Lighting & Lamp Corp. v. Athens Lofts, L.L.C.

50 So. 3d 1118, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 149, 2010 WL 2172845
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMay 28, 2010
Docket2081029
StatusPublished

This text of 50 So. 3d 1118 (Lighting & Lamp Corp. v. Athens Lofts, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lighting & Lamp Corp. v. Athens Lofts, L.L.C., 50 So. 3d 1118, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 149, 2010 WL 2172845 (Ala. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

BRYAN, Judge.

Lighting and Lamp Corporation (“Lighting and Lamp”), the plaintiff below, appeals from a judgment in favor of Athens Lofts, L.L.C. (“Athens Lofts”), one of the defendants below. We affirm.

Between August 2006 and June 2007, Lighting and Lamp, a supplier of electrical fixtures and supplies, sold Jones-Williams Construction Co., Inc. (“Jones-Williams”), a construction company that had contracted with Athens Lofts to perform work on a building owned by Athens Lofts in Birmingham (“the Athens Flatts project”), electrical fixtures and supplies on credit. Jones-Williams charged those electrical fixtures and supplies to a specific account that Lighting and Lamp had set up for Jones-Williams for the Athens Flatts project. In June 2007, Jones-Williams abandoned the Athens Flatts project before completing its work.

On June 18, 2007, Adam Cohen, a member of Athens Lofts, met with Tim Pearson, Lighting and Lamp’s credit manager, and Ronnie Vetrano, the Lighting and Lamp salesman assigned to the Athens Flatts project. Jim O’Brien, a business associate of Cohen’s who did not own an interest in Athens Lofts, attended the meeting with Cohen. At the June 18 meeting, Pearson informed Cohen that Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp approximately $119,000 for electrical fixtures and supplies that Jones-Williams had purchased on credit from Lighting and Lamp to use on the Athens Flatts project. At trial, Pearson and Vetrano testified that Cohen orally promised at the June 18 meeting that Athens Lofts would pay that amount in full in consideration for Lighting and Lamp’s selling Athens Lofts the additional electrical fixtures and supplies needed to complete the Athens Flatts project. Cohen, on the other hand, testified at trial that he did not make such a prom[1120]*1120ise; he testified that he orally promised that Athens Lofts would pay only for certain electrical fixtures that Lighting and Lamp was holding in its warehouse, which Athens Lofts needed in order to complete the Athens Flatts project, and for any electrical fixtures and supplies purchased after June 18, 2007, for use in completing the Athens Flatts project. O’Brien testified at trial that he recalled only a discussion about a payment by Athens Lofts to obtain the release of the fixtures Lamp and Lighting was holding in its warehouse; he testified that he did not recall a promise by Cohen to pay in full the approximately $119,000 that Jones-Williams owed.

Between June 18, 2007, and September 24, 2007, Lighting and Lamp allowed the electrician who was completing the electrical work on the Athens Flatts project to charge $33,513.18 worth of electrical fixtures and supplies to the account Lighting and Lamp had set up for Jones-Williams for the Athens Flatts project. During that period, Athens Lofts paid Lighting and Lamp $40,000. On September 24, 2007, Lighting and Lamp began requiring cash payment for all materials it provided for the Athens Flatts project, and Athens Lofts paid cash for all purchases from Lighting and Lamp after that date.

When Jones-Williams abandoned the Athens Flatts project, it had been paid all but $976,414 of the price stipulated for its work in the contract between it and Athens Lofts. Athens Lofts paid subcontractors, suppliers, and laborers over $1,400,000 to complete the work that Jones-Williams contracted to perform.

On November 21, 2007, Lighting and Lamp served Athens Lofts with a notice that it was claiming a materialman’s lien, and, on November 27, 2007, it recorded a verified statement of its lien in the office of the Judge of Probate of Jefferson County.

On December 10, Lighting and Lamp sued Athens Lofts; Jones-Williams; James Williams, a principal in Jones-Williams who had personally guaranteed the payment of the debt Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp; and several other parties. James Williams filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and the claims against him were discharged by the judgment entered in his bankruptcy action. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of Lighting and Lamp on its claims against Jones-Williams and dismissed the claims against all the other defendants except Athens Lofts.

The trial court held a bench trial regarding the claims against Athens Lofts at which it received evidence ore tenus. Following the trial, the trial court entered a judgment in favor of Athens Lofts. Lighting and Lamp timely appealed to the supreme court, which transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to § 12-2-7(6), Ala. Code 1975.

Because the trial court received ore ten-us evidence, our review is governed by the following principles:

“ ‘ “ ‘[W]hen a trial court hears ore tenus testimony, its findings on disputed facts are presumed correct and its judgment based on those findings will not be reversed unless the judgment is palpably erroneous or manifestly unjust.’ ” ’ Water Works & Sanitary Sewer Bd. v. Parks, 977 So.2d 440, 443 (Ala.2007) (quoting Fadalla v. Fadalla, 929 So.2d 429, 433 (Ala.2005), quoting in turn Philpot v. State, 843 So.2d 122, 125 (Ala.2002)). ‘“The presumption of correctness, however, is rebuttable and may be overcome where there is insufficient evidence presented to the trial court to sustain its judgment.” ’ Wattman v. Rowell, 913 So.2d 1083, 1086 (Ala.2005) (quoting Dennis v. Dobbs, 474 So.2d 77, 79 (Ala.1985)). ‘Additionally, the ore tenus rule does not extend to cloak with a presumption of correctness a trial judge’s conclusions of law or the incor[1121]*1121rect application of law to the facts.’ Waltman v. Rowell, 913 So.2d at 1086.”

Retail Developers of Alabama, LLC v. East Gadsden Golf Club, Inc., 985 So.2d 924, 929 (Ala.2007).

On appeal, Lighting and Lamp has presented argument regarding only three of its claims: (1) a claim that Cohen’s alleged oral promise that Athens Lofts would pay in full the approximately $119,000 Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp made Lighting and Lamp a direct contractor of Athens Lofts and, therefore, Lighting and Lamp is entitled to a full-price lien in the amount owed by Jones-Williams (“the full-price-lien claim”); (2) a claim that Cohen’s alleged oral promise that Athens Lofts would pay in full the approximately $119,000 Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp formed a contract between Athens Lofts and Lighting and Lamp, which Athens Lofts breached by failing to pay Lighting and Lamp that amount in full (“the breach-of-contract claim”); and (3) a claim that Cohen’s alleged oral promise that Athens Lofts would pay in full the approximately $119,000 Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp created an open account pursuant to which Athens Lofts was obligated to pay that amount to Lighting and Lamp (“the open-account claim”). The factual basis of each of those claims is Cohen’s alleged oral promise that Athens Lofts would pay in full the approximately $119,000 Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp; however, the trial court’s judgment included an express finding of fact that Cohen did not make such a promise. Consequently, Lighting and Lamp cannot prevail on any of those claims unless the trial court erred in making that factual finding.

As noted above, the evidence regarding whether Cohen orally promised that Athens Lofts would pay in full the approximately $119,000 Jones-Williams owed Lighting and Lamp was in conflict. Pearson and Vetrano both testified that Cohen made such a promise.

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50 So. 3d 1118, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 149, 2010 WL 2172845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lighting-lamp-corp-v-athens-lofts-llc-alacivapp-2010.