Wilson v. Gutierrez

323 P.3d 974, 261 Or. App. 410, 2014 WL 767966, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 215
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 26, 2014
DocketCE07361; A146521
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 323 P.3d 974 (Wilson v. Gutierrez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Gutierrez, 323 P.3d 974, 261 Or. App. 410, 2014 WL 767966, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 215 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

WOLLHEIM, J.

Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment in this forcible entry and wrongful detainer (FED) action, in which the trial court awarded plaintiffs possession of the residential real property in dispute but also awarded defendant $30,000 on his counterclaim for unjust enrichment. Plaintiffs assign error to the trial court’s ruling on the unjust enrichment counterclaim, arguing that there was insufficient evidence in the record to support defendant’s counterclaim and no evidentiary basis for the amount of damages awarded. Defendant did not file an answering brief.1 For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Unjust enrichment is an equitable doctrine. Speciality Risk Services v. Royal Indemnity Co., 213 Or App 620, 625, 164 P3d 300 (2007). We have discretion to review equitable cases de novo, but we only do so in exceptional cases. ORS 19.415(3)(b); ORAP 5.40(8)(c). It is not clear whether plaintiffs request de novo review. Regardless, this is not an exceptional case where we would exercise our discretion to review the record de novo. “We therefore review the trial court’s legal conclusions for errors of law and are bound by the trial court’s factual findings if they are supported by any evidence in the record.” Emerson v. Kusano, 260 Or App 577, 581, 320 P3d 610 (2014). “[W]e view the evidence, as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the trial court’s disposition and assess whether, when so viewed, the record was legally sufficient to permit that outcome.” Dept. of Human Services v. N. R, 257 Or App 633, 639, 307 P3d 444 (2013) (applying our general standard of review of factual findings in the context of a juvenile dependency case).

We summarize the relevant facts from the trial court’s findings and the record. Plaintiffs are defendant’s mother, Aurora Gutierrez (mother), and defendant’s sister, Lupe Wilson (Wilson), who had power of attorney for mother. Mother, 83 years old at the time of trial, owned two houses, one in Sweet Home, where she resided, and one in Albany, [412]*412which she purchased in the 1960s with her husband for use as a rental property. Defendant began living in the Albany house around 1990 with his understanding that, in lieu of paying rent, he would pay for the utilities, insurance, and property taxes on the house, and provide financial support as needed to his parents, and that, in exchange, mother would give him the deed to the house after defendant’s father died. Plaintiffs disputed that there was any such arrangement. It is undisputed that defendant made house-related payments and other payments to mother between 1997 and 2006, but that, as of July 2007, mother owed unpaid property taxes of $7,252. To pay the deficient property taxes, mother cosigned with defendant for a loan, using her Sweet Home house as collateral. Because mother did not have a checking account, the proceeds of the loan were deposited into defendant’s checking account. Subsequently, some of the payments that defendant made to mother and on her behalf came from those loan proceeds.

Mother became concerned about her financial situation and the risk of foreclosure on her Sweet Home house, and she decided to sell the Albany property. Wilson helped mother prepare and serve a notice on defendant on June 8, 2007, terminating his tenancy on July 14, 2007. Defendant did not leave the Albany property, and plaintiffs brought this FED proceeding on July 18, 2007.

In response to the FED claim, defendant alleged three counterclaims: unjust enrichment, specific performance of an oral contract, and constructive trust. As relevant to this appeal, defendant alleged in his unjust enrichment counterclaim that his parents “received benefits by substantial payments from Defendant, intended to provide support and payment for them and her in exchange for the property which should have been deeded to the Defendant.” Defendant alleged further that his parents “were each aware of those benefits received, and it would be inequitable and an unjust enrichment of [mother] if [mother] does not fulfill her obligation to provide the deed to the property, or to retain those benefits as proven at trial for up to $100,000 prior to [the death of defendant’s father], and separately, up to $90,000 after [his father’s] death.”

[413]*413At trial, defendant argued that, even if he did not establish the existence of the oral agreement to convey the property, he had paid his parents’ bills for more than a decade in reliance on his understanding that mother had agreed to deed him the house, and it would be unjust to allow mother to keep the benefits of those expenditures and also evict him from the house. Defendant submitted Exhibit 119, which he contended established that he had paid more than $150,000 on behalf of mother. Plaintiffs reviewed that exhibit and disputed that defendant paid many of those expenses on behalf of mother. But plaintiffs’ response to Exhibit 119 conceded that defendant had made some payments on behalf of his mother. Plaintiffs argued that defendant’s unjust enrichment counterclaim should fail because there was no enforceable agreement to deed the Albany house, and all of defendant’s payments to mother were either in exchange for the benefit of living at the Albany house or gratuitous financial support of his parents in the context of a family relationship.

After a lengthy trial, the court issued a letter opinion. On plaintiffs FED claim, the trial court determined that defendant was a tenant at sufferance, and that plaintiffs were entitled to possession of the Albany house. The court found that there was no agreement on the terms of the tenancy and no agreement to deed the house to defendant in exchange for his payments. The trial court rejected defendant’s counterclaims for specific performance and the establishment of a constructive trust, but ruled in favor of defendant on his unjust enrichment counterclaim, stating “[t]here is no question based on the testimony and evidence presented that Defendant provided money to both of his parents and that he paid certain bills and expenses for his Mother after his Father died.”

The trial court acknowledged in its letter opinion that, based on the parties’ testimony, the source and amount of defendant’s expenditures on mother’s behalf were uncertain. However, the court found, based on credible testimony by other witnesses, that defendant had given mother money for gambling and expenses. The court also found, based on defendant’s Exhibit 119 and plaintiffs’ responses to that exhibit, that defendant had made many payments to mother [414]*414that plaintiffs did not contest, which “clearly appear not to be gifts,” but, rather, were funds that mother expected defendant to provide to her when needed. Given those findings, and taking into account all other evidence received, the court concluded that defendant had partially prevailed in his unjust enrichment counterclaim. The court awarded defendant $30,000 on his unjust enrichment counterclaim and determined that defendant was entitled to the return of the $2,100 that he had paid into the court for rent.

On appeal, plaintiffs argue that defendant presented no evidence of the value of any alleged benefit to mother from defendant’s expenditures or from his improvements to the house, particularly in light of the benefit that defendant received from living there rent free.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 P.3d 974, 261 Or. App. 410, 2014 WL 767966, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-gutierrez-orctapp-2014.