Wilder v. Waller (In re Waller)

210 B.R. 370
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJune 12, 1997
DocketBankruptcy No. 96-16234 PAC; Adversary No. 96-1522 RJB
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 210 B.R. 370 (Wilder v. Waller (In re Waller)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilder v. Waller (In re Waller), 210 B.R. 370 (Colo. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ROLAND J. BRUMBAUGH, Bankruptcy Judge.

APPLICABLE LAW

THIS MATTER came on for trial commencing April 21, 1997, on the Plaintiffs Amended Complaint brought under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A). That section provides as follows:

(a) a discharge under section 727 ... of this title does not discharge an individual debtor from any debt — (2) for money, property, services, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by — (A) false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud, other than a statement respecting the debtor’s or an insider’s financial condition...

The Plaintiff must prove each element of his claim under § 523(a)(2)(A) by a preponderance of the evidence. Grogan et al v. Garner, 498 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 654, 112 L.Ed.2d 755 (1991). And the Supreme Court has instructed that in construing the terms in [372]*372§ 523(a)(2)(A), reference must be made to the “... general common law of torts, the dominant consensus of common-law jurisdictions, rather than the law of any particular state.” Field v. Mans, — U.S.-, - — n. 9, 116 S.Ct. 437, 443 n. 9, 133 L.Ed.2d 351 (1995). The Supreme Court in that case declared the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1976) as the “... most widely accepted distillation of the common law of torts.... ” Field v. Mam, supra, — U.S.-,-- -, 116 S.Ct. 437, 443-444, 133 L.Ed.2d 351.

In this case the Plaintiff alleges (1) that the Defendant made affirmative false statements, false representations and committed fraud; (2) that the Defendant concealed or failed to disclose material facts that he had a duty to disclose; and (3) that the Defendant committed “promissory fraud,” i.e., that he made a promise to perform some future act or made a statement of intention to do some future act, when he had no intention of performing the promise or carrying out the stated intention.

The primary relevant sections of The Restatement (Second) of Torts (1976) (hereinafter referred to as the “Restatement”) are as follows:

§ 525. Liability for Fraudulent Misrepresentation. One who fraudulently makes a misrepresentation of fact, opinion, intention or law for the purpose of inducing another to act or to refrain from action in reliance upon it, is subject to liability to the other in deceit for pecuniary loss caused to him by his justifiable reliance upon the misrepresentation.
§ 526. Conditions Under Which Misrepresentation is Fraudulent (Scienter). A misrepresentation is fraudulent if the maker
(a) knows or believes that the matter is not as he represents it to be,
(b) does not have the confidence in the accuracy of his representation that he states or implies, or
(c) knows that he does not have the basis for his representation that he states or implies.
§ 530. Misrepresentation of Intention.
(1) A representation of the maker’s own intention to do or not to do a particular thing is fraudulent if he does not have that intention.
(2) A representation of the intention of a third person is fraudulent under the conditions stated in § 526.
§ 531. General Rule. One who makes a fraudulent misrepresentation is subject to liability to the persons or class of persons whom he intends or has reason to expect to act or to refrain from action in reliance upon the misrepresentation, for pecuniary loss suffered by them through their justifiable reliance in the type of transaction in which he intends or has reason to expect their conduct to be influenced.
§ 537. General Rule. The recipient of a fraudulent misrepresentation can recover against its maker for pecuniary loss resulting from it if, but only if,
(a) he relies on the misrepresentation in acting or refraining from action, and,
(b) his reliance is justifiable.
§ 538. Materiality of Misrepresentation.
(1) Reliance upon a fraudulent misrepresentation is not justifiable unless the matter misrepresented is material.
(2) The matter is material if
(a) a reasonable man would attach importance to its existence or nonexistence in determining his choice of action in the transaction in question; or
(b) the maker of the representation knows or has reason to know that its recipient regards or is likely to regard the matter as important in determining his choice of action, although a reasonable man would not so regard it.
§ 544. Statement of Intention. The recipient of a fraudulent misrepresentation of intention is justified in relying upon it if the existence of the intention is material and the recipient has reason to believe that it will be carried out.
§ 550. Liability for Fraudulent Concealment. One party to a transaction who by concealment or other action intentionally prevents the other from acquiring material information is subject to the same liability to the other, for pecuniary loss as though [373]*373he had stated the nonexistence of the matter that the other was thus prevented from discovering.
§ 551. Liability for Nondisclosure.
(1) One who fails to disclose to another a fact that he knows may justifiably induce the other to act or refrain from acting in a business transaction is subject to the same liability to the other as though he had represented the nonexistence of the matter that he has failed to disclose, if, but only if, he is under a duty to the other to exercise reasonable care to disclose the matter in question.
(2) One party to a business transaction is under a duty to exercise reasonable care to disclose to the other before the transaction is consummated,
(a) matters known to him that the other is entitled to know because of a fiduciary or other similar relation of trust and confidence between them; and
(b) matters known to him that he knows to be necessary to prevent his partial or ambiguous statement of the facts from being misleading; and
(c) subsequently acquired information that he knows will make untrue or misleading a previous representation that when made was true or believed to be so; and
(d) the falsity of a representation not made with the expectation that it would be acted upon, if he subsequently learns that the other is about to act in reliance upon it in a transaction with him; and
(e) facts basic to the transaction, if he knows that the other is about to enter into it under a mistake as to them, and that the other, because of the relationship between them, the customs of the trade or other objective circumstances, would reasonably expect a disclosure of those facts.

FACTS

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Bluebook (online)
210 B.R. 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilder-v-waller-in-re-waller-cob-1997.