Estate of Graves

684 S.W.2d 925, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3057
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 21, 1985
Docket13662
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 684 S.W.2d 925 (Estate of Graves) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Graves, 684 S.W.2d 925, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3057 (Mo. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

CROW, Judge.

Mona Belle Bradley (“claimant”) filed a claim against the estate of Thomas S. Graves, deceased, for $5,000 plus accrued interest allegedly due her on a promissory note made by Graves during his lifetime. 1 The Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Ozark County entered judgment for claimant as prayed. Eva Hale, a daughter of Thomas S. Graves, appeals, 2 assigning two errors. The first is that the trial court wrongly ruled that the estate did not sustain its burden of proving payment of the note, as there was substantial evidence it had been paid. The second is that the trial court erred in failing to make “necessary factual findings” on the issue of payment.

The scope of our review in this judge-tried case is established by Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32[1] (Mo. banc 1976). The trial court’s judgment will be sustained unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, unless it is against the weight of the evidence, unless it erroneously declares the law, or unless it erroneously applies the law. Conflicts in the evidence are for the trial court to resolve, Trenton Trust Co. v. Western Surety Co., 599 S.W.2d 481, 483[3] (Mo. banc 1980), and in doing so the trial court may believe all, part or none of the testimony of any witness. Id. at 483[4].

Graves made the note August 5, 1978. It bore interest at nine per cent per annum from date and was payable 12 months after date. The consideration for the note was a $5,000 loan by claimant to Graves. As proof of that loan, claimant produced a cancelled check for $5,000 dated August 5, 1978, drawn by her against her bank account, payable to Graves and endorsed by him.

Claimant testified that prior to the loan of August 5, 1978, she had made two loans of $1,000 each to Graves, and one loan of $3,000. In support of that testimony, claimant produced cancelled checks drawn by her against her bank account, payable to Graves and endorsed by him, bearing the following dates and amounts: May 22, 1976, $1,000; May 31, 1976, $1,000; November 17, 1977, $3,000. None of these loans was evidenced by a note. Claimant testified that all of them were “supposed to have been short-term loans,” and that she had charged Graves no interest. She added that all these loans had been paid.

On May 12, 1979, some nine months after the note in issue had been made, and prior to receiving any payment thereon, claimant, according to her testimony, loaned Graves another $5,000. No note was pre *927 pared to reflect this new loan, but claimant, as proof of the loan, produced a cancelled check drawn by her against her bank account, dated May 12, 1979, for $5,000, payable to Graves and endorsed by him.

About August 14, 1979, a $5,400 check against Graves’ bank account was deposited in claimant’s bank account. Claimant explained that when she received that sum from Graves, the note was not “handy,” as she kept it in a safe at her place of employment. Consequently, according to claimant, Graves said to apply the payment to the $5,000 he had borrowed from her three months earlier on May 12, and “we’ll let the note ride.” In support of this testimony, claimant produced her checking account register with a handwritten notation on the margin stating: “Hold 1978 Note.”

Asked whether she applied the remaining $400 of the $5,400 payment against the accrued interest on the note, claimant answered: “Well, it could have been the interest, or it could have been a loan that he— he owed me more money than that, but I had nothing to prove it. I had nothing to prove it, so I didn’t mention anything he told me, he says, ‘Now I’m going to pay your [sic] back.’ ”

The note, when produced by claimant at trial, 3 showed, by handwritten notations on its face, that interest had been paid to August 5,1979, and that interest had again been paid August 5, 1980. Claimant testified the latter payment would have been $450, and that Graves always paid her by check. Bank records of claimant’s account revealed, however, that there was no $450 deposit to claimant’s account in August, 1980.

There was no other evidence of payment by Graves to claimant on the note.

Claimant testified that the principal amount of the note, $5,000, together with the interest accruing after August 5, 1980, was due her when Graves died on September 11, 1981.

The trial court agreed, entering judgment in claimant’s favor as prayed. In reaching its decision, the trial court found, among other things, that Graves’ estate “did not sustain its burden of proving that payment of the note had been made.”

Eva Hale (“appellant”) states her first point thusly:

“The trial court erred in ruling that defendant (Estate of Thomas S. Graves) did not sustain its burden of proving that payment of the 1978 note had been made because there was substantial evidence of payment of the 1978 note in that:
1. There is a presumption of payment when there is only one outstanding obligation and payment of said amount is received; and
2. Claimant herself admitted she received payment of $5,400.00 in August, 1979, and that there was never more than one outstanding obligation at any one time; and
3. Claimant admitted that decedent always repaid his obligations before he would borrow money from her, and
4. Decedent paid her $5,400.00 in August, 1979, the anniversary date of the 1978 note which was deposited by claimant to her account.”

In connection with elements “2” and “3” of the point, appellant relies on testimony by claimant during her pretrial deposition that Graves never borrowed from her until he had paid back his previous loan, so that he was never indebted to her on more than one loan at a time. At trial, claimant explained her deposition testimony by stating that she cannot remember “dates and things,” that she has a “mental block” when under pressure, and that after the deposition she found the notation in her checkbook which refreshed her memory regarding the circumstances surrounding the $5,400 payment she received from Graves on or about August 14, 1979.

Appellant concedes that Graves’ estate had the burden of proving that Graves had paid the note. Hubbard v. Happel’s Estate, 382 S.W.2d 416, 423-24[5] (Mo.App.1964). Appellant insists, however, that the *928 burden was satisfied by proof of the $5,400 payment from Graves to claimant on or about August 14, 1979. Appellant reminds us that inasmuch as the note, dated August 5, 1978, was due 12 months after date, the $5,400 payment came shortly after the note had matured. Additionally, the amount of the payment, $5,400, was near, but not quite, the total of principal and interest then owed by Graves on the note.

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Bluebook (online)
684 S.W.2d 925, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-graves-moctapp-1985.