Farmer v. Ford

1991 OK CIV APP 52, 812 P.2d 821, 62 O.B.A.J. 2267, 1991 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 31, 1991 WL 128303
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 4, 1991
DocketNo. 73022
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1991 OK CIV APP 52 (Farmer v. Ford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmer v. Ford, 1991 OK CIV APP 52, 812 P.2d 821, 62 O.B.A.J. 2267, 1991 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 31, 1991 WL 128303 (Okla. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

BRIGHTMIRE, Judge.

The issue presented for review is whether the defending trustees of a defunct money management trust are entitled to a summary judgment against an alleged depositor of funds who is suing to recoup his life savings.

The trial court held that they were and granted them judgment. We, however, hold they were not and reverse.

I

The pleadings, admissions, and depositions disclose the following facts, some of which are in dispute.

The plaintiff, J.O. Farmer, moved his family to the Sallisaw, Oklahoma, area in 1967. Not long after that one Bob Parris began preparing the Farmers’ income tax returns. A few years later, Farmer — an appliance store owner — complained to Par-ris about the amount of taxes he, Farmer, was having to pay.

“I can’t keep you from having to pay tax,” Parris told him, “but we can defer it until you retire_”

Farmer sought more information. Par-ris explained that he had “an investment company that could put [Farmer’s money] in stocks and bonds, CD's [sic] and draw approximately the same amount of interest that we were getting at the bank,” and that “they had a board that took care of it.”

As a result, Farmer and his wife gave Parris a check for $1,004 to put in an IRA account with Parris Management Service, Inc. A few days later, on March 26, 1981, Farmer and his wife wrote a check for $50,000 to Parris Management Service, Inc., and were issued a receipt “for 50 Shares of Stock.”

Farmer said he did not know a trust was involved until he invested more funds in April 1982. At that time he asked Parris for more information about the trust.

“We take this money and put it in a trust,” Parris said, “we invest it.” “And,” said Farmer, “he named off — their board of directors,” which was made up of the defendants and others. Plaintiff was familiar

with all of them, of course, as Parris knew he would be.

Farmer said he never asked why his checks were not made out directly to the trust, saying, “I just assumed he [Parris] was taking this and putting it in an investment. I’m sure he didn’t invest every day. When he got ready to invest the money, he drawed it out of this and put it in the investment.”

Over the next four years, Farmer turned a total of $110,000 over to Parris. From time to time Farmer not only talked to Parris but trustees Bill Ford and James Jackson, and would ask them how his money was doing. He sought information from those defendants because:

“they were members of the trust and not members of Parris Management Services, Inc., [and] if I’d ask them the question how is our money doing, I would assume that’s the monies that they are helping to take care of, they’re meeting and going through the books and everything.”

The trustees would always tell him his money was doing “fine” and “okay.” Then, in “the early part of May or June of 1986” the Farmers’ retirement dream began to transform into a nightmare. Farmer described the metamorphosis this way:

“My wife and I went through a death where there was no will. So we went over and got a will made. I had a son that was killed and he has two sons. So we had decided to set up a trust fund. That may be a dirty word. But we decided to set up a trust fund for my two grandsons. We got our will drawed up, got all of the papers ready, went over to get Bob [Parris] to get the money to put into a trust.
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And I saw Bob [Parris] and [defendant trustee] Bill Ford come out of one of the local attorney’s office. I got Bob [Par-ris] on the sidewalk and told him that I needed some money to put into a trust for my grandkids. He told me that he didn’t have the money, that [GMAC] had it all tied up.
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“Yes. I said, Bob, I don’t have any money that I know of invested in GMAC. You’ve got my money and I want it. I don’t have it; it’s all tied up. So he turned to leave. Bill Ford motioned to me, went across the street. And the words that Bill told me is, J.O., the son of a bitch has staled our money. I said what do you mean staled our money. Then this is the first time I become aware of a Trust A or a Trust B.
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“He said he had his money in Trust A or Trust B. You had your money in Trust A; that’s all gone. There’s approximately a hundred and twenty-five or a hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in Trust B at Fayetteville, and I’m going to go get it tomorrow. I said, Bill, is any of that ours. He said no, that’s mine and [trustee] Mrs. Milligan’s. That’s the first time I heard of a Trust A and Trust B.
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“Then a couple of three or four days later, whenever we had our meeting to discuss what to do, then it come out Trust A or Trust B. That’s the first time I’d heard about it. And a whole bunch more of them, it’s the first time they’d heard about it, too.”

On March 16, 1987, Farmer filed his petition against certain trustees of Parris Management Trust alleging mismanagement of trust assets and breach of the trustees’ fiduciary duties.1

Following a period of discovery the defending trustees moved for a summary judgment solely on the basis of certain statements made by Farmer during his deposition testimony and on some checks given to Parris which were made payable to “Parris Management Service” and “Par-ris Investment Co.” 2 Their contention is that “Farmer, relied solely upon Bob Parris and depended upon him to manage his money and property” and that Farmer “stated specifically that he advanced no funds to Parris Management Trust and as a consequence the alleged trustees of said trust could not mismanage funds that were never available.”

Farmer objected to the defendants’ motion citing their failure to (1) file a concise written statement of the material facts to which the movants contend no genuine issue exists; or (2) cite legal authority for “their position that since [Farmer] did not write any checks to a payee named ‘Parris Management Trust’ then [the trustees] must prevail.” He framed one of the main material issues to be resolved this way: “Whether or not J.O. Farmer paid monies over to Bob Parris, at the direction of Bob Parris, as manager of the Parris Management Trust.” In other words, Farmer had urged that it was material to determine whether he paid subject money to Parris in his capacity as agent for the trust; and whether the checks were made out as instructed by Parris.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1991 OK CIV APP 52, 812 P.2d 821, 62 O.B.A.J. 2267, 1991 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 31, 1991 WL 128303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmer-v-ford-oklacivapp-1991.