Badger v. MacGillivray

2016 UT App 109, 374 P.3d 1053, 813 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 118, 2016 WL 3034076
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedMay 26, 2016
Docket20150065-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2016 UT App 109 (Badger v. MacGillivray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Badger v. MacGillivray, 2016 UT App 109, 374 P.3d 1053, 813 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 118, 2016 WL 3034076 (Utah Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

T1 Shauna I'Badger appeals the district court's order granting a motion to enforce a settlement agreement. During the appeal, *1055 this court temporarily remanded the case to the district court to make findings of fact on whether Badger "knowingly or recklessly committed fraud on this court by filing documents that contain material misrepresentations about the contents. of records from the Provo Police Department," This court retained jurisdiction to impose any sanctions. We now address both the appeal and sanctions.

APPEAL OF ORDER ENFORCING SETTLEMENT

92 "The decision of a trial court to summarily enforce a settlement agreement will not be reversed on appeal unless it is shown that there was an abuse of discretion." Goodmansen v. Liberty Vending Sys., Inc., 866 P.2d 581, 584 (Utah Ct. App. 1998) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). "The trial court has the power to enter a judgment enforcing a settlement agreement if it is an enforceable contract." Id. "[A] settlement agreement may be summarily enforced by motion in the court of the original action." Tracy-Collins Bank and Trust Co. v. Travelstead, 592 P.2d 605, 607 (Utah 1979). "If a written agreement is intended to memo-vialize an oral contract, a subsequent fallure to execute the written document does not nullify the oral contract." Lawrence Constr. Co. v. Holmquist, 642 P.2d 382, 384 (Utah 1982).

183 The settlement negotiations at issue here were conducted via text messages delivered over the parties' cell phones.. The district court found, in part, .

In the text messages, [Badger] clearly communicated an offer to settle and fully compromise and resolve all claims by Defendant's payment of $25,000 now and $2,500 within one year. Defendant [Dustin MacGillivray] clearly and timely repeated those terms and communicated his unequivocal acceptance of [Badger's] offer. [Badger] added one more term regarding remedies on default. [MacGillivray] clearly and unequivocally communicated his acceptance of the additional term. [Badger] communicated her agreement by texting "ok."

f 4 MacGillivray's counsel prepared a written settlement agreement,; which Badger refused to sign. The district court found that

the sole reason for Badger's rejection and refusal to perform was a claim that her text contained a "typo" and that she meant to state she would settle for two payments of $25,000, one now and one'a year later, but she made a unilateral mistake and accidentally texted $2,500.

The district court found that based upon the commumcatlons between the parties, Badger did not make a mistake in sendmg a clear written offer to settle for $25, 000 now and $2,500 in one year. The court further found that even if Badger had made a unilateral mistake in commumcatmg her final offer, she "did not exercise ordinary ohhgence in sending her final offer to make sure it was correct, or in reviewing [MacGflhvray’s] repeat of the terms of that offer and agreeing that such terms constituted an agreement to settle." After stating the terms of the settle-men’s the district court also found that sufficient consfleratlon supported the agreement

Badger s first claim on appeal was that the district court erred by ruling that the settlement discussions constituted a legally binding contract "in a summary proceeding under the authority of Tracy-Collins Bank & Trust Co. v. Travelstead, 592 P.2d 605, 607 (Utah 1967)" Badger's apparent clann is that Tracy-Collins. did not. apply because there was already a Judgment for a liquidated amount in the underlying cage and the settlement occurred during post-judgment proceedings to enforce the judgment. This claim lacks merit. The only proposition for which Badger cited Tracy-Collins was that the motion could be resolved in a gum-mary proceeding. The obstruct court did not err in resolving the cage in summary proceedings under the cireumstances. ‘ ©

16 Badger next-claims that the district court erred in finding that MacQillivray gave "legally sufficient consideration.". In sum, Badger claims, that because she had a judgment for a. liquidated sum . against MacGillivray, payment of any smaller amount was insufficient consideration. argues that this issue was not preserved. Badger counters that the claim was, pre *1056 served in her opposition to the motion to enforce the settlement agreement, which included her assertion that because MacQilliv-ray "already owes this amount and because [he] has offered to pay substantially less than the amount owing, [he] has not offered any consideration to [Badger] that would make the contract binding." Badger preserved only this argument.

17 Badger's argument is essentially that because she has a judgment, any settlement that involves payment of less than the full judgment amount is "void" for lack of consideration. "[EJven if a claim is undisputed and liquidated, parties can still discharge their obligations through accord and satisfaction. In such instances, however, parties must support the accord with separate consideration." Estate Landscape & Snow Removal Specialists, Inc. v. Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co., 844 P.2d 322, 326 (Utah 1992). Badger's argument that only the full amount 'of the judgment can be sufficient consideration lacks merit. In Sugarhouse Finance Company v. Anderson, 610 P.2d 1369 (Utah 1980), the plaintiff held a judgment that had been outstanding for over two years when the defendant agreed to pay a smaller amount immediately. The supreme court stated, ‘

This was something defendant had no legal obligation to do; by law, plaintiff could only move by levy of execution against property already owned by the defendant-plaintiff could not legally require defendant to incur additional obligations to satisfy the judgment. By so doing, defendant deliberately incurred the detriment of surrendering his right to limit plaintiffs ability to obtain satisfaction of the underly'ing judgment, and bestowed upon plaintiff the benefit of immediate payment by means of the incurrence of additional indebtedness. We hold such action to constitute sufficient consideration to support the accord negotiated by the parties.

Id. at 1373 (citation omitted). Similarly, at the time of the settlement negotiations between Badger and MacGillivray, Badger had obtained a writ of execution and seized personal property allegedly owned by MacGil-livray,. MacGillivray requested a hearing because he disputed that all of the seized property was subject to execution. The district court set a hearing date. Prior to that time, the parties reached the settlement, As in Sugarhouse Finance, MacGillivray could have required Badger to limit her recovery to the seized property, but he accepted her offer to make an immediate payment of $25,000 and an additional smaller payment in one year.

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Bluebook (online)
2016 UT App 109, 374 P.3d 1053, 813 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 118, 2016 WL 3034076, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/badger-v-macgillivray-utahctapp-2016.