Semlek v. National Bank of Alaska

458 P.2d 1003, 1969 Alas. LEXIS 158
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 1969
Docket1052
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 458 P.2d 1003 (Semlek v. National Bank of Alaska) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Semlek v. National Bank of Alaska, 458 P.2d 1003, 1969 Alas. LEXIS 158 (Ala. 1969).

Opinion

*1004 OPINION

CONNOR, Justice.

Robert Semlek and his wife Rebecca appeal from a summary judgment entered against them by the superior court. The facts as they appeared before the superior court judge ruling on the motion for summary judgment are as follows:

On April 25, 1963, the appellants executed a note in the amount of $6,700.00 payable to the National Bank of Alaska, one of the appellees. To secure payment of the note, on May 25 of the same year the appellants executed a deed of trust on two lots of real property in which the Title Insurance and Trust Company was named trustee and the National Bank of Alaska was named beneficiary. The deed was properly recorded on August 15, 1963. The payments on the note were to be $200.00 a month, including 8% interest per annum, and were to commence on September 16, 1963.

An additional loan had been granted by the National Bank of Alaska to the appellants who executed a note therefor on January 31, 1963, in the amount of $4,-213.50. This loan was in the form of an unsecured home improvement loan to be paid in monthly installments of $140.45 each and to be paid off by August 1, 1965.

The payments on the deed of trust note were extended by written agreement on two occasions after failure by appellants to make regular payments. These extension /agreements were signed by appellant Robert Semlek and appellee Roy Stigum, then an officer of the bank. The first extension was executed on June 16, 1964, and extended the June 16, 1964, payment to the maturity date of the contract. At this time the appellants were one month in default. The second extension agreement was executed on February 25, 1965, and provided that only interest was to be paid for the months of September through December of 1964 and the first two months of 1965. Payments for March through August of 1965 were to be $100.00 each, and thereafter the regular $200.00 monthly payments were to resume.

The note on the home improvement loan was also extended on two occasions by written agreement executed by Robert Semlek and Roy Stigum. The first extension, entered into on June 16, 1964, extended the June 1964 payment to the maturity of the contract. The second extension was executed on February 25, 1965, and extended the January and February 1965 payments to the maturity of the contract.

The appellants allege that an oral extension agreement was entered into between them and Roy Stigum, the bank officer, on or about July or August 1965. The terms of this oral agreement are said to have been that payments on the real estate loan would be stayed until such time as payments on the home improvement loan were paid off, oven if there might be minor defaults in the payment of the home improvement loan.

The only record of the appellants’ payments on these loans is contained in the bank’s ledgers which were made exhibits for the hearing on the motion for summary judgment. According to these records the appellants made no payments on the trust deed note after June 1965, and no payments were made on the home improvement loan after February 28, 1966.

After a number of requests by the bank for payments, a notice of default on the trust deed note was executed and recorded on October 12, 1966. The appellees included the $787.45 balance due on the home improvement loan in the documents effecting the foreclosure in addition to the $4,-978.04 principal due on the trust deed note. The proceeds of the foreclosure sale were applied to this unsecured debt. The foreclosure sale occurred on January 19, 1967, and the buyers were Roy Stigum and Vernon L. DeBoer, d/b/a Stigum and DeBoer, who bid $6,994.00. Stigum had resigned his position at the bank in May 1966 to enter a partnership with DeBoer.

*1005 Sometime before the foreclosure sale, Robert Semlek attempted to secure funds from the USARAL Credit Union in order to pay off the trust deed note. The loan was not granted, although an officer of the credit union testified on deposition that it probably would have been had the title search been completed before the sale.

Approximately one-half hour before the foreclosure sale the appellants recorded a deed conveying the property subject to the trust deed to one William Semlek, the brother of the appellant Robert Semlek. The appellants did not attend the sale and stated that they were confused as to the location. After the foreclosure sale and during the month of February 1967 appellants unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the property from Stigum and De-Boer.

The appellants filed their first complaint on March 23, 1967, in which they alleged the oral extension agreement and that foreclosure was the result of a conspiracy to deprive the appellants of their property. The appellees each filed an answer denying the allegations and counterclaimed for malicious prosecution. The counterclaims were lated dismissed. The appellees later moved for summary judgment, which was denied.

On April 19, 1968, the appellees moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the appellants lacked capacity because they had transferred their title prior to the foreclosure sale. The motion was granted with leave to amend.

An amended complaint was filed which again alleged the oral agreement and the wrongful foreclosure and additionally alleged fraud. A new motion to dismiss was submitted on the same grounds as the first, and an additional ground stated that the complaint failed to allege fraud with particularity as required by Rule 9(b) of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The amended complaint was dismissed.

The appellants’ third amended complaint was filed on July 1, 1968, which was answered by the appellees. A motion for summary judgment was again filed by the appellees. The hearing was held on July 23, 1968, and the motion was granted. The appellants have appealed from the entry of the summary judgment.

At the hearing on the motion for summary judgment the appellees stipulated, for purposes of the motion, that the oral extension agreement alleged by the appellants was true, to-wit, that the National Bank of Alaska would forbear any payments on the trust deed note until such time as the Semleks paid off the unsecured home improvement loan, even if there might be minor defaults in the payment of the latter loan. The court inquired of appellants’ counsel the following: (1) whether the appellants admitted the existence of the notes for the two loans; (2). whether the appellants failed to make payments on the trust deed note after the date of the alleged oral agreement until the time of the notice of default; and (3) whether the appellants failed to make payments on the home improvement loan after February 1966. Appellants’ counsel stated that there was no evidence to show that these statements were not true, even though Mr. Semlek felt that he might have made other payments on the home improvement loan.

The court then ruled that there existed no genuine issue of material fact, made findings of fact, and then ruled that the appellants had breached the oral agreement which gave rise to the bank’s right to declare the loans in default and to proceed with foreclosure. He further ruled that the appellants failed to establish a basis for their claim in tort.

Appellants claim that there are several issues of fact which should have precluded summary judgment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
458 P.2d 1003, 1969 Alas. LEXIS 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/semlek-v-national-bank-of-alaska-alaska-1969.