Wagner v. Wagner

205 P.3d 306, 2009 Alas. LEXIS 35, 2009 WL 1039835
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 17, 2009
DocketS-12666
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 205 P.3d 306 (Wagner v. Wagner) 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
Wagner v. Wagner, 205 P.3d 306, 2009 Alas. LEXIS 35, 2009 WL 1039835 (Ala. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

CARPENETI, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2005 the trial court awarded a judgment for specific performance to a son against his father on a contract entered into by father and son in which the son helped the father obtain a bank loan. The father appealed that judgment to this court in 2006, but we dismissed that appeal for lack of prosecution. The father did not pay, and in 2007 the trial court issued a writ of execution against him. The father now appeals from that writ of execution. The father raises three questions on appeal: (1) Did the trial court err in its 2005 judgment by ordering specific performance based on the royalties from certain of the father’s oil and gas leases that were not part of the security for the loan? (2) Did the trial court err in awarding specific performance rather than a lump sum judgment? and (3) Did the trial court erroneously stray from the formula in the 2005 judgment when it calculated the amount due to the son in the writ of execution?

Of these three questions raised, we reach only the third. We decline to decide the first and second issues because they are both time-barred and barred by our dismissal of the father’s appeal from the 2005 judgment for failure to prosecute. The father’s first and second questions challenge the 2005 order and judgment, and he cannot make those challenges now. And we conclude the third *308 challenge cannot succeed. What the father claims was error is, in fact, the correct calculation ordered by the trial court in 2005. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the superior court.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

A. Facts

Richard Wagner filed for bankruptcy in 1988. 1 Richard’s assets included royalties from oil and gas leases he possessed. Richard’s creditors included Key Bank, whom Richard owed $2.5 million. The bankruptcy court issued Richard’s final bankruptcy plan in 1994. The plan divided Richard’s oil and gas lease royalties among his creditors. In 2001 Key Bank offered to settle Richard’s $2.5 million debt for $1 million if Richard paid by December 31, 2001. Richard was unable to raise the money; he therefore asked his son Gregory Wagner to help him get a loan.

Gregory agreed to co-sign a $1,025,000 loan from Northrim Bank with Richard. Gregory and his wife put up their home as collateral and put their personal credit at risk. In exchange for Gregory’s co-signature on the loan, Richard and Gregory entered into an oral agreement, which they later reduced to writing.

The written agreement provided that income from Richard’s royalties that had secured the Key Bank loan would first pay the Northrim loan. Any remaining royalty income would be divided as follows: Gregory would get the first $2,500 per month, Richard would get the next $7,500 per month, and they would divide any remaining royalty income equally between them. The agreement did not take into account the portions of royalty income to be paid to other creditors under the bankruptcy plan.

B. Proceedings

In 2002 Richard defaulted in his payments to Gregory, and Gregory sued in 2003. The case went to trial in August 2005. At the end of trial, the jury returned the following answers to the following special interrogatories:

[Q:] Prior to the time the Wagners signed the loan documents at Northrim Bank on December 24, 2005, had they entered into an oral agreement? [A:] Yes.
[Q:] If yes, what were the terms of that agreement? [A:] In exchange for getting a $1,025,000 loan from Northrim bank to repay Richard Wagner’s debt at Key Bank, Greg Wagner will receive a share of profits from Richard Wagner’s oil royalties.

The jury found breach by Richard and awarded Gregory past damages of $139,180.39. 2

In November 2005 the superior court concluded that specific performance was an appropriate remedy and ordered Gregory to prepare a judgment for specific performance. The court held, contrary to Richard’s argument, that the jury’s failure to specify the terms of the oral agreement did not prevent specific performance. The court reasoned that the jury must have used the terms of the written agreement to calculate its award of past damages, and therefore that the jury must have found the terms of the oral agreement consistent with the terms of the written agreement. The court wrote:

Applying the formula of the [written] agreement mechanically to the testimony of ... [a witness] and the other evidence of the oil revenues from Richard’s shares of his oil leases introduced at trial, the past damages would be calculated at $141,124.00. That is within $2000.00 of what the jury actually awarded [$139,-180.39]. The jury did not receive a lot of help from counsel in calculating past damages and their award to Greg is within reasonable mathematical error if they performed the calculations under the agreement themselves.... The difference could also be explained by the jury’s determination that there were insufficient royalties *309 to meet the complete payout of the agreement on one or more months.

The trial court said it would order Richard to pay Gregory according to the formula in the written agreement. The trial court also said it would calculate Gregory’s payments without deducting amounts owed to creditors other than Northrim Bank, including the Weeks Foundation. In December 2005 the superior court entered judgment for specific performance against Richard.

In his earlier appeal — which we ultimately dismissed for lack of prosecution — Richard challenged a number of the superior court’s conclusions of fact and law. He generally did not state any legal grounds for those challenges, merely stating that the superior court “erred” in entering them. He challenged the superior court’s conclusion of law that “[t]he contract between Richard and Greg is sufficiently clear and definite that the Court is able to enforce it without having to supply essential terms that the parties did not agree to.” He also challenged the superior court’s decision to order specific performance into the future, as well as the superior court’s order that all Richard’s royalty income be paid directly into an escrow account and directly disbursed from the escrow account, without ever passing through Richard’s control.

In March 2007 the superior court issued a writ of execution against Richard for arrear-ages owed to Gregory under the December 2005 specific performance judgment. Richard appeals from this writ of execution.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review questions of law de novo and questions of fact for clear error. 3 We review awards of specific performance for abuse of discretion. 4 We will not upset a jury verdict if there is a logical theory that reconciles apparent inconsistencies in the jury verdict. 5

IV. DISCUSSION

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jackson v. Borough of Haines
441 P.3d 925 (Alaska Supreme Court, 2019)
Amanda Miller v. Clayton Hancock
Alaska Supreme Court, 2016
Hill v. Bloom
235 P.3d 215 (Alaska Supreme Court, 2010)
Wagner v. Wagner
218 P.3d 669 (Alaska Supreme Court, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
205 P.3d 306, 2009 Alas. LEXIS 35, 2009 WL 1039835, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wagner-v-wagner-alaska-2009.