Rowland v. American Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n

523 S.W.2d 207, 17 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 850, 1975 Tenn. App. LEXIS 179
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 15, 1975
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 523 S.W.2d 207 (Rowland v. American Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rowland v. American Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n, 523 S.W.2d 207, 17 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 850, 1975 Tenn. App. LEXIS 179 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

MATHERNE, Judge.

The Honorable W. E. Quick, by appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, sat on this lawsuit in the place of Presiding Judge C. S. Carney.

One Ellis Maness owned an interest bearing deposit with the defendant, which deposit he assigned to the plaintiff. Upon demand by the plaintiff assignee, the defendant obligor refused to pay to her the amount of the deposit. The plaintiff sues for that amount.

Each party filed a motion for summary judgment and an affidavit in support thereof. The chancellor dismissed the motion of the defendant, sustained the motion of the plaintiff and entered judgment against the defendant for the amount of the deposit, $2,128.99, plus interest thereon from March 9, 1973. The defendant appeals to this Court.

The record reveals that James L. Chris-man attempted to borrow $12,000 from the defendant. The defendant would advance only $10,000 to Chrisman. In order to aid Chrisman to obtain the full amount of $12,000, Ellis Maness placed on deposit with the defendant the sum of $2,000, and executed a written pledge agreement in favor of the defendant whereby he pledged the account to secure the payment of the Chrisman loan to the extent the amount of the loan exceeded the sum of $10,000. This transaction occurred on January 26, 1965.

On about October 28, 1969, Maness made a written assignment of the above account to the plaintiff. By letter dated February 6, 1970, the plaintiff, through her father and attorney, notified the defendant of the assignment made to her by Maness, and requested the account be converted to such an account as would draw the highest rate of interest. The defendant answered by letter dated February 26, 1970 that it could not accept the assignment to the plaintiff until the pledge of the account to 'it was satisfied, which should occur within approximately 36 months.

It appears Ellis Maness died, and by letter dated March 6, 1972, the plaintiff’s attorney again wrote the defendant reminding it of the assignment of the Ellis Maness account to the plaintiff. By letter dated March 13, 1972, the defendant, by its counsel, answered this last reminder, which letter states in part as follows:

“Account #1135 in the individual name of Ellis Maness has a balance as of December 31, 1971 of $2,075.16. This account was pledged to American Federal Savings and Loan Association of Jackson on January 26, 1965 to secure a loan to James L. Chrisman. Mr. and Mrs. Chrisman desired to make a $12,000. loan from American Federal, but the Association was unwilling to loan this amount nor any amount above $10,000. Mr. Maness executed this assignment in order to induce the Association to make a $12,000. loan to Mr. and Mrs. Chrisman, and by the terms of the assignment when the unpaid balance of the Chrisman loan goes beneath $10,000, the assignment can be released. I am advised that this will occur in about eleven months if all payments are made when due.
“In the meantime we remind you that due to the existing assignment, the Association has not accepted your assignment, nor do we do so now. When the account of Mr. Chrisman reaches $10,000. we will advise you and the estate of Mr. Maness, and if the two of you are unable to agree as to how this matter should be handled, we will place this matter in the Chancery Court by in-terpleader and your claim and the claim of the estate can then be settled in the proper tribunal.”

*209 On October 6, 1972, the Chrisman loan was paid in full, and all terms and conditions of the original deposit and the pledge thereof were satisfied. The defendant did not notify the plaintiff assignee of this payment. On April 19, 1973, the plaintiff made personal demand of the defendant that the amount of the Maness account be paid to her, and presented proof of the account and the assignment thereof. The defendant refused to pay the amount of the account to the plaintiff.

The reason given by the defendant for its refusal to honor the plaintiff’s assignment is that it had, in a lawsuit in the Chancery Court of Maury County, Tennessee, in the cause of American Federal Savings and Loan Association vs. Robert D. Holder, et al, No. 12341, obtained judgment dated December 20, 1972, against Travis J. Maness, Executor of the Estate of Ellis Maness, deceased, in the amount of $3,900. The defendant offset the account of Maness against the judgment.

The background of the Chancery lawsuit in Maury County, Tennessee, involves a series of events totally unrelated to the transaction which resulted in the account of Ellis Maness with the defendant, and the assignment thereof to the plaintiff. That lawsuit grew out of the following factual situation as recited in the defendant’s affidavit and supporting exhibits:

On September 22, 1967, Robert D. Holder, et ux sold some land to Robert R. Chapman, et ux. The Chapmans borrowed $19,000 from the defendant and gave a deed of trust on the property as security. In fact there was a prior recorded deed of trust on the same property which secured a note payable to Ellis Maness in the amount of $3,500 plus interest, dated December 30, 1966. In order to avoid foreclosure by Ellis Maness, and to protect its security on its loan to Chapman, the defendant did on October 4, 1968, purchase the Holder note from Maness. On August 19, 1970, the defendant filed the chancery lawsuit in Mau-ry County against Holder on the warranties in his deed to Chapman. The Holders pled they paid the debt to Peoples Protective Life Insurance Company, which concern had in turn paid the amount over to Ellis Maness. By amendment to its complaint, filed May 23, 1972, the defendant made Peoples Protective and the Executor of the Estate of Ellis Maness parties defendant. The executor of the estate of Ellis Maness did not plead, and a judgment pro confesso was entered against that defendant on October 24, 1972. On December 20, 1972, the chancellor entered his decree dismissing all defendants except the Executor of the Estate of Ellis Maness. As to that defendant, the chancellor decreed :

“It is further Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that the Complainant, American Federal Savings and Loan Association of Jackson, Tennessee have and recover of Travis J. Maness, Executor of the Estate of Ellis Maness, deceased, judgment in the amount of Three Thousand Nine Hundred Dollars ($3,900.00), together with interest from and after October 4, 1968, same being the date upon which American Federal Savings and Loan Association of Jackson, Tennessee made the erroneous second payment of the note in issue to Ellis Maness.”

It thus appears to have been finally adjudicated that the defendant did make a good faith purchase of the Holder note from Ellis Maness on October 4, 1968; and further, the defendant’s purchase of the note from Ellis Maness constituted an erroneous second payment of the note to Ellis Maness.

We must conclude the defendant had a claim against Ellis Maness, in the amount it paid him for the Holder note, as of October 4, 1968. It is fairly established the defendant did not at that time realize it had a claim, and the defendant did not realize it had such claim until after the assignment of the account by Maness to the plaintiff, and after notice of assignment was given the defendant on February 6, 1970.

*210

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In Re Paul Pack Steel Erection, Co., Inc.
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Bluebook (online)
523 S.W.2d 207, 17 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 850, 1975 Tenn. App. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rowland-v-american-federal-savings-loan-assn-tennctapp-1975.