Bank One, Cincinnati v. Wait

674 N.E.2d 752, 110 Ohio App. 3d 460
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 22, 1996
DocketNo. 95 CA 862.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 674 N.E.2d 752 (Bank One, Cincinnati v. Wait) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank One, Cincinnati v. Wait, 674 N.E.2d 752, 110 Ohio App. 3d 460 (Ohio Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

Peter B. Abele, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered by the Highland County Common Pleas Court denying a motion filed by David A. and Ronnie J. Clark, sheriff sale purchasers below and appellants herein. In the motion the Clarks requested the trial court to issue a writ to the Highland County Sheriff “for service upon Charles Paul Wait, and that the personal property of said Charles Paul Wait which includes numerous automobile or vehicle tires, and a mobile home, be removed from the property as withholding possession of said real estate from the purchasers.” The Clarks’ attorney argues on appeal that approximately one hundred thousand scrap tires are on the property.

Appellants assign the following error:

“The court below erred by failing to grant appellants’ motion for a writ of possession.”

On May 26,1993, Bank One, Cincinnati, filed the instant foreclosure complaint. On October 27, 1993, the trial court entered judgment foreclosing on the sixty-four-acre property in question and ordering a sheriff’s sale.

On November 18, 1993, the sheriff filed an appraisal valuing the real estate at $15,000. The sheriff advertised the property for sale on December 23, 1993 for a minimum bid of two-thirds of $15,000. No one bid on the property at that sale.

On December 13, 1993, the sheriff filed an appraisal valuing the real estate at $24,000. After the December 23, 1993 sheriffs sale failed for lack of bidders, the sheriff advertised the property for sale on January 20, 1994 for a minimum bid of two-thirds of the $24,000 appraised value.

On January 14,. 1994, Paul and Sue Wait filed a motion for a new appraisal of the real estate. In an appraisal letter attached to the motion, appraiser Ken Juillerat gave his opinion as follows:

*462 “Normal Market Value $725 x 64 = ' $46,400

Deduction for clean-up and removal of tires. (Based on the assumption of approximately 3000-5000 tires on - 5,000

property and of price to shred said tires as quoted by Owner)

$41,400”

On January 19, 1994, the trial court denied the Waits’ motion for a new appraisal.

At the January 20, 1994 sheriffs sale, the Clarks purchased the property for $26,400. On February 23, 1994, the trial court entered judgment confirming the sale.

On March 16, 1994, Bank One, Cincinnati, filed a motion for an order compelling the Clarks to pay the $26,400 purchase price. On March 25,1994, the Clarks filed a response to the motion. In the response, the Clarks (1) moved for an order setting aside the sale, (2) moved for a writ of execution of possession for removal of the scrap tires and the mobile home at the Waits’ cost, (3) moved for an order requiring Bank One, Cincinnati and the Waits to dispose of the tires in accordance with federal and state laws, (4) moved for an order dismissing the contempt proceedings against them, and (5) moved for a continuance of the hearing set for April 13, 1994 on this matter. The Clarks explained as follows:

“[Respondents had to have the property surveyed, and during the survey it was discovered that there were approximately 100,000 tires, tire casings, and discarded tires hidden at the back of the property in one or more locations.

“Respondents have been informed that should they take title to the property they will be prosecuted by the Board of Health of the EPA [sic] for operating a solid waste disposal site. Respondents have further investigated the costs of removal, and have been informed by Rumpke that the costs of removal and disposal of such tires will run from Seventy Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000.00) to Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($750,000.00). * * *

« * * *

“Respondents further state that while they are willing to purchase the property, they did not purchase, and they are not required to take possession of, the numerous tires on the property or the mobile home on the property.”

On April 6, 1994, Bank One, Cincinnati, filed a reply to the Clarks’ response. In the reply, Bank One, Cincinnati, argued that the doctrine of caveat emptor applies to sheriff sale purchasers.

*463 On April 11,1994, the trial court continued the hearing on the matter until May 12, 1994. At the May 12, 1994 hearing, the Clarks’ attorney explained as follows during opening statements:

“The problem is, as we will develop in this hearing, that there are a number of tires that Mr. Wait was in the tire business, I believe, at New Market, and that there are a number of tires there, anywhere from — we really have no idea— anywhere from fifteen to thirty thousand possibly, and there have been estimates as high as a hundred thousand.

« ‡ ‡

“However, this tire problem, unlike the mobile home, ah, creates a serious problem, because these tires have no intrinsic value to any purchaser, ah, they are a hazard, a solid waste material, in violation of the EPA regulations, ah, in violation of the solid waste disposal regulations of the State of Ohio, that we are not required to buy a prosecution — in other words, to buy a property to be prosecuted by the Government for — and that it is the obligation of the Plaintiffs or the Defendants to clean the property or to clear the property of the solid waste material, the tires. * * *

“ * * * [T]hey’ve got an illegal solid waste material dump there that has to be cleaned up or removed.”

The Clarks’ mother, Betty L. Clark, testified that when she examined the property prior to purchasing it at the sheriffs sale on behalf of her sons David and Ronnie, she observed two or three tires in the snow, and a pile of what she thought was fewer than one hundred tires. She further testified that because there was so much snow on the ground at the time, the four-wheel drive vehicle she was riding in could not take her to examine the back part of the property. After the sheriffs sale, she learned that many, many more tires were on the back part of the property. On cross-examination, she testified that the vast majority of the property does not have tires on it.

Max Cummins, who operates a tire disposal facility in Kentucky, testified that he estimates there are thirty-five thousand to forty thousand tires on the property. Cummins testified that he could remove the tires from the property for $1 per tire.

Joe Evans, an assistant operations manager at Rumpke, a company engaged in the collection and disposal of scrap tires, testified that he estimates there are two hundred thousand tires on the property. Evans testified that he could dispose of the tires for between $400,000 to $500,000, if someone else would bring the tires from the back of the property to the side of the road in the front of the property.

Mary Ann Webb, the Highland County Health Department Director of Environmental Health, testified that she estimates that one hundred thousand tires *464 are on the property. Webb further testified that Betty L. Clark had filed a •written complaint about the tires.

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Bluebook (online)
674 N.E.2d 752, 110 Ohio App. 3d 460, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-one-cincinnati-v-wait-ohioctapp-1996.