Stahl Oil Co. v. Helsel

860 A.2d 508
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 9, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 860 A.2d 508 (Stahl Oil Co. v. Helsel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stahl Oil Co. v. Helsel, 860 A.2d 508 (Pa. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

POPOVICH, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant Stahl Oil Company, Inc., a Pennsylvania business corporation, appeals from the order entered on October 2, 2003, in the Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County. On appeal, Appellant claims that the trial court erred by opening the previous judgment entered by confession in Appellant’s favor and then by entering a verdict against Appellant. Upon review, we reverse the order and reinstate the previous judgment in favor of Appellant.

¶ 2 In 1993, Appellees Ken and Martha Helsel (the Helsels) and Tom Holland (Holland) (collectively Appellees) formed KMT Services, Inc. (KMT), a corporation that acted as an automotive repair shop and gasoline filling station in Central City. Each Appellee was an officer and equal shareholder of KMT. In March 1994, Ap-pellees sought a fuel supplier for the gasoline filling station. On March 29, 1994, Jeff Nider, Appellant’s salesman, brought a product sales agreement (sales agreement) and a guaranty agreement with power to confess judgment (guaranty agreement)1 to the filling station for Ap-pellees to execute. Mr. Nider described the documents to the Helsels as an agreement to purchase fuel and an agreement to pay for the fuel. Mr. Nider left the documents at the filling station with the Hel-sels to allow Holland to sign them. That evening, Holland signed both the sales agreement and guaranty agreement without meeting Mr. Nider. Appellees did not read the documents completely prior to signing nor did Appellees consult an attorney prior to signing the documents.

¶ 3 As per the sales agreement and guaranty agreement, a credit transaction and account was created between Appellant and KMT. From January Í999 until October 2001, KMT’s balance owed on the credit account was between $8,250.00 and [511]*511$80,160.81. The largest payment that KMT made to Appellant during this period was $25,000.00. In December 1999 or January 2000, the Helsels sold their combined two-thirds interest in KMT to Holland and his wife. On September 21, 2001, Appellant filed a complaint in confession of judgment against Appellees and KMT for failure to pay the amount owed. That same day, the prothonotary entered judgment against Appellees and KMT in the amount of $77,790.86.2

¶ 4 On October 2, 2001, Holland filed a petition to open and strike off the judgment. Appellant filed an answer to Holland’s petition. On October 25, 2001, the Helsels filed a petition to strike off, which did not include a request to open the judgment. Thereafter, on November 28, 2001, the Helsels filed an amended petition to strike off and/or open confessed judgment. Appellant filed an answer to the Helsels’ amended petition. On January 2, 2002, Holland filed a petition for rule to show cause why judgment should not be stricken and/or opened. Appellant filed an answer to Holland’s January 2, 2002, petition for rule to show cause. The trial court opened the judgments against Appellees by order of May 30, 2002, and issued a memorandum in support of its order that same day.

¶ 5 A non-jury trial was held, and, on February 28, 2003, the trial court entered a verdict in favor of Appellees. Appellant filed post-trial motions, and they were denied by the trial court’s order of October 2, 2003. The trial court’s October 2, 2003 order also directed judgment to be entered in favor of Appellees.3 Proper notice of the trial court’s October 2, 2003 order directing the prothonotary to enter judgment in favor of Appellees was sent to Appellees. Appellant filed a timely appeal on November 3, 2003. The trial court did not order Appellant to file a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement. The trial court filed a memorandum in support of its denial of Appellant’s post-trial motions on October 2, 2003.

¶ 6 Initially, we must determine whether we have jurisdiction over the present appeal. The trial court ordered judgment to be entered in favor of Appellees by its October 2, 2003 order. However, the pro-thonotary failed to enter the judgment on the docket. We have recently addressed this issue in Fanning v. Dame, 795 A.2d 388 (Pa.Super.2002). In Fanning, a jury returned a verdict against Fanning, and Fanning then filed post-trial motions. The trial court denied Fanning’s post-trial motions and ordered judgment to be entered in favor of Davne. Judgment, however, was not entered, and Fanning filed an appeal from the trial court’s denial of Fanning’s post-trial motions. In deciding to address Fanning’s appeal, we recognized that:

Generally, an appeal will only be permitted from a final order unless otherwise permitted by statute or rule of court. An appeal from an order denying post-trial motions is interlocutory. An appeal to this Court can only lie from judgments entered subsequent to the trial court’s disposition of post-verdict motions, not from the order denying post-trial motions.

[512]*512Fanning, 795 A.2d at 391. (internal citations and quotations omitted).

¶7 Nevertheless, we addressed Fanning’s appeal in the interest of judicial economy because “there are some instances wherein a party has failed to enter judgment and our appellate courts may regard as done that which ought to have been done.” Fanning, 795 A.2d at 391 0quoting Johnston the Florist, Inc. v. TEDCO Constr. Corp., 441 Pa.Super. 281, 657 A.2d 511, 514-15 (1995)). Therefore, pursuant to our holding in Fanning, and the fact that the parties each received notice of the trial court’s order for the prothonotary to enter judgment in favor of Appellees, we will consider Appellant’s appeal as being properly before our Court.4

¶ 8 On appeal, Appellant presents three issues for our review:

1. Did the [trial] court err in opening the judgment and then entering a verdict for [Appellee Holland] when no meritorious defense was proved?
2. Did the [trial] court err in opening the judgment and then entering a verdict for [Appellees Helsels] when no meritorious defense was proved?
3. Did the [trial] court err by raising, sua sponte, a defense, and then [deciding] the case on that defense?

Appellant’s brief, at 4.

¶ 9 In issues one and two, Appellant argues that the trial court erred in opening the judgment by confession entered against Appellees. We agree.

¶ 10 In reviewing a trial court’s order on a petition to open a confessed judgment, we have the following standard of review:

A petition to open judgment is an appeal to the equitable powers of the court. As such, it is committed to the sound discretion of the hearing court and will not be disturbed absent a manifest abuse of discretion.

PNC Bank v. Kerr, 802 A.2d 634, 638 (Pa.Super.2002) (citation omitted). Furthermore, a court should open a confessed judgment if the petitioner promptly presents evidence on a petition to open which in a jury trial would require that the issues be submitted to the jury. Germantown Sav. Bank v. Talacki, 441 Pa.Super. 513, 657 A.2d 1285, 1288-89 (1995).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
860 A.2d 508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stahl-oil-co-v-helsel-pasuperct-2004.