Court Opinion

ID: 9584173
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:45:14.713556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:58.053729
License: Public Domain

Justice Sharp
dissenting.
In my view, defendant’s motion for a directed verdict should have been allowed, for (1) the evidence discloses that Norburn lacked authority to bind his sister, defendant Allen, to pay the cost of the grading in suit, and (2) in that matter plaintiffs did not deal with him as her agent. The undisputed evidence is that they relied upon Norburn’s individual, specific promise “to pay in cash for this.”
*190After plaintiffs found out that they could not secure a construction loan to build the motel they had planned to erect on the property they had leased from Mrs. Allen on 10 May 1965 until she subordinated her rights under the lease to those of the lender, they attempted to secure a substitute lease which would accomplish this. Dr. Logan Robertson came to Dr. Nor-burn’s home “day after day, with one propositon after another, trying to get [him] to get Martha to give him another lease that would subordinate her property.” At least twenty leases were prepared, but defendant never executed one. Plaintiffs rightly apprehended that a substitute lease might never be executed, and Dr. Robertson told Norburn that plaintiffs “would have to have some sort of a guarantee from him or from Martha to pay the cost of it [the continuation of the grading which had been started on defendant’s property].” Whereupon, on 17 June 1965 Norburn executed the promise to pay which is set out in full in the majority opinion.
The record contains no evidence that defendant ever knew Norburn had executed a contract to “stand personally liable” for the actual cost of grading defendant’s property “in case the lease is not continued after June 1, 1966.” In it he did not purport to be acting as defendant’s agent; the promise to pay was his individual act and bound him only. The instrument itself negates any promise to pay on defendant’s part, and plaintiffs’ requirement that either she or Norburn execute a written promise of payment demonstrates their knowledge of his lack of authority to bind his sister, the owner of the land on which the grading was being done.
Although Dr. Robertson testified that plaintiffs and Nor-burn had regarded the May 10th lease as canceled in the summer of 1965, there is no evidence that defendant herself so regarded it. It was not until 12 December 1966 that Dr. Robertson marked it “forfeited and returned.” That lease had obligated plaintiffs to pay for all grading which was done on defendant’s land. No person representing plaintiffs ever talked with defendant herself about rescinding the case and substituting therefor a new one. Plaintiffs, however, knew they had been unable to negotiate a new lease with her through Norburn and that they expended further sums on grading at their own risk. After obtaining Norburn’s promise to pay in cash for the continued grading, or to deed Dr. Robertson 734 acres of land, in the *191event the lease was “not continued,” plaintiffs expended the sum of $19,456.88.
Defendant never executed a substitute lease to plaintiffs. For reasons satisfactory to herself she apparently desired no further dealings with them. Later, however, Norburn negotiated a lease with a tenant acceptable to her, West Side Motel Company. That company agreed to pay for the grading plaintiffs had done in the event either defendant or Norburn should be liable for it. West Side’s agreement may or may not render academic the question of defendant’s liability, but, be that as it may, I cannot agree that she has any liability whatever to plaintiffs. Conceding that the grading was necessary if a motel was to be constructed on defendant’s property and that she has, or will, profit from the work, it was Dr. Norburn who agreed to pay for it. Further, it was his promise to pay upon which plaintiffs acted, and they have sued him upon it too. See Investment Properties v. Norburn, post, decided this day. The West Side Motel Company has also agreed to pay if either Norburn or defendant should be held liable for the grading. Defendant, however, never agreed to pay plaintiffs for the grading under any circumstances, and it is a fair inference from the evidence that she did not want it done. My vote is to reverse.
Chief Justice Bobbitt and Justice Lake join in this dissenting opinion.