauer in Binzel's presence; that it was the man introduced to him as Bauer who executed the Form 148 guaranty in 1980; and, that it was that guaranty which he sent to the SBA and which was attached to the Jacobini affidavit. 13 The district court held that the government had sufficiently established the authenticity of Bauer's guaranty, rejecting Binzel's contentions that his affidavit and Becker's deposition testimony raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding the authenticity of Bauer's signature. The court concluded that: (1) Binzel's affidavit was mere conjecture and therefore insufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment; (2) Becker's deposition testimony could not reasonably be construed to support Binzel's allegation that the Bauer signature was forged; and (3) Becker's deposition was not materially inconsistent with his earlier affidavit. Having found that there were no genuine issues of material fact, and that the government was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the district court granted the motion for summary judgment. We concur.