Agribank, F C B v. Whitlock

621 N.E.2d 967, 251 Ill. App. 3d 299, 190 Ill. Dec. 514
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 1993
Docket4-93-0078
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 621 N.E.2d 967 (Agribank, F C B v. Whitlock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Agribank, F C B v. Whitlock, 621 N.E.2d 967, 251 Ill. App. 3d 299, 190 Ill. Dec. 514 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE KNECHT

delivered the opinion of the court:

Walter and Mary Whitlock (the parents) signed a note and gave a mortgage on their property for the purpose of assisting their children in obtaining a loan to purchase a farm. The lender subsequently released the children from liability on the note and sought to foreclose on the parents’ property. The trial court determined the parents were accommodation makers of the note and the release of the children released the parents from liability. We reverse.

I. Facts

Plaintiff, Agribank, FCB, is the successor to the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, which conducted business as the Farm Credit Bank of St. Louis from 1983 to 1992. In the interest of simplicity, plaintiff and its predecessors will be referred to cumulatively as “plaintiff.”

In the 1970’s, the parents owned and operated a farm known as the Short farm. Their sons Darrell, Ronald and Richard were partners in a farming operation; they farmed rented land. In 1977, the sons and their wives (referred to collectively as the children) wished to acquire property known as the Meek farm for their farming operation. The Meek farm was available for $400,000. The children requested plaintiff to lend them the entire purchase price. Larry Thoele, then plaintiff’s association manager, denied the request based on the children’s own credit and the collateral available to them, but suggested a loan arrangement would be possible if the parents gave the Short farm as security. The Short farm was valued at approximately $320,000, and was security for an outstanding indebtedness to plaintiff in the amount of approximately $40,000. The parents were current on their loan payments and had not requested refinancing of their indebtedness. The parents did, after Thoele’s suggestion, agree to help the children acquire a loan for the purchase of the Meek farm.

Plaintiff ultimately arranged two loans. “Loan 1” (loan No. 382076-1), for $214,200, was secured by the Short farm, and was taken out for the purpose of providing the children with funds for the down payment on the Meek farm. “Loan 2” (loan No. 382075-2), for $255,000, was secured by the Meek farm and provided the balance of the purchase price for the Meek farm. Although the parents did not request the consolidation of their previous indebtedness to plaintiff with the loan for the children’s down payment on the Meek farm, plaintiff included the parents’ previous indebtedness ($41,720) in loan 1. The children signed the notes with respect to both loan 1 and loan 2; the parents signed only the note pertaining to loan 1. Walter testified he requested that the children sign the note pertaining to loan 1 because he wanted them to be liable for the repayment of the money they were receiving. Thoele confirmed the children signed this note “because that was what Walter wanted.” Walter additionally testified he was hesitant to sign the loan documents and told Thoele he wanted some sort of security. According to Walter, Thoele told him there was nothing to worry about, it was a family matter and “we [meaning plaintiff] take care of them things.”

Sometime after the loan documents were signed, the parents discovered their previous indebtedness had been included with the loan for the children’s down payment in loan 1. Loan 1 required annual payments of $19,318.56. Either the parents or one of the children may have requested that the bank allocate the indebtedness between the children and the parents for the purpose of determining the amount of the annual payment attributable to each. However, the parents and children ultimately agreed, with the plaintiff's knowledge, that the parents would make annual payments substantially equal to the payments they had been making on their loan (approximately $5,000), and the children would make the balance of the payments.

In 1978 through 1983 the children made the annual payments for loan 2, and their portion of the payments for loan 1. The parents made their portion of the payments for loan 1. In 1984 the children defaulted on both loans; the parents made their portion of the loan 1 payment. In January 1985, to avoid foreclosure on the Meek farm, the children gave the plaintiff a deed in lieu of foreclosure in exchange for a release “of and from all manner of actions, causes and causes of action, suits, debts, sums of money.” In 1985, the parents made their portion of the loan 1 payment. In 1986, plaintiff notified the children that they were personally liable on loan 1 and notified both the children and. parents that loan 1 was delinquent. In January 1987, plaintiff filed this action against both the parents and the children to foreclose the mortgage on the Short farm. The defendants, collectively, alleged the release of the children “of and from all *** debts” released the children from liability on loan 1. The parents additionally alleged by releasing the children, plaintiff also released them due to their status as accommodation makers. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted. Plaintiff appealed and we affirmed, with one justice dissenting. (Farm Credit Bank v. Whitlock (1990), 202 Ill. App. 3d 609, 560 N.E.2d 460.) The supreme court reversed, finding the release was ambiguous and remanded for further fact finding on the issue of whether the parties intended for the release to release the children from liability on loan 1. Farm Credit Bank v. Whitlock (1991), 144 Ill. 2d 440, 581 N.E.2d 664.

On remand, after a bench trial, the trial court found the release was intended to release the children from all indebtedness to plaintiff, including that incurred in loan 1. The trial court additionally found the parents were accommodation makers and, as such, were discharged by the release of the children. Accordingly, the trial court entered judgment in favor of the children and parents. Plaintiff filed a post-trial motion alleging, inter alia, the parents were not discharged by the release of the children, because a provision in the mortgage of the Short farm contained a consent to the release of other parties. The trial court ruled this consent provision was inapplicable to the release of the children because the children were not parties to the mortgage.

Plaintiff appeals. Although, until this appeal, plaintiff has hotly contested the claim that its release of the children actually released them from liability on loan 1, it has now abandoned this argument. Conversely, although plaintiff has previously devoted little attention to whether the consent provision in the mortgage operated as a consent to the release of the children on the note, this argument is the focal point of its appeal. Plaintiff additionally appeals the trial court’s determination the parents were accommodation makers.

II. Accommodation Status

Plaintiff’s first allegation of error concerns whether the trial court properly found the parents to be accommodation makers. We find no error.

This case is governed by the Uniform Commercial Code (Code) as adopted by the Illinois legislature. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 26, par.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
621 N.E.2d 967, 251 Ill. App. 3d 299, 190 Ill. Dec. 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/agribank-f-c-b-v-whitlock-illappct-1993.