Edmonds v. Valley National Bank of Arizona

518 P.2d 7, 1974 Wyo. LEXIS 174
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1974
Docket4258
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 518 P.2d 7 (Edmonds v. Valley National Bank of Arizona) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edmonds v. Valley National Bank of Arizona, 518 P.2d 7, 1974 Wyo. LEXIS 174 (Wyo. 1974).

Opinion

Mr. Justice GUTHRIE

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment entered against William S. Edmonds, as the executor of the estate of John N. Igo, deceased, in favor of the Valley Na *8 tional Bank of Arizona, a national banking association, plaintiff, upon a two-count complaint — the first based upon a balance due under a Master Charge credit card, and the second on a promissory note. The court entered judgment on the credit card account in the sum of $750.77, together with accrued interest and service charges in the amount of $106.08, and for the sum of $2800 on the promissory note, together with accrued interest in the amount of $301.40, and the further sum of $700 in attorney’s fees.

Appellant seeks reversal or modification of this judgment on the following grounds:

“1. The claims are insufficient in their present form.
“2. The claims should be placed in suff-cient form before requiring defendant to require satisfactory proof or vouchers to be produced to enable him to pass upon their approval or rejection.
“3. The plaintiff stated no contingent claim for an attorney’s fee in its claim and none should be allowed.
“4. The attorney’s fee awarded is unreasonable and excessive.
“5. Judgment should be entered against defendant [sic] for its willful refusal to put its claims in the form required by law.
“6. The judgment is indefinite and does not state with particularity what service charges it purports to establish as a claim, nor the amount thereof, and there is no evidence to sustain such finding and judgment.
“7. The affidavit on which summary judgment was rendered states no material facts relative to the merits of the claim, but states only conclusions of law.”

The basic facts are these:

John N. Igo died on or before March 25, 1971, and his estate was admitted to probate and the defendant was issued letters testamentary on August 25, 1971. Prior to the appointment of the defendant as such executor the bank submitted two creditors’ claims representing these items to the defendant, the creditor’s claim on the note being submitted to him by letter dated May 17, 1971, and the claim upon the credit card account under letter dated May 26. On June 18 plaintiff, through its attorney, made inquiry of Edmonds about these claims and in that letter asked for advice as to any objection with regard to these claims. On July 20 plaintiff’s attorney mailed a certified letter, which shows receipt by the defendant, stating that should there be any questions regarding either of these claims he was not to hesitate to call or write the bank’s attorney and mentioning a telephone conversation of July 19. These, of course, were before defendant qualified as such executor. On September 3, 1971, plaintiff’s attorney mailed a letter to defendant, enclosing a copy of the two creditors’ claims, the original of which he had filed with the clerk of court of Lincoln County, and conceding that the earlier claims were premature and possibly subject to rejection on that ground. This letter asked for acknowledgment of these claims and again repeated and set out, “Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to write or give me a call.” On November 16 the attorney for the bank again wrote a letter to defendant, asking for some indication as to whether he intended to approve or reject these claims and advising if he did not receive some response by November 24 he would assume that the claims had been rejected and would authorize an attorney to file suit. He also suggested the suit was unnecessary and repeated the statement, “Should you have any questions or suggestions in this matter, please advise me before November 24, 1971.”

Insofar as the record of the summary judgment is concerned no response was ever made to any of these letters, although in his affidavit defendant does state that he had advised plaintiff’s attorney he did not know what merchandise Mr. Igo had purchased and would have to see an itemized statement of the account and generally *9 stated that he would have to know more about the claims because he had no personal knowledge of them. The record shows no specific inquiry about the promissory note and the only attempt we find in the record to even suggest some request for further information is defendant’s statement that he had no personal knowledge whether deceased had received the money mentioned in the note. It is apparent defendant placed great reliance upon the theory that the claims were insufficient.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE CLAIMS

Defendant, to sustain his position that these claims are insufficient in their present form, suggests a number of defects, several of which are so inconsequential that they do not merit any further mention or discussion. Our statute, § 2-222, W.S.1957, sets out the requirements of a proper claim, and we shall confine our discussion to these requirements. Inasmuch as it is our view the claims are sufficient in their present form there is no necessity for discussion of the second or fifth suggested bases for reversal. Although the argument of the sufficiency of the claims is confused both with statutory requirements and defendant’s own ideas of what may be requirements, a fair summary of the questions raised appears to us to be as follows:

That the claims are not signed by the creditors or anyone on the creditors’ behalf.
That there is a failure to mention the contingency of a suit and the amount which would be claimed as attorney’s fees in the event of suit.
That the claim for money due on the account fails to mention one item but claims accruing service charges.

Because this is to be returned for disposal of the claim on the account we need not notice the last.

He further claims that J. C. Gali-peau was the person whose claims were presented and that his affidavit does not say why they were not made by the claimant and that he does not recite that he makes the affidavit on behalf of the bank. Both claims clearly demonstrate that they were made on behalf of Valley, and there is no basis for any assertion that they are Galipeau’s claims. The statement on the face of one claim is “Balance due on purchases made with credit card of The Valley National Bank of Arizona,” and there is attached thereto a credit card application to the bank executed by the deceased. Galipeau does not appear to be a party to the dealings in any way.

The claim for the item represented by the promissory note recites :

“Balance due on that certain Promissory Note, dated March 1, 1971, in the principal sum of $2,800.00, executed by John N. Igo, together with interest at the rate of ten percent (10%) per annum from March 1, 1971. A true and correct copy of said Promissory Note is attached hereto as Exhibit ‘A.’ ”

The copy of the note submitted therewith shows it to be payable to Valley. The affidavit on the back of the claim begins as follows:

“J. C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
518 P.2d 7, 1974 Wyo. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edmonds-v-valley-national-bank-of-arizona-wyo-1974.