Schelle v. Mercantile Bancorporation, Inc.

741 S.W.2d 720, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 4784, 1987 WL 1007
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 20, 1987
DocketNo. 52347
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 741 S.W.2d 720 (Schelle v. Mercantile Bancorporation, Inc.) 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
Schelle v. Mercantile Bancorporation, Inc., 741 S.W.2d 720, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 4784, 1987 WL 1007 (Mo. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

SIMON, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Donald L. Schelle and Arevia M. Schelle, appeal from a summary judgment on Counts I and II of their three count first amended petition. Count I sets forth a claim based on breach of contract and Count II seeks damages for conversion. Summary judgment was entered by the Circuit Court of Shelby County in favor of defendants: Mercantile Bancorporation, Inc. (hereinafter “Mercantile”); Mercantile Bank of Macon (hereinafter “MBM”); Mercantile Trust Company, N.A. (hereinafter “MTC”); and Sangamon Investment Company (hereinafter “Sangamon”) and the judgment was designated final for the purpose of appeal. Count III for injunctive relief was continued indefinitely.

In their petition, plaintiffs in summary allege that by a contract dated December 14, 1982, MBM promised to “release its security interest in collateral described in the security Agreement” that included “all sheds, buildings, storage facilities, fixtures, fittings, appliances, apparatus, equipment, machinery, furniture, and furnishings and all other personal property which the plaintiffs owned which was located on the farm property subject to the deed of trust” dated July 2, 1982, in exchange for certain promises made by plaintiffs. Further, plaintiffs allege that the other defendants conspired in various ways to deprive plaintiffs of their interest in the foregoing collateral. Plaintiffs allege that they have attempted to obtain the collateral but have been prevented from doing so by defendants. Defendants deny that the December 14, 1982 release extended to the collateral as alleged by plaintiffs. However, in their appeal brief, defendants admit that they promised to release, and have, in fact, released their security interest in certain specified collateral.

In its judgment and order the trial court found, “as a matter of law that the Agreement of December 14, 1982 is not ambiguous; that the Security Agreement of May 1,1981 did not create a security interest in the buildings and fixtures in controversy; that the buildings and fixtures in controversy were part of the mortgaged property covered by the Mercantile Deed of Trust of July 2, 1982, which Deed of Trust continued in force beyond December 14, 1982.”

The record before us on appeal consists of the following: the contract, dated December 14, 1982, between plaintiffs and defendant MBM, that provides “[MBM] shall, upon closing, release its security interest in the collateral described in the Security Agreement;” a May 1,1981 security agreement between plaintiffs and MBM; a “deed of trust and security agreement” dated July 2,1982 and other deeds of trust; the pleadings and motions; volumes of depositions with attendant exhibits; a transcript of the pretrial conference during which defendants’ motion for summary judgment was made and granted; and, a transcript of a conference held on plaintiffs’ “motion for rehearing or for new trial or to amend the judgment.”

Initially, we are confronted with the task of determining the evidentiary materials actually before the trial court when it granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. We have been supplied with an overwhelming amount of evidentiary material on appeal, but whether all of it was actually before the trial court does not appear from the record. The motion for [722]*722summary judgment was made during the pretrial conference on the day of trial. The record does not indicate that the trial court had time to review all the material that has been presented to us on appeal. The pretrial conference began at 8:20 a.m. Defendants’ motion was made shortly thereafter. Two recesses were had during the argument thereon, and the summary judgment was granted by 10:20 a.m.

It is clear, and the record reveals, that the December 14, 1982 contract, the July 2, 1982 “deed of trust and security agreement,” and the security agreement dated May 1, 1981, were before the trial court and were considered in the ruling on the motion. Likewise, it appears of record that the pleadings and motions were before the court. However, whether the numerous depositions and attendant exhibits were actually before the court is uncertain.

In Hill v. Air Shields, Inc., 721 S.W.2d 112 (Mo.App.1986), we were confronted with a similar situation. We explained:

The purpose of the trial court’s examination of proffered material extraneous to the petition is not to try an issue but to determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. Here, it is unclear from the record before us what precisely was before the court. Defendant refers to depositions and to previous trial testimony, but whether these transcripts were actually before the court is not evident. It is not the function of the appellate court to shift through material furnished by the parties on appeal to determine the exact nature of the evidentiary material submitted to the trial court in a summary judgment proceeding. The preferable course for both the moving and opposing parties to follow in a motion for summary judgment would be to enumerate all portions of the transcripts and depositions referred to in the motion and to properly authenticate or certify the documents which they wish the trial court to consider in ruling on the motion. Unless the record reveals that the documents which the parties purportedly relied upon in the trial court were properly made part of the record, we cannot say that they were before the trial court and they are not now before us.

Id. at 116.

Nevertheless, defendants assert that during the argument on the motion, “both sides made numerous references to the testimony contained in the depositions.” It is well established, however, that unsworn statements made by counsel during an argument on a motion are not proof of the facts asserted therein. See Flanigan v. City of Springfield, 360 S.W.2d 700, 705-06 (Mo.1962). Nothing in defendants’ answer, their unverified motion for summary judgment, or memorandum in support of said motion refers to any deposition testi-. mony. Hence, we cannot say that the depositions were actually before the trial court when it ruled on defendants’ motion and are now before us.

We look exclusively to the pleadings, motions, naturally the trial transcripts, the July 2, 1982 “deed of trust and security agreement” and other deeds of trust, the contract of December 14, 1982, and the security agreement dated May 1, 1981, as the record on appeal. For defendants to prevail as the parties moving for summary judgment, they have the burden to establish that there is no issue as to any material fact and that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rule 74.04(c); E.O. Dorsch Electric Co. v. Plaza Construction Co., 413 S.W.2d 167, 169 (Mo. 1967). Moreover, defendants, as the moving parties, are not entitled to the benefit of favorable inferences to be drawn from the documents supporting their motion. Instead, the matters presented in connection with the motion must be construed most favorably to the party opposing the motion. Weldon, Williams & Lick, Inc. v. L.B. Poultry Co., 537 S.W.2d 868, 871 (Mo.App.1976). The party opposing the motion is to be given the benefit of all reasonable inferences in determining whether a genuine issue of fact exists.

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741 S.W.2d 720, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 4784, 1987 WL 1007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schelle-v-mercantile-bancorporation-inc-moctapp-1987.