Court Opinion

ID: 9723204
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:06:36.603388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:45.509628
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority's decision to deny the Appellee's petition for rehearing. Although I concurred in the original opinion, the Appellees, through their petition for rehearing, have brought evidence to my attention which has caused me to reevaluate my position. In our original opinion, we found that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on Wright's claim for fraud because there was evidence from which a jury might infer an intent to deceive on the part of Pennamped. Wright v. Pennamped, 657 N.E.2d 1223, 1232 (Ind.Ct.App.1995).
However, as the Appellees argue in their petition for rehearing, the uncontroverted evidence reveals that Pennamped instructed Krebs to inform Wright of the changes in the prepayment penalty clause, that he stressed the importance of such notification, and that Krebs agreed to do so. Thus, I believe that Pennamped's instruction to Krebs to inform Wright of the changes clearly demonstrates that Pennamped did not intend to deceive Wright. Therefore, although Pennamped may have been negligent in entrusting this duty to Krebs and failing to adequately supervise Krebs, these facts do not lead to an inference of fraud.
Moreover, upon further reflection, I would hold that the facts of this case are not amenable to the doctrine of constructive fraud in that I do not believe that the facts suggest a situation that is so likely to result in injustice that the law will find a fraud despite the absence of fraudulent intent. Here, there is no evidence that Wright would be precluded from seeking redress for his damages from SCI or that he could not recover those damages.
As a result, I would affirm the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Pen-namped.