Court Opinion

ID: 9587664
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:24:56.42741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:45.742645
License: Public Domain

BENCH, Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. I believe that the trial court improperly held, as a matter of law, that these parties had a meeting of the minds. Because this is a fact sensitive threshold issue, I would remand this case to allow the parties to present evidence as to whether there was a meeting of the minds.
The main opinion erroneously asserts that the parties never urged, at trial or on appeal, that the trial court should take evidence on the meeting-of-the-minds issue. At the hearing before the trial court, A & H Equipment, Inc. (A & H) asked the court to enforce the settlement agreement consistent with A & H’s interpretation and, in the alternative, urged that there was no meeting of the minds. In support of the alternative argument, A & H contended that Brown v. Brown, 744 P.2d 333 (Utah App.1987) involved a similar “fact sensitive” issue, which was “exactly analogous to this case.” If the trial court did not rule for A & H as a matter of law, A & H urged the court to take evidence on the fact sensitive meeting-of-the-minds issue.
On appeal, A & H abandoned its argument regarding the enforceability of its own interpretation of the settlement agreement (as a matter of law), asserting only its alternative theory that there was no meeting of the minds. Specifically, A & H argued:
The trial court took no evidence other than to consider the affidavit by defendants’ counsel. The trial court did not resolve this ... factual issue by receiving evidence, but summarily decided the issue based upon the memoranda and oral arguments of the respective counsel. The trial court’s action in failing to take evidence on an issue of fact is reversible error. This court, therefore, should reverse the trial court’s summary enforcement of the proposed settlement agreement and remand for trial.
A & H clearly requested this court to remand the case for a factual determination. Thus, A & H requested, both in the trial court and this court, a factual determination of the meeting-of-the-minds issue.
The trial court summarily ruled, as a matter of law, that there was a meeting of the minds as to the settlement agreement. The trial court took no evidence regarding the parties’ perceptions of the scope of the settlement agreement.1 Determining whether there was a meeting of the minds in the present case requires a factual inquiry. The trial court’s ruling on this fact sensitive issue, as a matter of law, was improper. See, e.g., Canfield v. Albertsons, Inc., 841 P.2d 1224, 1228 (Utah App.1992), cert. denied, 853 P.2d 897 (Utah 1993). I would therefore remand this case to allow the parties to present evidence as to whether there was a meeting *890of the minds.2

. However, A & H's attorney filed an affidavit stating that his clients had informed him that they were not willing to dismiss their counterclaim against John Deere unless John Deere relinquished all its matters against A & H. "If there was evidence from which it would be reasonable to find that there was [no] meeting of the minds, the decision [decided as a matter of law] cannot be sustained.” R.J. Daum Constr. Co. v. Child, 122 Utah 194, 196-97, 247 P.2d 817, 818 (1952).

. I disagree with the main opinion’s assertion that remanding this case "would be contrary to the parol evidence rule.” If the parties had both signed a document, that document would be controlling, and we would look to extrinsic evidence only if that document was ambiguous. See Krauss v. Utah State Dep't of Transp., 852 P.2d 1014, 1019 (Utah App.), cert. denied, 862 P.2d 1356 (Utah 1993). However, where a document has not been signed by both parties, and they reasonably interpret their purported agreement differently, a trial court may look to extrinsic evidence to determine whether there was ever a meeting of the minds.