Perez v. Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis

788 S.W.2d 296, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 367, 1990 WL 21188
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 6, 1990
Docket56532
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 788 S.W.2d 296 (Perez v. Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perez v. Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis, 788 S.W.2d 296, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 367, 1990 WL 21188 (Mo. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

DOWD, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiff appeals the dismissal of certain counts of her petition against Boatmen’s National Bank. We affirm.

In June and July of 1986, appellant June Perez placed $20,000 into an account at Boatmen’s Bank in the name of Platinum Images Marketing Concepts, Inc. The account allowed withdrawal at the request of two of the three signatories, who were appellant, her husband Richard Perez, and defendant Thomas Merta. This corporation did not exist at the time the account was formed, but Merta told appellant he would form the corporation and, according to the petition, that he would issue her 20% of the corporate stock. The corporation was formed, but no stock was issued. Mer-ta signed an affidavit stating that he and appellant met a number of times to determine how much stock she would receive or if the money would be treated as a loan.

On August 1, 1986, the funds in the account were transferred to a second Boatmen’s account to which only defendant Merta had access. The funds so transferred amounted to $4,676.37. Appellant claims Merta accomplished this transfer without a second signature by convincing Boatmen’s employee Jeannette Wells that appellant and her husband were crooks who were trying to take Merta’s money. Jeannette Wells relayed this information to Boatmen’s employee Barbara Gibbons who in turn told appellant. Both Wells and Gibbons filed affidavits saying no such statement was made.

Appellant then filed a petition naming both Boatmen’s and Merta as defendants. The claims of the petition follow: Count I-fraudulent misrepresentation (against Merta alone); Count II-conspiracy to convert; Count Ill-conversion; Count IV-slander; Count V-conspiracy to breach Merta’s fiduciary duty to appellant; Count VI-breach of this fiduciary duty; Count VII-an action for money had and received (against Merta alone). Counts II and III were dismissed for failure to state a cause of action on which relief could be granted. Appellant moved for summary judgment on Count VII, the action for money had and received; that motion was granted and the court ordered Merta to pay appellant $20,-000 plus interest and also dismissed the remaining counts against Merta. Boatmen’s moved for summary judgment on Count IV, slander, because the defamatory statements were only made by one employee to another and not republished to a third party. The motion was sustained. The court later dismissed the final two counts, V and VI, because by recovering for money had and received, appellant waived any tort action arising from the same facts.

Appellant now presents four points on appeal: 1) the court erred in dismissing Count II against Boatmen’s because the alleged facts constituted a tort, not a breach of contract; 2) the court erred in granting summary judgment on Counts V and VI because the acts complained of were distinct and separate from the action for money had and received and involved different conduct; 3) the court erred in granting summary judgment on the slander count; and 4) the court erred in dismissing Count II as to Boatmen’s because appellant properly pleaded conversion.

Appellant’s first point relied on claims the trial court erred in dismissing Count II, conspiracy to convert funds, “for the reason that the object of said conspiracy was to convert plaintiff’s funds to the use of Thomas Merta, plaintiff did not lend the funds to Merta, and the bank’s knowing participation in Merta’s conversion of plaintiff’s funds constituted a tort, not a breach of contract.” While recognizing the rule that “there can be no conspiracy to commit a tort unless the tort itself was committed,” Stegeman v. First Mo. Bank of Gasconade County, 722 S.W.2d 349, 354 (Mo. *299 App.1987), appellant argues that conspiracy was properly pleaded here because it cannot be disputed that Merta converted $4,676.37 of plaintiffs money.

There is, however, an additional rule of law that conversion does not lie for a taking of money, only for a taking of chattel. Gaffney v. Community Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n, 706 S.W.2d 530, 533 (Mo.App.1986). An exception to this rule exists when plaintiff places funds in the custody of defendant for a specific purpose and defendant diverts them to a different purpose. Hall v. W.L. Brady Investments, Inc., 684 S.W.2d 379, 384 (Mo.App.1984).

Appellant argues that the exception applies here. We disagree. While the money in question was intended for a specific purpose, it was not placed in Merta’s custody. Under the terms of the account, Merta did not have authority to use the funds without consent of either appellant or her husband. It also appears that the money was not diverted from its purpose. Appellant deposited the money with the expectation that it would be used in the operation of Platinum Images Marketing Concepts and there is no indication on the record that the money was not so used. The fact that appellant did not receive the consideration she expected in return for supplying the funds does not affect the purpose for which the funds were used.

Consequently, it is clear that no tort of conversion occurred and thus there was no conspiracy to commit the tort of conversion. The trial court correctly dismissed this count.

Appellant’s second point claims the court erred in summarily dismissing Counts V and VI, conspiracy to breach and aiding Merta in breaching his fiduciary duty, because these claims were not inconsistent with the action against Merta for money had and received.

When a defendant receives money in trust for a plaintiff and does not live up to the trust, the plaintiff may sue either for the breach of trust in tort or for the money had and received. Alarcon v. Dickerson, 719 S.W.2d 458, 461 (Mo.App.1986). An action for money had and received is proper where defendant received money from plaintiff “under circumstances that in equity and good conscience call for him to pay it to plaintiff.” Ryan v. Tinker, 744 S.W.2d 502, 504 (Mo.App.1988). Such an action sounds in contract and waives all torts arising from the same conduct. Hilderbrand v. Anderson, 270 S.W.2d 406, 410 (Mo.App.1954).

In general, where a plaintiff can choose to proceed in tort or contract on a course of conduct involving two possible defendants and he chooses to proceed to a final judgment against one defendant in contract, he may not later attempt to pursue a tort action against the second defendant; the initial waiver of tort waived tort for all purposes. Stambaugh v. Wedlan, 371 S.W.2d 361, 363 (Mo.App.1963).

While the mere waiver of a tort is neither a ratification of it nor an admission of its nonexistence, analogous to the effect of an election between inconsistent remedies ...

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Bluebook (online)
788 S.W.2d 296, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 367, 1990 WL 21188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perez-v-boatmens-national-bank-of-st-louis-moctapp-1990.