Martin v. Martin

755 S.W.2d 793, 1988 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 14, 1988
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 755 S.W.2d 793 (Martin v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martin v. Martin, 755 S.W.2d 793, 1988 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

SANDERS, Presiding Judge,

Eastern Section.

The Defendants have appealed from a chancery decree awarding judgment for the unpaid balance of a promissory note, which Plaintiff says was marked “paid” by inadvertence or mistake, but which Defendants say they paid in full.

In March 1980 the Defendants-Appellants Robert R. Martin and wife, Barbara K. Martin, executed a negotiable promissory note to Southern Industrial Banking Corporation [SIBC] for the principal sum of $122,562.21. The note was payable at the rate of $1,048.00 per month. The note was secured by a Deed of Trust on real estate located in Roane County. Monthly payments were made on the note until September 1982 when the note was marked “Paid 9-10-82” and a release for the Deed of Trust was executed and recorded by SIBC. The note and release were then sent to the Defendants.

The Plaintiff-Appellee James R. Martin, as Trustee in Bankruptcy for the Estate of C.H. Butcher, Jr., filed suit in the Chancery Court of Knox County alleging that by assignment he was the holder of the note or indebtedness. Through mistake the note had been marked paid and a release of the Deed of Trust had likewise been executed and recorded without the indebtedness having been paid in full. The unpaid portion of the indebtedness was $93,866.21 plus accrued interest. He asked for judgment of the unpaid balance of the note plus interest and attorneys fees. He also asked the Court to declare the release void on the grounds of mistake. The Defendants for answer denied the note had been marked paid through mistake or the release had been executed by mistake, but said they had paid the note in full.

Defendants testified the note was paid in cash on September 10, 1982, to SIBC at the West Knoxville branch office. Robert Martin testified he borrowed $59,000 from four individuals in order to pay off the note. However, he did not know the amount of money he paid to SIBC. The four individuals from whom Mr. Martin testified he borrowed the money all testified the Defendant borrowed money from them during June through August of 1982. There was, however, no written record of the transactions between them and the Defendant.

In pretrial discovery depositions the Defendants testified they had not made any payments on the note after September 10. However, upon the trial of the case they admitted they had altered several checks to support their claim of no further payments. The proof at trial showed six monthly payments had been made on the note by the Defendants after they had supposedly paid it.

Plaintiff testified the payment was not made; the note was marked paid in full and the release was executed by SIBC through mistake in a new computer system. A number of SIBC employees testified they received no cash payment from the Defendant on September 10. Plaintiff also presented the records of SIBC for the cash receipts for September 10, which showed no such amount of cash was received that day.

The testimony was unclear exactly when SIBC discovered the error; it was, however, prior to November 9. When the discovery was made, SIBC called the Defendant several times to come in to the office and re-execute the note. A collector for the bank testified the mistake was discovered when the Defendants failed to make their payments. He said he called the Defendant and Defendant told him he had received the note marked “Paid in Full” and he expressed some concern as he had not in fact paid the note. Mr. Travis testified he called Mr. Martin after the error was discovered and Mr. Martin said, “I was wondering why I got my Deed of Trust and [795]*795my note.” He said Mr. Martin acknowledged he had not paid the note and agreed to return the note to the bank. After this conversation the additional payments were made on the note.

Plaintiff introduced copies of a master loan agreement under which C.H. Butcher, Jr. [Butcher], was to purchase and SIBC was to sell certain promissory notes and copies of the assignments of those notes. The specific loans were not listed.

• The Plaintiff testified SIBC sold the note to Butcher, who in turn sold the note to C & C Bank of Union County [C & C]. C & C, under a settlement agreement, in the bankruptcy proceedings of Butcher reassigned the note to the Plaintiff James R. Martin, as Trustee of the bankrupt Butcher estate.

At trial the Chancellor found the issues in favor of the Plaintiff. She found the Plaintiff had standing to sue on the note, the Defendants had never paid off the note, and the marking of the note paid in full and the release of the collateral were a mistake. She also ruled the Roane County trust deed was valid although it had been released of record and never re-executed by the Defendants.

The Defendants have appealed and present four issues for review by this court.

Does Appellee, as Trustee for the bankrupt estate of C.H. Butcher, Jr., have any standing as the holder of the negotiable instrument at issue, a promissory note payable to the order of SIBC, to sue on that note, and did Appellee, ever obtain such rights by valid assignment of the note or otherwise?
Did the Chancellor err in admitting, over objection of Appellants, various copies of pertinent records and documents instead of the originals, including loan history cards, SIBC business records, purported contracts and assignments of the note at issue, in addition to copies of other documents, to establish Appellee as a holder of the note and to prove Appellants did not pay off the note?
Did the Chancellor err in making findings of fact and conclusions of law as to the validity of the re-recording of the trust deed securing the note at issue, when this realty was located in Roane, County, Tennessee and all recordings were in the office of the register of deeds for Roane County? Further, did the Chancellor have jurisdiction to make such findings and determine this re-recorded trust deed, having once been validly released of record, presently constitutes a valid lien on this Roane County property thereby subjecting it to foreclosure?
Did Appellee establish by a preponderance of the evidence his standing as holder of the note, mistake and non-payment of the note by Appellants?

Appellants assert the Appellee, as Trustee for the bankrupt estate of C.H. Butcher, Jr., has no standing to sue on the promissory note at issue here.

T.C.A. § 47-3-201 provides that in any transfer for value of an instrument not then payable to bearer, the transferee must obtain the endorsement of the transferor in order to acquire the status of a holder. If it is not obtained then negotiation does not occur and there is no presumption the transferee is the owner of the instrument. See Commerce Union Bank v. Welch, 29 B.R. 819 (Bankr.M.D.Tenn.1982). Comment 1 to T.C.A. § 47-3-201 states “Any person who transfers an instrument transfers whatever rights he has in it. The transferee acquires those rights even though they do not amount to ‘title’.” Since SIBC had surrendered possession of the note to the Defendants there was no note to transfer, and negotiation could not occur. Since negotiation did not occur, Ap-pellee is not a holder of the promissory note.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
755 S.W.2d 793, 1988 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martin-v-martin-tennctapp-1988.