Kennedy Funding, Inc. v. Shelton

386 S.W.3d 1, 2010 Ark. App. 438, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 456
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMay 19, 2010
DocketNo. CA 09-79
StatusPublished

This text of 386 S.W.3d 1 (Kennedy Funding, Inc. v. Shelton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kennedy Funding, Inc. v. Shelton, 386 S.W.3d 1, 2010 Ark. App. 438, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 456 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Judge.

pin this appeal from a foreclosure decree, the Circuit Court of Pulaski County awarded judgment on a promissory note in the amount of $635,444.87 with accumulated interest from the date of default to the day of trial. For reversal, appellant Kennedy Funding, Inc., a junior lienholder, argues that the note executed in favor of appellees Virgil Shelton, Beverly Shelton, and John Shelton,1 the superior lienhold-ers, was usurious on its face and that the circuit court erred in ruling otherwise. Kennedy Funding also contends that the circuit court erred in awarding the Shel-tons interest upon interest. We find no merit in these arguments and affirm.

In 1992, Shelton sold Will and Rita Ack-lin certain real property in Pulaski County on which Shelton operated the Rest in Peace Cemetery. Shelton provided owner financing, and |2the Acklins executed a promissory note and mortgage in favor of Shelton. The note does not specify the principal amount of the purchase price. Instead, the parties structured the note to contain four methods of payment. Paragraph (a) of the note provided for a payment of $50,000 to be paid on November 2, 1992. Paragraph (b) required the sum of $100,000 to be paid in semi-annual payments beginning May 15,1993, at an interest rate of eight percent. Paragraph (c) obligated the Acklins to make quarterly payments of an unspecified amount that was to be equal to the income generated by the perpetual care trust fund.2 Additionally, paragraph (d) of the note provided for monthly payments totaling $4,825.20 to be made beginning December 1, 1992, and continuing for a period of twenty years.3 The final paragraph of the note addressed the ramifications of default. The last sentence of this paragraph states that, where an annual rate of interest had not been specified in the above terms, the terms “were calculated” on the rate of eight percent per annum.

In 1999, the Acklins encountered financial difficulties, which led them to borrow money from Kennedy Funding and to execute a promissory note and mortgages on several parcels of real property, including the Rest in Peace Cemetery, in favor of Kennedy Funding. In connection with that transaction, Virgil Shelton executed an “Estoppel Certificate” stating that, as of January 14, 1999, the outstanding principal and interest balance of the loan from IsShelton to the Acklins was not more than $675,000; that the Acklins were not in default; that Shelton’s mortgage and note had not been modified, amended, or supplemented; and that the mortgage was Shelton’s only security for the loan.

On October 6, 2000, Kennedy Funding initiated foreclosure proceedings against the Acklins, serving the Acklins, Shelton, and various ■ other defendants who held mortgages on the real property made the subject of the foreclosure action. The circuit court entered a foreclosure decree on January 17, 2001, awarding judgment against the Acklins and various entities owned by them, and judgment in rem against four parcels of land, including the cemetery property, in favor of Kennedy Funding. The Rest in Peace Cemetery went into receivership prior to October 2001.

The trial court scheduled a judicial sale of the property for March 28, 2006. On March 21, 2006, Shelton filed a motion to stay the foreclosure sale or, in the alternative, to amend the foreclosure order, contending that the foreclosure decree was ambiguous as to whether his -interest in the property would be foreclosed by a sale. The circuit court entered an order staying the sale pending a hearing.

On May 22, 2006, the circuit court entered an order finding that Shelton’s interest was superior to that of Kennedy Funding and that Kennedy Funding had a second lien on the cemetery property subject to the Shelton’s superior mortgage interest. This court later affirmed that determination. Kennedy Funding, Ine. v. Shelton, 100 Ark.App. 84, 264 S.W.3d 555 (2007).

14After the circuit court issued its decision that resulted in the earlier appeal, Shelton filed the present complaint in foreclosure, later amended, on July 17, 2006. Kennedy Funding answered, denying the material allegations of the complaint and asserting the defense of usury.

The case proceeded to a bench trial on July 29, 2008. The parties stipulated that Shelton held a first mortgage on the property and that the maximum interest rate allowable at the time of the transaction in 1992 was eight percent. The parties informed the court that they disagreed as to the principal amount owed to Shelton. Counsel for Kennedy Funding also alerted the court of its contention that the income stream contained in paragraph (c) of the note constituted interest that would render the note usurious. Counsel stated that no proof would be offered on this point, however, alleging that the note spoke for itself.

Virgil Shelton testified that he founded the Rest in Peace Cemetery in 1967 and operated it for twenty-five years before selling it to the Acklins. He described the four different payments that the Acklins were to make under the note. He said that the Acklins long ago paid the $150,000 referenced in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the note and that the Acklins had made the remaining payments under paragraphs (c) and (d) until they defaulted in July 2001. In establishing the amount that he claimed was due on the note, Shelton gave testimony and also introduced into evidence an exhibit outlining his calculations. Shelton began with the figure of $675,000, the amount stated in the Estoppel Certificate when Kennedy Funding made its loan to the Acklins in 1999. Shelton then gave the Acklins credit for $38,555.13 in payments that they made from 1999 to 2001, when they defaulted. He thus claimed that the Acklins owed $636,444.87 on the note. To this amount, Shelton added | ¡¡eight-percent interest from the time of default to the date of trial. Also in his testimony, Shelton introduced as an exhibit an amortization schedule of the payments owed on $675,000. Based on this schedule, he said that the monthly payment under paragraphs (c) and (d) amounted to $5,665.20. As included in his calculations, Shelton stated that the monthly income from the perpetual care trust fund was $840, based on an average of thirty payments made by the Acklins pursuant to paragraph (c) of the note. On cross-examination, Shelton admitted that the note itself did not specify a sum certain in principal to be paid over the life of the note.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the circuit court questioned the attorneys as to whether prejudgment interest was to be compounded or based on simple interest. The court decided that the latter was in order and instructed Shelton’s counsel to prepare a decree based on the principal figure Shelton provided in his testimony, plus simple interest. The court also rejected Kennedy Funding’s argument that the note was usurious. The circuit court entered its decree on August 21, 2008.4 In the decree, the court found that, as of July 17, 2001, the Acklins owed $635,444.87 in unpaid principal plus accrued interest of $357,167.03 through July 29, 2008. The circuit court declared that the judgment was superior to all other liens and claims, including those of Kennedy Funding. The court ordered the property sold if the judgment was not satisfied within ten days from the entry of the decree.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
386 S.W.3d 1, 2010 Ark. App. 438, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kennedy-funding-inc-v-shelton-arkctapp-2010.