Eady v. Crews Mobile Homes, Inc.

958 So. 2d 904, 61 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 346, 2006 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 693, 2006 WL 3377885
Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama·Decided November 22, 2006·No. 2050743·Published

Opinion

CRAWLEY, Presiding Judge.

In March 2001, Deborah Eady and her son, Jason Eady, went to the premises of Crews Mobile Homes, Inc., to view some mobile homes because Jason was considering purchasing one. Jason had asked Deborah to co-sign on a loan with him. Deborah originally agreed to co-sign with Jason; in fact, she executed several documents pertaining to the sale of a mobile home to Jason. However, certain of those documents contained errors, and Jason and Deborah were told that they would have to execute the documents again. Deborah began to have misgivings about co-signing the loan; she did, however, execute the documents a second time. When Crews informed Jason and Deborah that the second set of documents were also invalid, Deborah told Jason that she would not co-sign the documents. Jason told Crews that Deborah would not sign the documents; allegedly, Crews told Jason that he could sign Deborah’s signature on the documents, and Jason did so. Jason did not inform Deborah that he signed her name to the documents relating to his purchase of the mobile home.

In July 2004, Green Tree-AL, LLC, the company with which the purchase of the mobile home was financed, sued Jason and Deborah, alleging that they had defaulted on the payments due under the installment sales contract for the mobile home. On October 7, 2004, Deborah filed a counterclaim against Green Tree, a cross-claim against Jason, and a third-party complaint against Crews. Deborah’s third-party complaint alleged that Crews had been negligent and/or wanton when it knowingly accepted her forged signature on the sales and financing documents and alleged that Crews had conspired with Jason to conceal the fact that Jason had forged Deborah’s signature on the sales and financing documents. Thereafter, Green Tree and Deborah entered into a stipulation of dismissal without prejudice regarding Green Tree’s claims against Deborah.

After filing its answer to Deborah’s third-party complaint, Crews filed a motion for a summary judgment against Deborah, arguing that her claims against it were barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations, which, Crews contended, had expired on or about March 21, 2003. Deborah responded to the summary-judgment motion by arguing that her cause of action against Crews had not accrued until such time as she was actually damaged by the forging of her name on the sales and financing documents, i.e., once she was sued by Green Tree based on her apparent liability under the financing documents for Jason’s default on the payments. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of Crews, which it later made final pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P. Deborah timely appealed to this court, which transferred the appeal to the supreme court because of our lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, see Ala.Code 1975, § 12-3-10; the supreme court then transferred the appeal to this court, pursuant to Ala.Code 1975, § 12-2-7(6).

We review a summary judgment de novo; we apply the same standard as was applied in the trial court. A motion for a summary judgment is to be granted when no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c)(3), Ala. R. Civ. P. A party moving for a summary judgment must make a prima facie showing “that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that [it] is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Rule 56(c)(3); see Lee v. City of Gadsden, 592 [906]*906So.2d 1036, 1038 (Ala.1992). If the movant meets this burden, “the burden then shifts to the nonmovant to rebut the movant’s prima facie showing by ‘substantial evidence.’ ” Lee, 592 So.2d at 1038 (footnote omitted). “[Substantial evidence is evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved.” West v. Founders Life Assurance Co. of Florida, 547 So.2d 870, 871 (Ala.1989); see Ala.Code 1975, § 12-21-12(d).

Crews argues that Deborah’s cause of action against it accrued on or about March 21, 2001, when Jason signed her name to certain documents in connection with the sale of a mobile home to Jason. Relying on Gilmore v. M & B Realty Co., 895 So.2d 200, 208 (Ala.2004) (quoting Chandiwala v. Pate Construction Co., 889 So.2d 540, 543 (Ala.2004)), Crews argues that Deborah’s cause of action accrued on the date that Jason signed her name to the sale and financing documents because she would have been able to maintain an action against it on that date despite the fact that her full damages had not yet accrued. Indeed, Gilmore does reiterate the principles that “ ‘[t]he statute of limitations on a claim begins to run when the cause of action accrues’ ” and that “ ‘[a] cause of action accrues as soon as the claimant is entitled to maintain an action, regardless of whether the full amount of damage is apparent at the time of the first legal injury.’ ” Gilmore, 895 So.2d at 208 (quoting Chandiwala, 889 So.2d at 543). To better understand the application of these principles, we will examine Gilmore.

In 1993, the Gilmores responded to an advertisement placed by M & B Realty Company (“M & B”) advertising for sale houses upon which the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (“VA”) had foreclosed. Gilmore, 895 So.2d at 204. The realtor showed the Gilmores a house located at 4361 Bayou Drive in Theodore, Alabama. Id. at 205. However, the house on which the VA had foreclosed was actually located at 4360 Bayou Drive. Id. To confuse the situation even more, the VA paperwork listed the address of the house as 4369 Bayou Drive, an address that did not exist. Id. at 204. The Gilmores eventually made an offer on the house located at 4361 Bayou Drive and, ultimately, purchased the property on which the VA had foreclosed. Id. at 205. The Gilmores lived in the house located at 4361 Bayou Drive for over five years beginning in November 1993; on April 11,1999, L.K. Crenshaw appeared on their doorstep and announced that he owned the house at 4361 Bayou Drive. Id. at 207. Upon investigation, the Gilmores discovered that, in fact, they owned not the house located at 4361 Bayou Drive but instead the house located across the street at 4360 Bayou Drive, which was occupied by others and was in a dilapidated condition. Id. In August 2000, the Gilmores sued M & B and others, alleging, among other things, negligence and wantonness against M & B. Id. at 203 & 208. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of M & B without stating a ground. Id. at 203.

On appeal, the parties both agreed that the trial court likely entered a summary judgment on the negligence and wantonness claims against M & B on the basis that the two-year statute of limitations had run on those claims before the Gilmores filed their action. Id. The Gilmores argued in their brief on appeal “that they experienced no injury at the time of the closing of the transaction on November 24, 1993, but rather that ‘the injury occurred when the true owner of the house first appeared at the [Gilmores’] doorstep in 1999.’ ” Id. at 207-08. In response to this argument, the court stated that “the Gil-mores misperceive the law” and proceeded to an analysis of whether the statute of limitations had run on the negligence and wantonness claims. Id. at 208. After [907]

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Eady v. Crews Mobile Homes, Inc., 958 So. 2d 904, 61 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 346, 2006 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 693, 2006 WL 3377885 (Ala. Ct. App. 2006).

958 So. 2d 904 (Eady v. Crews Mobile Homes, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Gilmore v. M B Realty Co., L.L.C.
895 So. 2d 200 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2004)
Lee v. City of Gadsden
592 So. 2d 1036 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1992)
West v. Founders Life Assur. Co. of Florida
547 So. 2d 870 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1989)
Chandiwala v. Pate Const. Co.
889 So. 2d 540 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2004)