Court Opinion

ID: 9561785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:16:20.035102+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:27.384634
License: Public Domain

*1053CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring, but with reservation):
I concur on the ground that it appears that notice was in fact given. However, I reserve therefrom agreement that a party can avoid or circumvent the statutory requirement to give notice by inserting a covenant of waiver in the contract. I realize that rights which exist strictly between individuals can usually be waived by them, when done so advisedly. But it is generally held that where covenants are exacted, which purport to waive rights that are conferred upon the public as a matter of public policy, such covenants are generally not enforceable. See 17 Am.Jur.2d 531 and cases there cited.
The requirement of notice is a declaration of policy for the protection of the public and in the interests of justice. It should not be avoided or circumvented by permitting the party upon whom that duty rests to exact covenants of waiver of that statutory duty. I have an aversion to any such self-protective covenants as the waiver of notice, etc. “and all other notices to which the Guarantor might otherwise be entitled . .” If this can be done, we may be sure that such contracts, prepared by financing institutions, will contain such provisions and thus, for practical purposes, eliminate the requirements of the statute. At the very least, I think such a covenant should not be enforceable unless it is proved that that particular covenant was expressly brought to the attention of and agreed to by the party to be bound thereby. See statement in Christopher v. Larson Ford Sales, Utah, 557 P.2d 1009 (1976).