Nogales Service Center v. Atlantic Richfield Co.

613 P.2d 293, 126 Ariz. 133, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 480
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedApril 14, 1980
Docket2 CA-CIV 3331
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 613 P.2d 293 (Nogales Service Center v. Atlantic Richfield Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nogales Service Center v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 613 P.2d 293, 126 Ariz. 133, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 480 (Ark. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

HOWARD, Judge.

The trial below was on Nogales Service Center’s (NSC) claim for breach of contract against Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). This is an appeal from the judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of ARCO. NSC contends the trial court erred in denying certain instructions and in the admission and rejection of evidence.

Prior to June 1969, Albert F. Cafone and Angus McKenzie were produce brokers in Nogales, Arizona. They decided that profits could be derived from the operation at Nogales of a facility to sell fuel to the great number of trucks which seasonally came to Nogales, loaded with produce to be transported to points in the United States and Canada. No such enterprise was operating in Nogales at that time.

Before contacting ARCO, Cafone and McKenzie approached Texaco and Shell. They were looking for a supplier to lend them a large sum of money to be applied towards the construction and equipment of a suitable facility. They finally contacted ARCO which was itself looking for a truck stop in the area. Cafone and McKenzie organized a corporation, Nogales Service Center, and entered into an agreement with ARCO for construction of the facility. The total estimated cost of the facility which was to include an auto/truck service sta *135 tion, coffee shop, motel and brokerage offices, was $508,000. ARCO lent the corporation $300,000 to help finance construction.

Construction of the truck stop began in 1969 and was finished in early 1970. Operations began in April or May of 1970. As originally built, the facility did not include the motel and restaurant, a factor which created a definite problem. The funds which ARCO lent to NSC were not put in escrow and some were spent for a cantaloupe crop which failed, therefore the restaurant was not constructed.

NSC and ARCO also entered into a products agreement on November 4, 1969. It was to be effective for a period of 15 years, subject to termination by mutual agreement after the 10th year, and provided for the sale of fuel at prices to be fixed by ARCO, subject to change by the latter at any time without notice. It called for the purchase of at least 50% of NSC’s fuel from ARCO.

NSC’s operation was in financial difficulty from the beginning of its operation. Among other things, its price for diesel fuel was not competitive with truck stops in the Tucson area. In May of 1972, Cafone’s brother-in-law, William Terpenning, bought out McKenzie and assumed his liability on the $300,000. In July and August, Cafone and Terpenning met in Los Angeles, California with Joe Tucker who was then ARCO’s manager of truck stop marketing. The problem of competitive pricing was discussed. It was at these meetings that, according to Terpenning, NSC and ARCO entered into an oral agreement which formed the basis of NSC’s claim. Terpenning testified that Tucker told him that the construction of a motel and restaurant at the truck stop was a “must”, that if NSC constructed these facilities, which were estimated to cost $400,000, it would lend $100,000; that ARCO would give NSC a 1<£ per gallon across the board discount on all diesel fuel and that it would keep NSC “competitive”. In reliance on Tucker’s promise, Terpenning bought out Cafone, borrowed money and used his own funds to construct the motel and restaurant. ARCO approved the loan application after the construction was commenced and lent the $100,000 but the l<t per gallon discount was disapproved. According to Terpenning, ARCO never made NSC “competitive”.

Terpenning and NSC defaulted on the original note and on the $100,000 note. ARCO then brought a foreclosure action and prevailed. This suit involves a counterclaim filed by NSC which was tried after the foreclosure judgment. For convenience in the trial court, NSC, the counterclaimant, was designated the plaintiff and the original plaintiff, ARCO, was designated the defendant.

At trial ARCO contended that Tucker never agreed to make NSC competitive or to give it an across-the-board l<t discount; that if such an agreement were made by Tucker it was outside his authority and that the statute of frauds barred any action on the alleged oral contract.

The trial court, without objection, gave the following instructions relating to the authority of an agent:

“An employee-agent has apparent authority to make an agreement binding on his employer-principal, if, but only if, the latter through officers or other agents authorized to do so has held out that employee-agent through the party dealing with him, has such authority. In this case, in order to find Joe Tucker had apparent authority to make an agreement for ARCO, you must find that ARCO had actually or by necessary implication, represented to the officers of No-gales Service Center that Tucker had such authority; and you must find further that such representations were made by officers or other agents of ARCO having authority from the company to make them.
If you find by a preponderance of all the evidence that such an agreement was made, then you shall consider whether those making it were authorized by their respective companies to do so. An employee-agent can legally bind his employer-principal only when he has actual or apparent authority to do so. Authority *136 of either type, actual or apparent, can be derived only from acts of the employer-principal. An employee-agent cannot confer authority upon himself merely by claiming it for himself. If you find that Joe Tucker had no actual authority to enter into any agreement for ARCO, then he could do so in such a way as to bind ARCO if, but only if, you find that he had apparent authority to make an agreement.”

The trial court refused to give the following instruction offered by the appellant: “Requested Jury Instruction No. 21.

ARCO’s employees who dealt with Service Center in the claimed oral agreements made ARCO responsible for any such agreements if they are acts which usually accompany or are incidental to transactions which the agent is authorized to conduct, even if the employees were forbidden to make such agreements, if persons from Nogales Service Center reasonably believed that ARCO’s employees were authorized to make them, and has no notice that ARCO’s employees were not so authorized.”

The trial court also refused appellant’s Instruction No. 23, but since we find the essence of that instruction to be covered by Instruction No. 21, we discuss only No. 21.

Appellee contends that No. 21 was covered by the instructions which were given. We do not agree. The instructions given covered only actual or apparent authority. Inherent authority depends upon neither of these concepts since it may make the principal liable because of conduct which he did not desire or direct, to persons who may or may not have known of his existence or who did not rely upon anything which the principal said or did. See, Seavey, Handbook of the Law of Agency, Secs. 58 and 59, at 105-09 (1964).

The Restatement (Second) of Agency Sec. 8A (1957) defines inherent agency power:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
613 P.2d 293, 126 Ariz. 133, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nogales-service-center-v-atlantic-richfield-co-arizctapp-1980.