Rick Singleton v. Fifth Third Bank

977 N.E.2d 958, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 532, 2012 WL 5235319
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 24, 2012
Docket71A04-1202-MF-83
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 977 N.E.2d 958 (Rick Singleton v. Fifth Third Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rick Singleton v. Fifth Third Bank, 977 N.E.2d 958, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 532, 2012 WL 5235319 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

*960 OPINION

BROWN, Judge.

Rick Singleton, America’s Directories, Inc., America’s Directories Midwest, LLC, America’s Directories South, LLC, Best Delivery Systems, LLC, Best Events, LLC, Best Wings, LLC, Imagination Publications, L.L.C., Proathlete LLC, RAS Holdings LLC, Studio A Advertising LLC (collectively, “Singleton”), the Indiana Department of Revenue, and James A. Brown (together with Singleton and the Indiana Department of Revenue, “Appellants”) appeal the trial court’s October 27, 2011 order granting Fifth Third Bank’s Renewed Motion for Entry of Agreed Final Judgment and denying Singleton’s cross-motion to enforce the Forbearance Agreement. Appellants raise one issue, which we restate as whether the trial court erred in ruling in favor of Fifth Third in its October 27, 2011 order. We reverse and remand.

FACTS AND COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS

The relevant facts follow. In the years 2004 through 2008, Fifth Third Bank (“Fifth Third”) made loans to Rick Singleton, America’s Directories, Inc., Best Wings, LLC, and RAS Holdings LLC, each of which was guaranteed by one or more of the Singleton parties. On September 1, 2010, Fifth Third filed a Verified Complaint on Promissory Notes and Guarantees, for Replevin and Foreclosure of Mortgages and for the Appointment of a Receiver.

Fifth Third and Singleton entered into a Forbearance Agreement with an effective date of April 4, 2011. The Forbearance Agreement provided in part, under Paragraph 1(a), that Fifth Third agreed “to forbear or suspend, as applicable, during the period (the ‘Forbearance Period’) commencing on the date of this [Forbearance] Agreement and ending the earlier of (i) June 30, 2011 or (ii) the occurrence of any Termination Event (as hereafter defined) from further pursuing” the pending litigation and the receivership proceedings under the various applicable loan documents. Appellee’s Appendix at 10.

Paragraph 2(a) of the Forbearance Agreement provided in part that “[e]ach Borrower shall make payments toward the outstanding Indebtedness owing to Lender under their respective Obligations in those amounts and in the chronological order and by those dates set forth in and pursuant to that schedule attached hereto as Exhibit B.” Id. at 11. Paragraph 4 of the Forbearance Agreement provided in part that “Termination Event” meant the occurrence of any of the following:

b) Any Borrower or Guarantor shall (i) breach or fail to perform any of its covenants, obligations or agreements contained in this [Forbearance] Agreement or (ii) fail to perform any of the covenants, obligations or agreements set forth in the Loan Documents not otherwise modified herein or otherwise constituting Existing Defaults or (iii) in the event any Condition set forth in Paragraph 2 is not satisfied, in whole or in part, when performance thereof is due or within five (5) business days of when due with respect to, and solely with respect to, the payments to be made on, _,C 1 ] 2011 as shown on Exhibit B (collectively, a “New Default”); ....

Id. at 13-14. Exhibit B to the Forbearance Agreement contained the following:

*961 PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Date Due_Amount

Upon Execution of the Agreement $500,000 by the Parties_

April 15, 2011_$250,000

April 30, 2011_$250,000

May 30, 2011_$250,000

June 30, 2011_$350,000

Id. at 24. According to Paragraph 5 of the Forbearance Agreement, upon the occurrence of a Termination Event, Fifth Third would be entitled to file an Agreed Judgment and reinstate the receivership proceedings.

In the late afternoon on June 6, 2011, Singleton initiated a wire transfer from its bank, Mutual Bank, to Fifth Third to make payment of the amount due on May 30, 2011, and Fifth Third received the payment on the morning of June 7, 2011. 2 Singleton filed a motion for declaratory judgment, and Fifth Third filed a cross-motion for entry of agreed final judgment and to reinstate receivership. At a hearing on June 17, 2011, Singleton argued that the payment initiated on June 6, 2011, was timely because the Forbearance Agreement required only that payment was required to be made by the applicable dates and the Forbearance Agreement did not require that the payments to be received by Fifth Third by those dates. Fifth Third claimed that the payment was untimely and constituted a Termination Event under the Forbearance Agreement. Fifth Third argued that the Forbearance Agreement required that payment had to be received by Fifth Third and “in our hands” no later than the applicable due dates. Appellants’ Appendix at 59. The trial court stated:

Whether [] Singleton had the money and he could have paid it ... or didn’t have the money and barely got in the bank door at Mutual Bank before close of business and wired it out at that time, it really is not germane to the decision that the Court has to make about the interpretation of the contract.
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Well, it seems to me that one side is asking me to read something into the contract that doesn’t appear in the contract. And that’s not my role. So if they wanted it to say “in hand” or they wanted it to say “it has to be received by,” then they should have put that in the contract. That’s not in the contract. It says it has to be paid by. Paid by to me means that you take the action to actually pay the money. It doesn’t! ] mean that the money is received. It doesn’t mean that the money isn’t held up by the federal wire transfer act. You took the action you had to take to pay the funds.
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I can decide this case on the fact before me, which is that a wire transfer was paid to the bank, was initiated in a timely manner, and it was not receipted apparently until the next morning. The fact that it was not receipted until the next morning had nothing to do with [Singleton]. It had to do with the actions that take place between the banks for the protection of the banks and had nothing to do with the fact that [Singleton] attempted to comply and did in fact comply with the terms of the contract.
So to the extent that the Court needs to make a declaratory finding, the Court does declare that the payment that was made on June 6 was made in a timely *962 manner pursuant to the terms of the forbearance agreement and the Court so finds.
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[T]he next payment is due, and there is no grace period for that payment. So that needs to be done by the 30th of June. The Court notes today is the 17th, a Friday. That seems that some time next week hopefully the bank can get the lien released and then payment can be made the following week in a timely manner, the $350,000....

Id. at 62-63.

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977 N.E.2d 958, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 532, 2012 WL 5235319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rick-singleton-v-fifth-third-bank-indctapp-2012.