Mandan Security Bank v. Heinsohn

320 N.W.2d 494, 1982 N.D. LEXIS 298
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJune 10, 1982
DocketCiv. 10108, 10115
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 320 N.W.2d 494 (Mandan Security Bank v. Heinsohn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mandan Security Bank v. Heinsohn, 320 N.W.2d 494, 1982 N.D. LEXIS 298 (N.D. 1982).

Opinions

PAULSON, Justice.

The appellants in these consolidated cases appeal from the amended judgments entered by the District Courts of Morton and Burleigh Counties on October 13,1981. We affirm.

In January of 1979, Landco, a partnership comprised of Harlan Heinsohn, Michael Heinsohn, Gerald Engel, and Kenneth Austin, applied to the Mandan Security Bank [496]*496for a $100,000 line of credit to be used for land development. The bank accepted the application based upon a financial statement provided by the partners showing their personal collective net worth to be in excess of three million dollars. The partners, in their individual capacities, signed an unconditional, continuing guaranty of payment of all loans made to Landco by the bank.

Landco drew against the $100,000 line of credit by taking four $25,000 loans and signing notes for each. When payment on the first two $25,000 notes became due, the notes were extended with an increase in interest. All four notes became due in May of 1980. The bank agreed to further extend the loans upon payment of all interest due through July 31, 1980, and with the bank accepting as collateral a short-term redemption mortgage on eight undeveloped residential lots in French’s First Addition in Bismarck. The lots were valued by the partners at $15,000 each. The four prior notes were renewed by a single $100,000 note, to be repaid in quarterly $25,000 payments.

When Landco failed to make the first quarterly payment, the bank on January 19, 1981, demanded an interest payment through February 1, 1981. In response, Harlan Heinsohn and Gerald Engel met with the president of the bank on January 29, 1981, and tendered a quit-claim deed to the eight lots, along with a letter of transmittal. On February 6, 1981, the deed and letter of transmittal were returned to Landco by the bank’s attorney.

On February 6, 1981, the bank served notice before foreclosure. On March 30, the bank commenced its foreclosure action, which was venued in Burleigh County, the location of the mortgaged property. On April 3, the bank commenced a separate action in Morton County against the partners individually on the guaranty which they had signed on February 5, 1979. The two cases were consolidated for trial, and the district court entered judgment in both cases for the bank. In the Morton County case, the district court entered judgment against the individual partners in the amount of $100,000 principal and $18,519 interest through July 23, 1981, plus interest accruing thereafter. In the Burleigh County case, the district court entered judgment against Landco in an identical amount, and further ordered that the bank could at a later date apply for a judgment and decree of foreclosure of the mortgage. The district court precluded the possibility of a double recovery by providing that amounts collected under either judgment are to be set off against the other judgment.

The following issues are raised on appeal:

1) Does the anti-deficiency statute contained in the Short-Term Mortgage Redemption Act, Chapter 32-19.1, North Dakota Century Code, prohibit recovery by the bank on the guaranties of the individual partners?
2) Did the district court err in finding that the mortgage did not exonerate the individual partners of liability on their previously executed guaranties?
3) Did the bank accept the tender of the deed in satisfaction of the debt?
4) Did the district court err as a matter of law in concluding that the mortgage in this case had not been foreclosed and in ordering judgment that allowed for later application for judgment of foreclosure?

I.

The first issue raised is whether or not the anti-deficiency statute contained in the Short-Term Mortgage Redemption Act precludes recovery against the individual partners on their guaranties of the partnership debt. The appellants argue that a partnership is not a separate legal entity and that the partners are therefore the primary obli-gors on the note, so that their individual guaranties add nothing to their primary liability on the note. Thus, they argue, the anti-deficiency statute precludes recovery on the individual guaranties. In support of this argument, the appellants cite two California cases, Union Bank v. Dorn, 254 Cal.App.2d 157, 61 Cal.Rptr. 893 (1967), and Riddle v. Lushing, 203 Cal.App.2d 831, 21 Cal.Rptr. 902 (1962).

[497]*497In Dorn and Riddle the respective courts held that a guaranty of a partnership debt signed by a partner in his individual capacity adds nothing to his primary liability as a principal obligor, and therefore recovery on the guaranty is precluded by the anti-deficiency statute. In Dorn, supra, 61 Cal.Rptr. at 894, the court stated:

“. .. in the present case it clearly appears that the supposed guarantors against whom suit has been brought are nothing more than principal obligors under another name. It is settled that liability as a guarantor adds nothing to the primary liability of a principal obligor. (Valinda Builders, Inc. v. Bissner, 230 Cal.App.2d 106, 40 Cal.Rptr. 735) In our view, respondents, both as principal obligors and as supposed guarantors, are entitled to the full protection of Code of Civil Procedure, section 580d, just as the guarantors in Riddle v. Lushing, 203 Cal.App.2d 831, 834, 21 Cal.Rptr. 902, were entitled as primary obligors to the full benefits and protection of section 580b, the section which prohibits deficiency judgments on purchase money mortgages.”

We disagree with the conclusions reached by the California courts in Dorn and Riddle. We conclude that a partner who personally guaranties payment of a partnership debt has changed the nature of his obligation on the debt, and the anti-deficiency statute does not preclude recovery by the bank on the individual guaranty.

Although this Court has previously stated in dicta that a partnership is not a separate legal entity, 501 DeMers, Inc. v. Fink, 148 N.W.2d 820, 824 (N.D.1967), the nature of a partner’s liability on partnership debts is different than his individual liability on individual obligations. In Eastern Metals Corp. v. Martin, 191 F.Supp. 245, 249 (S.D.N.Y.1960), the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York stated:

“The liability of a partner for the debts and obligations of the partnership has been defined and explained in Ruzicka v. Rager, 305 N.Y. 191, 111 N.E.2d 878, 882, 39 A.L.R.2d 288, from which the following is quoted:
‘To some degree the individual liability of a partner is not the ordinary individual liability of one who obligates himself as an individual. Rather, the individual liability of a partner is merely an incident of the partnership liability. Judge Pound writing for the court in Hartigan v. Casualty Co. of America (227 N.Y. 175, 178, 124 N.E. 789, 790, supra) phrased the conception clearly and concisely as follows: “When a partnership is established, the liability of the individual partners is an incident of the partnership merely, not a separate and independent liability.” We think the Hartigan case and Geitner v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 251 N.Y. 205, 167 N.E.

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Mandan Security Bank v. Heinsohn
320 N.W.2d 494 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
320 N.W.2d 494, 1982 N.D. LEXIS 298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mandan-security-bank-v-heinsohn-nd-1982.