Ariko v. Cedar Point Investment Corp.

580 F. Supp. 507, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19710
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedFebruary 7, 1984
DocketNo. 79-1006C(C), 79-1008C(C)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 580 F. Supp. 507 (Ariko v. Cedar Point Investment Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ariko v. Cedar Point Investment Corp., 580 F. Supp. 507, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19710 (E.D. Mo. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

MEREDITH, District Judge.

This matter is before the court upon defendants’ motion to amend judgment and to amend and supplement findings of fact and conclusions of law. For the reasons set forth below, this motion will be denied.

Plaintiffs brought these actions against defendants alleging breach of contracts to purchase the Wellington Green and Cedar Point apartments. On 14 November 1983, this court entered its judgment that defendants breached their contracts of sale by refusing to close. This court held that in regard to the sales contract on the Cedar Point apartments, plaintiff suffered damages of $474,429, and that in regard to the sales contract on the Wellington Green apartments, plaintiff suffered damages of $503,746.

Defendants seek to amend the judgment and findings of fact and law. Defendants’ main complaint is that the court has accepted plaintiffs’ use of the “present value” of various contracts involved in this litigation. Defendants suggest that the court has not found the fair market value of the apartments on 14 June 1979, the date of the breach. However, the court has specifically and separately based its damage calculations upon the difference between fair market value and the contract price. Defendants complain that Mr. Ariko was not qualified as an expert. However, the court has judged that Mr. Ariko was qualified as an expert in this case, and that his calculations were made reasonably and upon sufficient evidence. Defendants complain that neither plaintiffs nor purchaser actually had an loan. However, this loan rate is instructive in finding the value of the contracts, and thus in finding the fair market value versus the contract price as of the date the sale should have been completed. See Perkinson v. Burford, 623 S.W.2d 30, 33 (Mo.App.1981); Young v. Raupp, 305 S.W.2d 731, 732 (Mo.App.1957). Thus, the 8½% and 9½% rates, being set out in the purchase contracts themselves, were properly taken into consideration by plaintiffs’ expert.

It is clear, and agreed by the parties, that the difference between the purchase price (the contract price plaintiffs would have paid had the sale gone through) and the fair market value as of the sale date is plaintiffs’ damages.

To come up with the appropriate damage figure, the court has to find the contract price and fair market value of the land on the date the sale should have been completed. The court has made these calculations and set out the figures it has used to arrive at the final determination. See Findings of Fact 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25. If the court were to find simply that the losses suffered by plaintiffs were $503,746 on the Wellington Green apartments and $474,429 on the Cedar Point apartments, such statement of ultimate fact, without the subordinate factual foundations specifically set out, would not meet the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a). See H. Prang Trucking Co., Inc. v. Local U. No. 469, 613 F.2d 1235, 1238 (3rd Cir.1980). However, the court is not required to make findings on all the facts; it is sufficient that the court make findings which are sufficient to indicate the factual basis for the ultimate conclusion. Skelly Oil Co. v. Holloway, [510]*510171 F.2d 670, 673 (8th Cir.1948). Reviewing its Findings of Fact, the court is convinced it has found, and set out, the facts necessary for and leading to a decision in the case. Holloway, supra. The Eighth Circuit confirmed its ruling in Holloway in Christensen v. Great Plains Gas Company, 418 F.2d 995, 1000 (8th Cir.1969). See also Falcon Equipment Corp. v. Courtesy Lincoln Mercury, Inc., 536 F.2d 806, 808 (8th Cir.1976); Stanley v. Henderson, 597 F.2d 651, 654 (8th Cir.1979); Bell v. Bolger, 708 F.2d 1312, 1318-19 n. 8 (8th Cir.1983).

Defendants cite Hollinger v. United States of America, 651 F.2d 636 (9th Cir.1981), for support of its contention that the court’s findings are inadequate. This case, to the contrary, shows that this court’s findings do indeed meet the “sufficient subsidiary findings” test. In Hollinger, the finding challenged stated:

That Hollinger, subsequent to trial, and adjusted to present value, will suffer partial diminution of earning capacity, and loss of non-monetary earnings, as follows, including consideration of items such as deductions for federal and state income taxes, social security and fringe benefits, and non-monetary earnings, in the sum of $350,000.00.

Hollinger, 651 F.2d at 641. The Court of Appeals, 693 F.2d 748, remanded for additional findings with respect to the specific components of the damage award. Hol-linger is clearly distinguishable, because here the court has set out in particular, the components of the various contracts. The present value of the contracts is then set out in Findings of Fact 24 and 25. The figures used by the plaintiffs’ expert are all set out; this exposition was not present in the Hollinger case. This court has neither set forth the computations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of the expert, nor has it attached its own arithmetic worksheet to its Judgment. Such detail is not required by Hollinger. Subsidiary findings are sufficient if the trial court discloses to the appellate court the steps by which it reached its ultimate conclusion, the fair market value of the losses, $474,429 and $503,746. See Hol-linger, 651 F.2d at 641. The components of the final damage award are clearly visa-ble.

Defendants complain that the court has not found the fair market value of the apartments as of 14 June 1979. To the contrary, the fair market value of the apartments was the price paid under the December 1979 Lipton contract. The contract terms contained cash payments, cash surplus notes, self-amortizing notes, first mortgages or deeds of trust. The purchase price was to be paid over a period of time, but any award of this court is due in a one-time payment. Therefore, the Lipton contract was reduced to a present value, the value of the contract at the time it was made. This present Lipton contract value was used properly as the fair market value of the apartments. See Conclusion of Law 7; Louis Steinbaum Real Estate Co. v. Maltz, 247 S.W.2d 652 (Mo.1952).

The court found the contract price to be the price payable under the Nicholson contract of January 1979. As with the Lipton contract, in order that the court could determine the damages payable now, the present Nicholson contract value was used properly as the contract price of the apartments.

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Related

Ariko v. Cedar Point Inv. Corp.
580 F. Supp. 507 (E.D. Missouri, 1984)

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580 F. Supp. 507, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ariko-v-cedar-point-investment-corp-moed-1984.