Opinion ID: 1241225
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the transactional history

Text: All transactions relating to the repayment of the loan were recorded by the bank on an installment loan ledger card. It shows that all installments due through January of 1979 were paid within the ten-day grace period. Beginning in February and running through September, the payments were consistently late and a late-charge in the amount of $69.52 was entered for each of those months except March and May. No payment at all was received in July, but Robert Stevens, an assistant vice-president of the bank, testified that on August 20 the bank received $2,780.74 by wire exchange from a Gillette bank and on August 30 an additional $332.00. Mikkelson testified that these amounts were forwarded on advice of his attorney after he had been informed by telephone conversation with Stevens that the bank would receive no more payments. Sometime during August or early September, the matter was turned over to a Cheyenne legal film for handling. On September 11 the Cheyenne attorneys addressed a letter to the Mikkelsons advising them that the note and mortgage were past due, that default had occurred and ... this correspondence constitutes Foothill Industrial Bank's written notice of intent to foreclose the mortgage by advertisement and sale. We shall begin foreclosure proceedings ten days after your receipt of this letter. However, the ledger card shows that on that same day a late-charge of $69.52 was entered. The July and August payments were not credited on the ledger card until September 25 and 26, when Stevens was advised to do so by the bank's attorneys. Although the attorney's letter of September 11 indicates that it was to be sent by certified mail, the date of delivery is not shown. Mikkelson testified to the receipt thereof without mention of the date. Mrs. Mikkelson testified that it could have been received around September 14. On that date, although as she testified not because of the letter, she issued and mailed to Foothill a check in the amount of $1,459.94 (being the amount of the monthly payment, plus $69.52, the amount of late-charge). The issuance of this check was substantiated by a copy of the appropriate page of the check register kept by the Mikkelsons, but Stevens testified that the check was never received by Foothill, and the Mikkelsons admitted that it had never been paid by their Gillette bank. Notwithstanding the attorneys' statement that foreclosure would be commenced ten days after receipt of the notice, no publication was commenced until December 6. Prior to that, but at a time not shown by testimony of either party, the Mikkelsons received from the bank's attorneys a typewritten copy of the notice that was published on December 6. This notice states that written notice of intent to foreclose had been given to the mortgagors by certified mail with return receipt, mailed to the last known address of the record owner on September 11, 1979. However, the loan ledger card shows that on October 2, 1979, the bank credited the mortgage account with a payment in the amount of $1,390.42, crediting this to the payment due September 1, 1979. The card also shows payments in the same amount received and credited November 8 for the October payment; December 3 for the November payment; January 7, 1980 for December; and February 5 for January. At the trial on March 6, Stevens testified to the application in this manner and further that no other payments had been received as of that date. No late-charges were entered after September 11. It is not clear from the published notice just what specific defaults Foothill claimed to exist. It stated therein: That default has been made in the payment of said mortgage note and in the terms and conditions of the mortgage described above in that the said Thomas T. Mikkelson and Kay [sic] D. Mikkelson, d/b/a Tom's Welding Service, have not made the payments as required by the said mortgage and mortgage note; that in accordance with the terms and provisions of said mortgage, the mortgagee has elected and does hereby elect to declare the entire remaining indebtedness due and payable and that there is now due, owing and unpaid as of the date of this notice the sum of $97,329.40, principal and interest included, less rebate in the amount of $32,551.00 resulting in the total amount due the mortgagee as of the date of this notice, of $64,778.40... . [3]