Hampden Real Estate, Inc. v. Metropolitan Management Group, Inc.

142 F. App'x 600
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 4, 2005
Docket04-2500
StatusUnpublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 142 F. App'x 600 (Hampden Real Estate, Inc. v. Metropolitan Management Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hampden Real Estate, Inc. v. Metropolitan Management Group, Inc., 142 F. App'x 600 (3d Cir. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

COWEN, Circuit Judge.

Metropolitan Management Group, Inc. appeals the District Court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Hampden Real Estate and against Metropolitan Management with respect to the breach of contract claim. Metropolitan Management contends that the parties modified and amended the agreement of sale to exclude the escrow account credit by executing the final settlement statement. Alternatively, Metropolitan Management asserts that there was at a minimum disputed issues of material fact concerning whether (1) the parties intended the final settlement statement to represent the final purchase price, (2) the parties intended that the escrow account credit would be released by Hampden Real Estate as part of the sale negotiations, and (3) Metropolitan Management would have proceeded to close the transaction if it was aware it would have to pay the escrow account credit. The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We will reverse the District Court’s judgment and remand for further proceedings.

As we write solely for the parties, we only provide a brief recitation of the facts. Hampden Real Estate sold Metropolitan Management a residential property pursuant to an Amended Agreement of Sale (the “Sale Agreement”). The Sale Agreement *602 provided that the property would be sold for $3.7 million, that Metropolitan Management would assume Hampden Real Estate’s mortgage on the building, and that Hampden Real Estate would receive a credit in the amount of $120,549.78 — the amount being held in escrow pursuant to the mortgage (the “Escrow Account Credit”).

Between the execution of the Sale Agreement and the closing, the parties negotiated certain adjustments to the purchase price to compensate for required repairs. During these negotiations, the parties reviewed a draft and final HUD-1 Settlement Statement (the “Settlement Statement”), prepared by the closing agent, which did not list the Escrow Account Credit among the various debits and credits. A few weeks after the closing, Hampden Real Estate demanded payment of the Escrow Account Credit.

Following Metropolitan Management’s refusal to pay the Escrow Account Credit, Hampden Real Estate filed a complaint claiming breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conversion. Metropolitan Management brought counterclaims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation. Hampden Real Estate brought a partial motion for summary judgment as to the breach of contract claim, which was granted and its unjust enrichment and conversion claims were dismissed as moot. Metropolitan Management’s cross motion for summary judgment on all counts was denied. After summary judgment was granted as to the breach of contract claim, the parties withdrew all remaining claims.

We review a district court’s order granting plaintiffs motion for summary judgment under a plenary standard, applying the same test employed by the district court under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c). Morton Int’l, Inc. v. A.E. Staley Mfg. Co., 343 F.3d 669, 679 (3d Cir. 2003). Summary judgment is appropriate if “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In making this determination, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.

The District Court correctly determined that the threshold issue is the role of the Settlement Statement, “based on both the intent of the parties and the custom and usage of the document.” (App. at 7.) However, the Court refused to consider extrinsic or parol evidence to determine the intent of the parties, reasoning that the parol evidence rule precluded such consideration absent ambiguity in the written contract. We find that the District Court misapplied the rule. The parol evidence rule seeks to preserve the integrity of written agreements by precluding the introduction of contemporaneous or prior declarations to alter the meaning of written agreements. See Rose v. Food Fair Stores, Inc., 437 Pa. 117, 262 A.2d 851, 863 (1970). The rule does not apply, however, where a party seeks to introduce evidence of subsequent oral modifications. See Kersey Mfg. Co. v. Rozic, 207 Pa.Super. 182, 215 A.2d 323 (1965), rev’d on other grounds 422 Pa. 564, 222 A.2d 713 (1966). As the Kersey court held, a “written agreement may be modified by a subsequent written or oral agreement and this modification may be shown by writings or by words or by conduct or by all three. In such a situation the parol evidence rule is inapplicable.” Id. at 324. Here, the parol evidence rule does not preclude testimony regarding the parties intention to alter the final purchase price by executing a Settlement Statement, after the execution of the *603 Sale Agreement, which omitted the Escrow Account Credit.

The cases cited by Hampden Real Estate are not to the contrary as each involved the admissibility of prior negotiations to demonstrate misrepresentations made in the inducement of the contract. As example, the court in Rempel v. Nationwide Life Insurance Company, held that “[i]f a party contends that a writing is not an accurate expression of the agreement between the parties, and that certain provisions were omitted therefrom, the parol evidence rule does not apply.” 471 Pa. 404, 370 A.2d 366, 371 (1977) (permitting the introduction of parol evidence to establish that the contract omitted provisions which appellees represented would be included in the writing); see also 1726 Cherry Street P’ship v. Bell Atlantic Prop., Inc., 439 Pa.Super. 141, 653 A.2d 663 (1995) (precluding the introduction of evidence of a prior representation to prove fraudulent inducement).

The District Court further held that the integration clause contained in the written contract supports the conclusion that the Settlement Statement, which mentioned neither the Escrow Account Credit nor that it was amending the Sale Agreement, is not a modification of the Sale Agreement.

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142 F. App'x 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hampden-real-estate-inc-v-metropolitan-management-group-inc-ca3-2005.