Gwinnett Community Bank v. Arlington Capital, LLC

757 S.E.2d 239, 326 Ga. App. 710, 2014 Fulton County D. Rep. 1083, 2014 WL 1259193, 2014 Ga. App. LEXIS 270
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided March 28, 2014·No. A13A2397·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

ELLINGTON, Presiding Judge.

Gwinnett Community Bank (“GCB”) filed suit on a note and certain guaranties and asserted claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against, inter alia, the debtor, Arlington Capital, LLC, and the guarantor, Richard Tucker. In an earlier order, the trial court granted summary judgment against GCB on its claims on the note and guaranties, and GCB’s subsequent appeal was dismissed, which thereby established the trial court’s order as the law of the case. On remittitur, the trial court granted summary judgment against GCB on its claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty and denied summary judgment to GCB on three counterclaims filed by Arlington. GCB appeals these two rulings. We affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Arlington and Tucker on GCB’s claims for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. We also hold, however, that the “law of the case” rule requires that we reverse the trial court’s denial of summary judgment to GCB on three of Arlington’s counterclaims. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). We review a grant or denial of summary judgment de novo and construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Home Builders Assn. of Savannah v. Chatham County, 276 Ga. 243, 245 (1) (577 SE2d 564) (2003). Because this opinion addresses cross-motions for summary judgment, we will construe the facts in favor of the appellant, GCB, in Division 1, and, in Division 2, in favor of the appellees, as appropriate.

Construed in favor of GCB, the record shows that in August 2004, Arlington Capital, LLC, whose business provides “mezzanine financing” by borrowing money from banks and lending that money to real estate clients, established a line of credit with GCB by executing a one-year, $4 million promissory note in favor of GCB (the “Arlington Note”), guaranteed by Arlington’s principal, Richard Tucker. The Arlington Note was renewed each year through and including August 2008; each renewal was subject to a commercial security agreement. From at least 2006 forward, each security agreement provided that GCB would have a security interest in specified property that Arlington “owns or has sufficient rights in which to transfer an interest, now or in the future” including “the assignment of promissory notes and deeds to secure debt made payable to [Arlington].”

[711]*711With each renewal, Arlington and Tucker also provided new financial statements and executed new notes. In each annual promissory note signed by Tucker on behalf of Arlington, Arlington warranted that “the financial statements and information I provide to you are or will be accurate, correct and complete.” In early 2009, GCB discovered for the first time that Tucker’s financial statements associated with the 2007 and 2008 renewals failed to reflect that Tucker had disposed of real estate valued at approximately $6 million and that the real estate was sold for inadequate consideration, thereby depleting Tucker’s net worth to a material degree.

Meanwhile, on November 21, 2006, Arlington loaned $2.5 million to nonparty Shiloh Woods, LLC and, in exchange, took a $2.5 million promissory note from Shiloh Woods secured by a second priority deed to secure debt on certain property, as well as certain guaranties (the “Shiloh Woods Note and Deed”). Apparently on that same day, in exchange for a $2 million advance on the GCB line of credit, which advance was used to help fund the loan to Shiloh Woods, Arlington assigned the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed to GCB to secure further its line of credit with GCB; Arlington drafted the two assignments. During the recession, the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed, as well as the first priority position on the Shiloh Woods Deed, went into default, and in 2009, Arlington defaulted on the Arlington Note.

In May 2010, GCB filed suit on the Arlington Note and Tucker guaranties against Arlington, Tucker, and others who are not parties to this appeal. During the litigation and faced with the possible foreclosure of the first priority secured position on the Shiloh Woods Deed, which could have eliminated GCB’s second priority security position, GCB agreed with Shiloh Woods to exchange/sell the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed for a form of security more acceptable to GCB, including new secured property, a new promissory note payable to GCB, and new guaranties benefitting GCB. Although GCB had met with Arlington and Shiloh Woods regarding a “settlement” of some sort, GCB failed to give Arlington and Tucker the specific notice of disposition of the Shiloh Woods collateral required by OCGA § 11-9-611 (b)1 of the Secured Transactions provisions of the Georgia Uniform Commercial Code. As a consequence, Arlington and Tucker amended their defenses and added counterclaims to assert that GCB failed to give Arlington proper notice of the sale as required by the UCC.

[712]*712Specifically, in Counterclaim I, Arlington and Tucker sought damages under the UCC for alleged lost surplus value, i.e., the extent to which the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed exceeded the value of the balance due on the Arlington Note at the time that GCB sold the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed. In Counterclaims II and III, Arlington and Tucker raised claims of conversion and breach of the 2008 security agreement, respectively, and sought damages for the same alleged lost surplus value sought in Counterclaim I, as well as punitive damages arising out of the conversion. Finally, in Counterclaim VIII, Arlington and Tucker claimed that GCB breached federal privacy laws and an online “privacy statement” when GCB communicated with Shiloh Woods regarding the sale/exchange of the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed.2

Later, Arlington and Tucker moved for summary judgment on Counts I and II of GCB’s complaint on two grounds: (1) that the exchange of the Shiloh Woods Note and Deed constituted a sale of a promissory note for purposes of the UCC and, pursuant to OCGA §§ 11-9-608 (b)3 and 11-9-615 (e),4GCB was precluded as a matter of law from seeking a deficiency judgment against either Arlington or Tucker; and (2) that GCB’s failure to provide notice of the Shiloh Woods sale as required by OCGA § 11-9-611 raised a presumption that the sale satisfied Arlington’s contractual debt to GCB. In its first summary judgment order, the trial court cited both theories and concluded that “the creditor loses not merely the right to recover a personal judgment against the debtor, but also the right to recover the deficiency.” Accordingly, the trial court granted summary judgment to Arlington and Tucker on Counts I and II of GCB’s complaint.

GCB appealed the ruling to this Court and argued that there was an issue of fact about whether it had rebutted the presumption mentioned above; neither Arlington nor Tucker cross-appealed.5 In response, Arlington and Tucker moved to dismiss the appeal and [713]

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Gwinnett Community Bank v. Arlington Capital, LLC, 757 S.E.2d 239, 326 Ga. App. 710, 2014 Fulton County D. Rep. 1083, 2014 WL 1259193, 2014 Ga. App. LEXIS 270 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).

757 S.E.2d 239 (Gwinnett Community Bank v. Arlington Capital, LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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