Bank of Salt Lake v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

534 P.2d 887, 16 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1427, 1975 Utah LEXIS 676
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1975
Docket13704
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 534 P.2d 887 (Bank of Salt Lake v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of Salt Lake v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 534 P.2d 887, 16 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1427, 1975 Utah LEXIS 676 (Utah 1975).

Opinion

MAUGHAN, Justice:

Appellant, Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- *888 Day Saints, a Utah corporation sole, seeks reversal of a judgment against it, and in favor of respondent, Bank of Salt Lake, a Utah corporation. The judgment is in the sum of $59,205.80, together with interest from the 20th day of February, 1974, and costs. The operative facts necessarily include other parties; they are Kerry-Aldon, Inc., Aldon Cook, and Lealand Ronald Bruderer, an employee of appellant. Hereafter the appellant will be referred to as the Church; the respondent as the Bank; Kerry-Aldon, Inc., as Kerry-Aldon; Aldon Cook, as Cook; and Lealand Ronald Bru-derer, as Bruderer.

During parts of 1968 and 1969, the Church was purchasing school furniture and fixtures from Kerry-Aldon. The Bank financed the operation of Kerry-Al-don, taking in return promissory notes, and, as security for the same, assignments of Kerry-Aldon Receivables, some of which were due, or to become due, from the Church.

In four instances, the Bank, solely on the advice of Cook (a principal in Kerry-Aldon), viz., August of 1968, January of 1969, and twice in March of 1969, addressed letters to Bruderer, “Seminaries and Institutes, L. D. S. Church, Union Pacific Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84111.” The following letter is prepresen-tative of all letters in issue, and presents operative facts (anent the letters) sufficient for our decision:

January 15, 1969
Mr. Leland [sic] Bruderer
Seminaries and Institutes
LDS Church
Union Pacific Building
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Dear Mr. Bruderer:
Kerry-Aldon Associates, P. O. Box 2312, Salt Lake City, Utah, as consideration for credit extended to them by the Bank of Salt Lake, has assigned the proceeds of their invoice #’s 1076, 1038, 1036, 1034, 1026, 1080, 1041, 1043, 1032, 1040, 1031, 1049, 1047, 1103, 1097, 1104, 1105, 1107 and 1115, totaling $14,147.76.
Will you please acknowledge the assignment on the bottom of this letter, if you agree to the terms. A copy is enclosed for your file.
Please sign and return the original to the Bank.
Sincerely yours,
BANK OF SALT LAKE
Paul D. West
Assistant Vice President
Seminaries and Institutes, LDS Church, hereby acknowledges the indebted-
ness described above and agrees to the assignment consenting to make all disbursements on the above invoices payable to the Bank of Salt Lake and Kerry-Aldon Associates, jointly, and to mail such disbursements to the Bank of Salt Lake, 3081 South State, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Seminaries and Institutes, LDS Church
Dated: 15 Jan. 1969 By Lealand R. Bruderer Title

Cook personally delivered each of these letters to Bruderer, obtained his signature on the acknowledgment, and returned each letter to the Bank. Not at any time did *889 the Bank have any direct contact with the Church, nor did the Bank receive any communications directly from the Church. The only contact the Bank had with anyone connected with the Church was through Cook, and his contacts with Bru-derer.

Bruderer was an employee of the Church, in what was known as the Seminaries and Institutes Department of the Church Educational System. His duties were largely clerical. Some of his duties required him to obtain basic payroll information from seminary and institute teachers, to fill out requisition forms for various seminaries and institutes, and some of these were initially reviewed by his immediate superior. The only nonclerical function assigned to Bruderer was the examination of various brands of furniture and fixtures and his estimation of the cost of furnishings requested by a seminary or institute. He had no authority to sign any instruments, and his testimony (uncontro-verted) is that he told Cook he did not have any authority, whereupon Cook assured Bruderer that he would see to it that the letters of acknowledgment, together with the proper invoices, would be directed to the proper Church department.

This course of dealing continued through March of 1969, resulting in Bruderer’s execution of four acknowledgments such as the one set forth. The letters of January and March 1969 contained certain invoice numbers and the acknowledgment provision. No question concerning this course of conduct was raised by the Bank until October of 1969, even though all amounts owing from the Church to Kerry-Aldon had long since been paid to Kerry-Aldon. Thus, in its letter of October 13, 1969, mailed to Mr. Leland [sic] Bruderer, Seminaries and Institutes L. D. S. Church, Union Pacific Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84111, the Bank states in part, Apparently, through some clerical or bookkeeping oversight in your office, payment of certain accounts payable from your office and receivable by Kerry-Aldon Associates [sic] has been made directly to Kerry-Aldon Associates [sic].”

Cook was an owner of one half the shares of Kerry-Aldon. He had been doing business with various people and departments of the Church since about 1965. Cook testified that it was upon his advice that the Bank addressed the subject acknowledgment letters to Bruderer. He further testified that such purchase orders as he did get from the Church did not come from the Seminaries and Institutes of the L. D. S. Church, but came from either the Church Building Department, 125 North Main Street, Salt Lake City, or the Schools Division, 414 Beehive Bank Building, Salt Lake City; also that, so far as he knew, Bruderer’s principal function was to examine merchandise, such as Cook had, and to make recommendations as to its fitness for the program of seminaries. Cook referred to Bruderer as “just one of the cogs . . ; and that he took the letters to Bruderer, because he thought Bru-derer would sign.

The ultimate question is: Did the Church receive notice of the assignments made, by Kerry-Aldon, to the Bank? If it did, a companion question is: Did such notice reasonably identify the rights assigned ?

The Bank ásks affirmance of the order of the district court, claiming that the notice received by Bruderer was notice to the Church, and further claiming that the Church is estopped from denying alleged inaccuracies in the invoices, notices, assignment agreements, and acknowledgments herein. The Bank further states that in any event such allegations are irrelevant in light of the Bank’s subsequent filing of financing statements covering all of Kerry-Aldon’s accounts. 1

The provisions of our Uniform Commercial Code determine the result of this appeal.

*890 The pertinent provisions of 70A-1-201, U.C.A.1953, as amended, are:

(25) A person has “notice” of a fact when

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bldg. Materials v. Presidential Financial
972 So. 2d 1090 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2008)
United States v. Fleet Bank of Massachusetts
288 F.3d 22 (First Circuit, 2002)
Bay Area Factors v. Target Stores, Inc.
987 F. Supp. 734 (D. Minnesota, 1997)
American First Credit Union v. First Security Bank of Utah, N.A.
896 P.2d 25 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1995)
4447 Associates v. First Security Financial
889 P.2d 467 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1995)
Old Kent Bank-Southeast v. City of Detroit
444 N.W.2d 162 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1989)
Millikin National Bank v. Peter Schwabe Corp.
531 N.E.2d 1074 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1988)
Leon Warrington v. Ray Dawson
798 F.2d 1533 (Fifth Circuit, 1986)
City Electric v. Dean Evans Chrysler-Plymouth
672 P.2d 89 (Utah Supreme Court, 1983)
Wiscombe v. Lockhart Co.
608 P.2d 236 (Utah Supreme Court, 1980)
First National Bank v. Board of Education
385 N.E.2d 811 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1979)
Progressive Design, Inc. v. Olson Bros. Manufacturing Co.
263 N.W.2d 465 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1978)
Valley Nat. Bank of Ariz. v. Flagstaff Dairy
570 P.2d 200 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
534 P.2d 887, 16 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1427, 1975 Utah LEXIS 676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-salt-lake-v-corporation-of-the-president-of-the-church-of-jesus-utah-1975.