Royal Resources, Inc. v. Gibralter Financial Corp.

603 P.2d 793, 1979 Utah LEXIS 947
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 5, 1979
Docket15817
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 603 P.2d 793 (Royal Resources, Inc. v. Gibralter Financial Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Royal Resources, Inc. v. Gibralter Financial Corp., 603 P.2d 793, 1979 Utah LEXIS 947 (Utah 1979).

Opinions

HALL, Justice:

Defendant, Lynn Dixon, appeals from a personal judgment against him for monies had and received.

The facts giving rise to this lawsuit are not generally in dispute. The corporate defendants (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Gibralter”), were engaged in the securities trading business and defendant, Lynn Dixon, (hereinafter “Dixon”) was the president of Gibralter and acted as its broker, selling stocks using both his own account and customer accounts. Plaintiff had an ongoing business relationship with Gibralter which centered upon a practice known in the securities trading business as “early settlement.” Under said practice, when Gibralter engaged in a transaction involving the sale of stock, which would normally require a seven-day settlement period,1 plaintiff would advance sums of money by way of such early settlements so that Gibralter’s customers could obtain their sale proceeds prior to the lapse of the seven-day period.2 The procedure simply involved the execution of an assignment by the customer of the sales proceeds being held by Gibral-ter, which, in due time, would pay the same over to plaintiff, thus completing the transaction.

Plaintiff advanced the monies in question by delivering two checks to Dixon which totalled $10,000. The checks were drawn in favor of Dixon and were personally endorsed and cashed by him. When repayment was not forthcoming, plaintiff filed the subject action alleging a cause of action against Gibralter and individually against Dixon and one Perry, for having had and received the monies.

At pre-trial, the court was advised of the defunct status of Gibralter and the parties stipulated that judgment be awarded against it. The subsequent order and judgment of the court awarded judgment by confession against Gibralter in accord with the demand of the complaint, and it specifically approved the further stipulation of the parties that the defendants would cooperate fully with SCIPIC3 for the purpose of making plaintiff whole by federal insurance compensation. The court further ordered, pursuant to stipulation of the parties, that the trial of the remaining issues involving the individual liability of Dixon and Perry be continued without date.

The SCIPIC claim failed for reasons not the least of which was the lack of necessary documentation by the defendants. Consequently, plaintiff moved for and obtained an order of the court for production of documents and, pursuant to the pre-trial order, sought to determine the remaining issue as to the individual liability of Dixon and Percy. Despite the court order, the documents were never produced, and on April 19, 1978, the matter proceeded to trial.

At the onset of the trial, the court recited the fact that judgment had been previously entered against Gibralter, leaving only the issue of individual liability to be determined. Upon the representation of plaintiff that it could not sustain its burden of proof as to Perry, and on motion of counsel for Dixon and Perry, the complaint was dismissed as to Perry. No such motion to dismiss, for any reason, was made on behalf of Dixon. In fact, plaintiff’s basic proffer of proof covering its prima facie case was stipulated to by Dixon thus eliminating the necessity of plaintiff calling witnesses. Dixon then proceeded to present his case. [795]*795He acknowledged having had and received the monies advanced by plaintiff, but had no recollection as to the ultimate disposition thereof, and produced no documentary evidence to resolve the issue.

Plaintiff had an obviously legitimate claim and was entitled to recover thereon. The trial court was thus faced with a single factual issue, viz., whether or not Dixon (aside from his agency relationship with Gibralter) was personally liable to plaintiff.

The case was briefly argued and presented. The court ruled from the bench in favor of the plaintiff, stating the matter as follows:

. [Y]ou’ve got a man here with two hats. Use the corporation when he wants to and his own account when he wants to . He’s in the position where he can control — it’s a lax thing, these transactions. But sooner or later there’s got to be some written evidence of something here. . . . He’s in the position to maneuver. I don’t know whether that’s the case or not. But I think that under the situation that he— he either through the company or through his own records would have to show that this was actually assigned over to the company and it wasn't maneuvered. I’ll award judgment to the Plaintiff.

Dixon asserts three points of error on appeal: (1) that it was error to hold him personally liable as an agent of Gibralter; (2) that it was error to draw an evidentiary conclusion from his failure to produce documents; and (3) that plaintiff was precluded from taking judgment against him, having previously elected to take judgment against Gibralter.

The lack of documentary evidence is at the very nub of this controversy, and since the lack thereof bears directly upon both.the first and second assignments of error, they are considered together. Having stipulated to plaintiff’s basic prima fa-cie case, that of having had and received the funds in question, it was incumbent upon Dixon to bear the burden of going forward. Under the facts peculiar to this case, such required some showing as to the disposition made of the funds. Yet, none was made.- No evidence was produced⅝ documentary or otherwise, as to whether Gi-bralter received the proceeds of the purported stock sale, whether Dixon paid over to Gibralter’s customer the monies advanced by plaintiff, or whether Dixon himself was still in possession thereof. Faced with such an anomalous situation, it was within the prerogative of the trial court to conclude that Dixon’s actions were not those of an agent of Gibralter and, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation of the whereabouts of the monies, to further conclude that Dixon was acting for himself and hence became personally liable to plaintiff therefor.

Dixon’s initial contention of error presupposes that the trial court based its finding of liability on the basis of agency, but as evidenced by the excerpt from the court’s ruling, supra, such was obviously not the case, and his contention is therefore without merit.

Whether or not Dixon dealt on his own, or as an agent of Gibralter, was an issue presented at trial by the stipulation of the parties. The trial court affirmatively found that it was in his individual capacity that Dixon received the check drawn in his favor, that he endorsed it, and received the proceeds thereof. Consequently, the doctrine of law that when an agent deals for a disclosed principal the agent cannot be held personally liable has no application to this case.

Dixon next contends that the documentary evidence sought by plaintiff and which he failed to produce (although ordered to do so), was equally accessible to plaintiff. This argument is also without merit inasmuch as the ultimate disposition of the monies was peculiarly within Dixon’s knowledge.

Turning now to Dixon’s final point on appeal, that of election of remedies, such a defense is unavailable to him for two reasons. First, under the facts peculiar to this case, no election of remedies was made, and, second, the defense was not presented at [796]*796the trial level, but is raised for the first time on appeal.

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Royal Resources, Inc. v. Gibralter Financial Corp.
603 P.2d 793 (Utah Supreme Court, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
603 P.2d 793, 1979 Utah LEXIS 947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/royal-resources-inc-v-gibralter-financial-corp-utah-1979.