First Guaranty Bank v. Republic Bank, Inc.

303 F. Supp. 3d 1200
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedNovember 17, 2017
DocketCase No. 1:16–cv–00150–JNP–BCW
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 303 F. Supp. 3d 1200 (First Guaranty Bank v. Republic Bank, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Guaranty Bank v. Republic Bank, Inc., 303 F. Supp. 3d 1200 (D. Utah 2017).

Opinion

1. "that the property [to be attached] is not earnings and not exempt from execution";
2. "that the writ is not sought to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor of the defendant";
3. "a substantial likelihood that the plaintiff will prevail on the merits of the underlying claim";
4. "that the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff";
5. "that the action is upon a contract or is against a defendant who is not a resident of this state or is against a foreign corporation not qualified to do business in this state or the writ is authorized by statute"; and
6. "that payment of the claim has not been secured by a lien upon property in this state."

UTAH R. CIV. P. 64A(c) & 64C(b). In addition, a movant must satisfy at least one of the seven requirements listed in Rule 64A(c)(4) through (c)(10). One of these requirements is "probable cause of losing the remedy unless the court issues the writ." Id. 64A(c)(10).

The parties dispute three of these requirements: (1) substantial likelihood that First Guaranty will prevail on the merits, (2) probable cause that First Guaranty will lose its remedy, and (3) that Republic is indebted to First Guaranty.2

I. SUBSTANTIAL LIKELIHOOD OF PREVAILING ON THE MERITS

A. Transfer of the Lease Servicing Obligation

Because Republic is a resident of Utah, a writ of attachment is only available for a cause of action "upon a contract." UTAH R. CIV. P. 64C(b)(2)(i). At least two of First Guaranty's claims are upon a contract: breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

First Guaranty's principal contention under these two causes of action is that Republic breached the warranties made in the Purchase Agreements by failing to transfer the right to service the lease payments to First Guaranty. First Guaranty argues that Republic did not have the power to perform its duty under *1205the purchase agreement to transfer the authority to service the leases to First Guaranty because the original assignment agreement gave Med One the authority to retain its servicing obligations. First Guaranty further argues that Republic breached its warranty that it could perform its duty to transfer the authority to service the leases without obtaining the "consent or approval" of a third party for the same reason.

The crux of First Guaranty's claims is that the original assignment agreement between Med One and Republic prevented Republic from transferring Med One's lease servicing obligations to First Guaranty without Med One's prior written consent. A non-assignment clause typically prevents a party burdened by contractual obligations from delegating those obligations to another party and bars a party that has a right to receive promised services from unilaterally assigning the benefit of those promised services to another. First Guaranty's theory of recovery in this case rests upon another interpretation of the non-assignment clause in this case. It argues that the clause also prohibits Republic from relieving Med One of its servicing obligations and then assigning those obligations to a third party without Med One's prior written consent.

In order to prevail on this breach of contract theory, First Guaranty must prove that Republic's breach proximately caused it damage by preventing First Guaranty from collecting the payments owed under the three delinquent lease contracts. See Christensen & Jensen, P.C. v. Barrett & Daines , 194 P.3d 931, 938 (Utah 2008) ("[I]n a breach of contract action, the non-breaching party is required to show that the breach proximately caused the damages sought."). The court concludes that First Guaranty has not yet produced evidence showing that any breach of the warranties contained in the Purchase Agreements proximately caused the loss of the lease payments. Two links in the causal chain are missing.

First, First Guaranty has not produced evidence that Med One has asserted a right under the non-assignment clause to prevent other parties from performing the lease servicing obligations. The Purchase Agreements do not purport to give First Guaranty the authority to assert Med One's rights under the non-assignment clause. Rather, all servicing obligations were transferred directly to First Guaranty. If Med One did not exercise a right to prevent First Guaranty from performing the lease servicing obligations, First Guaranty cannot be harmed by any breach of Republic's warranties in the Purchase Agreements.

The email chain between a Med One representative and a Republic representative that First Guaranty attached to its motion as Exhibit 8 suggests that, as of September 16, 2016, Med One had no intention of asserting an exclusive right to service the leases. In an email, the Med One representative complained that First Guaranty had suggested to him that Med One had a continuing obligation to service the leases for First Guaranty at its direction. The Med One representative stated unequivocally that Med One had no such an obligation.3 He sought confirmation *1206that Med One had transferred the servicing of the lease payments to Republic and asked if there was anything more he needed to do before he closed his files on the leases.4

Thus, the evidence presented to the court indicates that as of September 16, 2016, Med One had no desire to enforce any alleged right to continue servicing the leases. Moreover, First Guaranty has not yet produced evidence that prior to this date First Guaranty attempted to service the delinquent leases but was thwarted or deterred from doing so by Med One's assertion of a right to enjoin First Guaranty's efforts through the non-assignment clause. Absent evidence that Med One used the non-assignment clause to exclude First Guaranty from servicing the leases, there is no evidence that First Guaranty has been harmed by any breach of the warranties in the Purchase Agreements.

Second, even if Med One insisted on continuing to perform its lease servicing obligations, First Guaranty has not provided evidence to suggest that the identity of the party servicing the leases made a difference in whether the lessee made the required lease payments. In order to prove causation, First Guaranty would also need to show that Med One's collection efforts were defective, and that First Guaranty would have successfully collected all of the missed payments if it had received the right to service the leases in its own name. But the assertions in the proposed amended complaint suggest that the missed payments on the Pioneer lease had nothing to do with the party servicing the lease payments. Pioneer only stopped making payments around the time that it declared bankruptcy, suggesting that the payments would have stopped regardless of who serviced the lease. Moreover, First Guaranty has not produced evidence that WNJ would have made all of the payments under the Sherman-Grayson leases if First Guaranty had received the right to service them.5

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
303 F. Supp. 3d 1200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-guaranty-bank-v-republic-bank-inc-utd-2017.