Pardue v. Citizens Bank & Trust Company

247 So. 2d 368, 287 Ala. 50, 1971 Ala. LEXIS 681
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 25, 1971
Docket2 Div. 535
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 247 So. 2d 368 (Pardue v. Citizens Bank & Trust Company) 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
Pardue v. Citizens Bank & Trust Company, 247 So. 2d 368, 287 Ala. 50, 1971 Ala. LEXIS 681 (Ala. 1971).

Opinion

*53 MERRILL, Justice.

This appeal is from a decree granting, in part, the prayer for relief of the appellees, Citizens Bank & Trust Company, hereinafter referred to as the Bank, and its directors, and denying the cross bill of appellants, J. Bruce Pardue, hereinafter referred to as appellant, and Citizens Development Corporation.

The bill, as amended, alleged that the Bank was organized in Selma in 1959 with appellant as president and chairman of the board of directors. He continued in that capacity until he was discharged on March 23, 1966. When organized, the Bank acquired a building and lot fronting east on Broad Street and a fifteen-foot alley easement along the north side of the building for ingress and egress. Later, this fifteen-foot alley easement was extended westward through the block to connect with the next street to the west, Lauder-dale Street. The next lot south of the Bank lot was a corner lot, facing 100 feet on Broad Street and 115 feet on Jeff Davis Avenue. With the approval of the board of directors, appellant proceeded to remodel and alter the building to make it suitable to bank use. He installed on the north wall of the building a drive-in teller window, metal canopy, night depository, downspouts, electrical conduits, and similar installations which encroached a few inches into the alley easement. The shed over the drive-in window encroached 4.78 feet. Two or three years later, he raised the elevation of the alley approximately eight inches to bring drivers of automobiles to a convenient level with the drive-in window.

Appellant then undertook the promotion of a shopping center within the block of which the Bank was a part. He represented to the officials and directors that the shopping center would complement the services of the Bank and would provide parking which would be for the mutual benefit of the Bank and the stores in the center. With his active participation, Mid-Selma Land Company, Inc., a private corporation, was organized by all of the directors of the Bank to acquire, and it did acquire, properties within the block. Appellant, with the sanction of the hoard of directors, and some of them joining with him, organized Citizens Development Corporation to develop and own the shopping center. On the basis of representation by appellant, Mid-Selma Land Company on December 23, 1963, conveyed to the Bank for expansion a parcel of land contiguous to the Bank at its west end, identified on the map as Tract B. On the same date, it conveyed to Citizens Development Corporation contiguous land which was later developed as a part of the shopping center parking lot. Parking easements for the Bank were not expressly reserved. However, appellant, acting for Citizens Development Corporation, had prepared an overall plan for the development of the complex. The evidence later reflected this plan, dated September 7, 1963, and a copy is attached to the court’s decree.

In 1968, appellee Bank, at a cost in excess of $50,000.00, constructed an addition on Tract B of its property following the *54 plan of development prepared by the appellant for Citizens Development Corporation. No objection was made to the construction until it was substantially completed. At that time, appellant owned all the stock of Citizens Development Corporation.

Following completion of the bank addition, appellant conducted harassment tactics designed to hinder the use by the Bank of its facilities, particularly those in the alley. Intermittent repairs to the alley surface hindered the use of the drive-in window. The area next to the window was lowered eight inches to its original grade. Likewise, over the protest of the Bank, appellant caused to be constructed a brick wall around the bank addition to a height of six to eight feet, preventing access of vehicles and pedestrians to the addition from Jeff Davis Avenue as had been planned in the development scheme.

The complaint sought an injunction against harassment and limitations on the use of the bank facilities, the removal of the wall, and a declaratory judgment that the Bank was not indebted to appellant for unearned salary in 1966.

The appellants filed a cross bill in which they sought an adjudication of substantially the same issues which were raised in the original bill. The cross bill also claimed payment for a year’s salary from the Bank to appellant. For answer to this aspect, the appellees included defenses that (1) there was no contract of employment and appellant Pardue was subject to release at any time, (2) that his discharge was “by reason of misfeasance and non-feasance in office” which was detrimental to the best interest of the Bank, and (3) that there was an accord and satisfaction by the payment to Pardue of $2,750.00 as severance pay.

The trial was begun on September 8, 1969, and consumed twelve full working days over a period of three weeks. The transcript consists of five separate volumes totaling 1,131 pages.

The trial judge was personally familiar with the block where the Bank and shopping center were located and, with the consent of all the parties, he made a special trip to the area and personally inspected the premises.

A decree was rendered on February 23, 1970, which granted:

1. An injunction prohibiting appellants from obstructing the Bank’s ingress and egress of the fifteen-foot alley easement or changing traffic pattern.

2. The right to the Bank to change grade in alley at drive-in window about eight inches.

3. An injunction requiring appellants to demolish wall around west and south end of Tract B.

4. An injunction from changing the design of parking area and vehicular passageway between Tract B and Jeff Davis Avenue or obstructing such lane of traffic.

5. An injunction from denying to complainants and customers and employees of the Bank the right to freely park anywhere in parking area of shopping center, and denying the prayer of cross bill.

The’ trial court’s very studied and comprehensive decree covers nine pages of the transcript, and gives a much more detailed history of the controversy and findings of fact than we state in this opinion, and anyone desiring to fully comprehend the reasoning of the court is referred to that opinion. We refer only to the decree as is necessary in discussing the various assignments of error.

We quote from the trial court’s opinion:
* * * q-jjg parties were given broad latitude in the presentation of these issues and in the introduction of evidence, but the Court in its findings of facts and analysis of all of the evidence made the basis of this decree has pursuant to Title 7, Section 372(1) of the 1958 Recompiled Code of Alabama, considered only evi *55 dence which is relevant, material, competent and legal.”

The assignments of error are grouped for disposition. It is well to note that appellant Pardue testified that he owned one hundred per cent of the stock in appellant Citizens Development Corporation and that he spoke for the Corporation. The trial court found that Pardue was the alter ego of the corporation after he acquired all the stock in 1966.

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Bluebook (online)
247 So. 2d 368, 287 Ala. 50, 1971 Ala. LEXIS 681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pardue-v-citizens-bank-trust-company-ala-1971.