Noel Williams Masonry, Inc. v. Vision Contractors of Charlotte, Inc.

406 S.E.2d 605, 103 N.C. App. 597, 1991 N.C. App. LEXIS 867, 1991 WL 150041
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedAugust 6, 1991
DocketNo. 9026SC1073
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 406 S.E.2d 605 (Noel Williams Masonry, Inc. v. Vision Contractors of Charlotte, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noel Williams Masonry, Inc. v. Vision Contractors of Charlotte, Inc., 406 S.E.2d 605, 103 N.C. App. 597, 1991 N.C. App. LEXIS 867, 1991 WL 150041 (N.C. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

COZORT, Judge.

A lending institute loaned money to a contractor for development of a piece of property in Charlotte. The lender accepted a deed of trust on the property from the contractor as security for the loan; however, when the lender recorded the deed of trust, it failed to record a legal description of the property. The contractor defaulted on its payments to the lender and to subcontractors who provided materials and services. Three subcontractors obtained liens on the property. After the dates of attachment of the subcontractors’ liens, the lender rerecorded the deed of trust to include the legal description of the property. In an action to establish the priority of the liens, the trial court below held that the rerecording of the deed of trust related back to the original recording date, giving the lender a lien senior to the liens of the subcontractors. We affirm. The facts follow.

Defendant Vision Contractors of Charlotte, Inc. (Vision), obtained a construction loan on or about 19 August 1988 from defendant Mutual Savings & Loan Association, Inc. (Mutual). The loan, in the original principal amount of $136,000, was evidenced by a deed of trust note, dated 19 August 1988, and was secured by a deed of trust and security agreement of same date. The deed of trust was recorded at the Mecklenburg County Public Registry at 1:20 p.m. on 25 August 1988. The recorded deed of trust failed to include a legal description that specifically identified and described the real property located at 4128 Carmel Forest Drive (Carmel Forest property).

[600]*600On 25 August 1988, Vision entered into a contract with plaintiff Noel Williams Masonry, Inc. (Williams), and Williams supplied materials and services from 25 August 1988 until 17 October 1988. The total amount of labor and materials furnished pursuant to the Williams contract was in the total principal amount of $14,889.68. Vision defaulted in its obligation to pay Williams. On 3 November 1988, Williams filed a claim of lien against Vision.

E. L. Morrison Lumber Company, Inc. (Morrison), furnished lumber and other materials to the property from 14 October 1988 until 31 October 1988. The total amount due from Vision to Morrison for the lumber and building materials was $19,859.21. Vision defaulted in its obligation to pay Morrison. On 9 November 1988, Morrison filed a claim of lien against Vision. On 17 January 1989, Morrison filed a lawsuit against Vision to recover upon the claim of lien filed 9 November 1988. On 3 January 1990, a judgment was entered against Vision granting a lien upon the property with an effective date of 14 October 1988.

McClure Lumber Company (McClure) provided materials to the property from 21 October 1988 until 24 October 1988. Vision defaulted on its obligation to pay McClure $9,533.48 for those materials. On 10 November 1988, McClure filed a lawsuit to recover the amount owed by Vision and also on that date filed a claim of lien against the Carmel Forest property and other property owned by Vision. McClure obtained a default judgment against Vision. The judgment declared McClure to have a lien against the Carmel Forest property for materials supplied there with an effective date of 21 October 1988. The judgment also provided for an additional amount of $15,583.54 owed by Vision to McClure for materials supplied to a second piece of property owned by Vision. The judgment declared there to also be a specific lien against the Carmel Forest property on the $15,583.54 obligation with an effective date of 10 November 1988.

On 28 November 1988, Mutual rerecorded the deed of trust with the exhibit containing the legal description of the Carmel Forest property.

On 8 February 1989, Williams filed this lawsuit against Vision and Mutual to obtain a judgment against Vision, a lien against the property, and to determine the lien priority between Williams and Mutual. Morrison and McClure were later added as additional parties defendant so that the rights of all lienholders could be [601]*601adjudicated in one proceeding. Williams, Mutual, Morrison and McClure moved for summary judgment. The trial court entered an order on 13 July 1990 granting Mutual’s motion for summary judgment, ordering

that the Deed of Trust recorded on August 25, 1988 at 1:20 p.m. be and hereby is reformed to include the legal description with said reformation relating back to August 25, 1988 at 1:20 p.m. and the Deed of Trust held in favor of Mutual hereby is declared to be the first lien security interest on the Property, senior to the liens of Noel Williams, Morrison and McClure.

Williams, Morrison and McClure timely filed written notice of appeal.

The determinative issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred by holding in its order of summary judgment that Mutual’s deed of trust is senior to the hens of Williams, Morrison and McClure. We first note that the trial court’s order granting summary judgment contained extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law. Orders granting summary judgment under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 56 (1990) do not normally contain detailed findings of fact. Avriett v. Avriett, 88 N.C. App. 506, 363 S.E.2d 875, affirmed, 322 N.C. 468, 368 S.E.2d 377 (1988). However, if the findings of fact are actually the trial court’s summation of the undisputed facts which support the judgment, findings of fact and conclusions of law do not render a summary judgment void or voidable. Rather, the findings may be helpful if the facts are not an issue and support the judgment. PBM, Inc. v. Rosenfeld, 48 N.C. App. 736, 737-38, 269 S.E.2d 748, 749-50 (1980), disc. review denied, 301 N.C. 722, 274 S.E.2d 231 (1981). Our review of the record below leads us to the conclusion that the twenty-three findings of fact entered in the trial court’s order of summary judgment below constitute the court’s summation of the undisputed facts which supported its judgment. We, therefore, find no error in the court’s making findings of fact and conclusions of law.

We now turn to the issue of whether the trial court erred by holding that Mutual’s deed of trust was the senior security interest on the Carmel Forest property. In Arnette v. Morgan, 88 N.C. App. 458, 363 S.E.2d 678 (1988), we dealt with a similar case involving reformation of a written instrument. In that case, plaintiff grantee filed an action to reform a deed which contained an improper legal description which mistakenly did not convey all of the property the parties intended to be conveyed. The trial [602]*602court entered an order reforming the deed to include the description of all the property the parties intended to convey. The court decreed that the reformation related back to the time of the filing of a lis pendens by an intervening judgment creditor. Id. at 459, 363 S.E.2d at 679. On appeal, we affirmed the trial court’s decision to allow reformation of the deed and the relation back of the recording. We held, however, that the reformation should date back to the time of the original conveyance. Id. at 463, 363 S.E.2d at 681. In holding that reformation was proper, we noted that registration determines the priority of rights deriving from deeds, mortgages, deeds of trust, and judgments.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nationstar Mortg., LLC v. Dean
820 S.E.2d 854 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2018)
Branch Banking & Trust Co. v. Teague
725 S.E.2d 34 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2012)
S.T. Wooten Corp. v. Front Street Construction, LLC
719 S.E.2d 249 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2011)
Bowen v. Lee Process Systems Co.
536 S.E.2d 86 (Court of Appeals of South Carolina, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
406 S.E.2d 605, 103 N.C. App. 597, 1991 N.C. App. LEXIS 867, 1991 WL 150041, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noel-williams-masonry-inc-v-vision-contractors-of-charlotte-inc-ncctapp-1991.