Musselman v. Colonial Bank of North Alabama

554 So. 2d 973, 1989 Ala. LEXIS 702, 1989 WL 138353
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 29, 1989
Docket87-1120
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 554 So. 2d 973 (Musselman v. Colonial Bank of North Alabama) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Musselman v. Colonial Bank of North Alabama, 554 So. 2d 973, 1989 Ala. LEXIS 702, 1989 WL 138353 (Ala. 1989).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by the plaintiffs, Charles W. and Hilda F. Musselman, of a summary judgment entered in favor of the defendant, Colonial Bank of North Alabama, formerly d/b/a The Bank of Huntsville (“Bank”). That judgment was made final pursuant to Rule 54(b), A.R.Civ.P. We reverse and remand.

The issues are whether the Musselmans waived any claims they had against the Bank by renewing a promissory note to the Bank and whether the conflicting nature of the testimony presented by the plaintiffs and the defendant precluded summary judgment.

The plaintiffs stated the following claims in their complaint:1

“1. That defendant committed fraud, misrepresentation and deceit through its preferential treatment of D.L. Putman, a director of the Bank, by selling him the inventory and accounts receivable and not crediting those payments to plaintiffs’ indebtedness. Plaintiffs maintain that such sales would have eliminated their indebtedness to the defendant.
“2. That defendant acted in a tortious manner by using economic duress to force plaintiffs to submit to the ‘voluntary foreclosure’ of May 11, 1982, in an effort to harm plaintiffs and assist or treat preferentially D.L. Putman.
“3. That defendant committed a tor-tious and intentional interference with plaintiffs’ business by its actions of foreclosure, economic duress, pressure and the preferential sale to D.L. Putman of the inventory and accounts receivable. “4. That defendant had a fiduciary relationship with plaintiffs and that it used that relationship in an improper manner and committed fraudulent concealment and fraud in its improper and fraudulent handling of the accounts receivable so as to prevent the application of those payments made for the accounts receivable to reduce or extinguish plaintiffs’ indebtedness to defendant.
[974]*974“5. That defendant has acted in a tor-tious and outrageous manner in its attempt to ruin plaintiffs financially and take their business assets, expectations and homeplace.
“6. That defendant has committed conversion of money and assets due to be applied to plaintiffs’ indebtedness.
“7. That defendant has been negligent and/or wanton in its mishandling of accounts receivable paid and not properly credited to plaintiffs’ indebtedness.
“8. That defendant has breached its implied and express contracts with plaintiffs to apply accounts receivable paid or received to plaintiffs’ indebtedness.
“9. That defendant violated its own internal policies and federal regulations in an effort to harm plaintiffs and to the benefit of one of its directors in a tor-tious manner.
“10. That defendant entered into a civil conspiracy with D.L. Putman to accomplish the acts set forth above.
“11. Plaintiffs maintain that defendant disposed of collateral owned by plaintiffs but pledged to defendant in a commercially unreasonable manner by selling the accounts receivable to a director of the Bank as described earlier. Moreover, those accounts receivable were then allowed to be pledged [so] as to secure a note for an entity which was fictitious. The day after the bill of sale was signed, a promissory note was taken out by Common Sense Computer Systems, Inc. for $225,000.00 which pledged as collateral these accounts receivable.”

The facts, as presented by the Mussel-mans and the Bank, are in conflict. The facts, viewed in a light most favorable to the Musselmans (against whom the summary judgment was sought), are as follows:

Charles Musselman was the primary stockholder and president of a computer software company named Office Systems of America, Inc. (“OSA”). In 1981, OSA received several loans and letters of credit from The Bank of Huntsville. From March 1981 to June 1981, OSA’s indebtedness to the bank increased from $300,000 to $585,-000. During that same period, OSA’s financial condition began to deteriorate. Musselman met with the president of the Bank, Joe Weed, to discuss the possibility of receiving additional loans from the Bank. According to Musselman, Weed suggested that he approach D.L. Putman, one of the Bank’s directors and OSA’s landlord, about Putman’s becoming an investor in OSA. Musselman met with Putman the following day. Putman agreed to become a partner with Musselman, and Musselman reported this to Weed. After Putman became Musselman’s partner, OSA’s liabilities increased substantially. Meanwhile, the relationship between Putman and Mus-selman began to deteriorate.

In January or February 1982, Mussel-man, Putman, and Weed met to discuss a lawsuit that was pending against OSA. Musselman alleged that, during this meeting, Putman presented a plan to cause OSA to become bankrupt and to transfer its assets to a corporation named Furniture Information Systems, Inc. (“FIS”). The ownership of FIS would be transferred from Musselman to Putman. The transfer of a portion of the OSA assets would be accomplished by OSA's defaulting on the money it owed the Bank, turning over certain of its assets to the Bank as collateral, and then allowing FIS, at an undetermined time, to repurchase the assets. Musselman claims that Weed told Putman that he could not agree to such a deal because it was fraudulent, but that Putman angrily responded that the Bank’s board of directors had already agreed to accept the proposal. Weed assented to the proposal.

Musselman contended that he had objected to the proposal because he felt that OSA would prevail in the lawsuit against it. Musselman argued that he had agreed to go along with Putman’s proposal for the Bank to foreclose on the assets of OSA because he was pressured into doing so and he had needed to “buy some time.” He said that he had felt pressured, because, at or about the time of this alleged fraudulent proposal, he and his wife had pledged their home to the Bank as collateral on one of the notes. Musselman stated that Weed and Putman told him not to worry about [975]*975his house because the note on which the house had been pledged as collateral would be paid off.

In May 1982, Putman acquired 100% ownership of FIS. On the same day, OSA surrendered to the Bank its accounts receivable, equipment, and inventory. As of that date, OSA’s indebtedness to the Bank was approximately $726,000.

On May 14, 1982, Musselman filed a petition for bankruptcy. Nearly three weeks later, FIS signed a contract with the Bank to allow FIS to collect the accounts receivable owned by the Bank and to allow FIS to keep 30% of anything it collected.

On June 14, 1982, the Bank’s officer loan committee (of which Putman was a member) met, discussed, and ratified the collection agreement between the Bank and FIS.

On August 16,1982, Putman and Mussel-man signed an agreement whereby Putman would assume all of OSA’s liabilities, except the note that was secured by Hilda Musselman’s house. (Musselman had transferred his interest in the house to his wife because of the threat of being sued personally.) Putman also agreed to pay $2,000 per month for six months on the note secured by the Musselmans’ house. After this, OSA would pay $2,000 per month until the note was paid (if OSA was earning $2,000 per month).

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Bluebook (online)
554 So. 2d 973, 1989 Ala. LEXIS 702, 1989 WL 138353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/musselman-v-colonial-bank-of-north-alabama-ala-1989.