Wright v. Pennamped

664 N.E.2d 394, 1996 WL 224193
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 1996
Docket49A05-9405-CV-207
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 664 N.E.2d 394 (Wright v. Pennamped) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. Pennamped, 664 N.E.2d 394, 1996 WL 224193 (Ind. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinions

OPINION ON REHEARING

SHARPNACK, Chief Judge.

The defendant-appellees, Bruce M. Pen-namped and Lowe, Gray Steele & Hoffman {collectively "the Appellees"), have petitioned for rehearing of our decision reported in Wright v. Pennamped, 657 N.E.2d 1223 (Ind.Ct.App.1995). Although we deny the petition, we find that some clarification of our opinion would be useful.

At the outset, we note that the only information our opinion requires that a drafting attorney convey to the opposing party or counsel for that party is information about changes to a proposed contract which the opposing party is expected to sign. Such information is clearly not privileged and our opinion does nothing to disturb the attorney's obligation of confidentiality and fidelity to the client.

The Appellees assert that we misstated the record in the portion of our opinion which reads:

"Lastly, we address whether Pennamped delegated his duty to Krebs. Pennamped may have created an agency relationship where he was the principal and Krebs was his agent within this narrow scope of disclosing changes to Wright. Therefore, Pennamped may have discharged his duty by delegating it to Krebs. However, this raises a question of whether Pennamped actually instructed Krebs to inform Wright of the changes. The existence of an agency is a question of fact, therefore this issue should be decided by a trier of fact and not decided upon summary judgment. Bryan Mfg. Co. v. Harris (1984), Ind.App. 459 N.E.2d 1199, 1204."

Id. at 1285.

In this portion of our opinion, we were identifying an issue, rather than stating the record. The existence of an agency relationship is generally an issue of fact. Whether the exchange between Pennamped and Ray Krebs created an agency relationship wherein Pennamped, as the principal, discharged his duty to inform Wright, and Krebs, as the agent, accepted that assignment is an issue of fact.

As stated in our opinion, there was no question in the record that Pennamped and Krebs spoke on the subject. Id. at 1227. The following excerpts from the record constitute the evidence of that discussion. First, Pennamped testified as follows:

"Q. Do you remember having any conversation with Mr. Krebs indicating to Mr. Krebs that Mr. Brown had approved the draft documents and had no changes to make?
bu * *s *t * *
A. _... I think what happened was after I got the fax I called Mr. Krebs and said I've talked to Mr. Brown and as I understand it he's not going to be available. Somebody needs to talk with the borrower about this....
"k * * * ha *
Q. When you received the fax you made the changes?
A. I went ahead and talked to Krebs and said, 'Somebody needs to talk to the borrower.?
And what did he say back to you? 0
He said, 'I'll take care of it.' p
Are those his exact words? o
I don't- >
Are you paraphrasing? 0
I'm - certainly - paraphrasing. I wouldn't begin to try to quote what somebody told me in 1991. >
Q. Do you know whether you had an understanding of what Krebs said? Was he going to call Brown or was he going to call the plaintiff directly?
[396]*396A. I assumed he was going to call Mr. Wright since I didn't believe that Mr. Brown was available."

Record, pp. 1417-18, 1420-21. Later, Pen-namped described again what was said during his conversation with Krebs:

"A. I got the fax. Whenever I got the fax after 10:50 I called Ray and said. 'I see your changes here' And we talked about them. And I said, 'Somebody needs to talk to Mr. Wright. I'm not Mr. Wright's lawyer. Will you get a hold of him?
'Yes, I will'"

Record, p. 1426.

Second, Krebs testified as follows:

"A. Since I already testified that I don't recall the specific phone conversation, it, therefore, would be difficult for me to also recall whether I called him or he called me.
Q. What time of day did the conversation take place, if one took place?
A. This is also an assumption. I'm going to assume it took place the afternoon of the day before closing.
Q. And why do you make that assumption?
A. Because I think what in reality happened is Bruce would have talked to me on-In reality what happened, Bruce Pennamped would have, after Bruce had a chance to become, to actually realize the extent of the documentation changes that would have to be made, he would have instructed me to the fact that two people need to become aware that, of the changes, and make sure that we don't have any problems. And, that would be for me to call Don Wright and also to call Dick Brown and inform him of the changes.
Q. Mr. Pennamped asked you to call Mr. Brown?
A. That's an assumption, yes.
Q. Youre just assuming that that happened?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know whether that happened?
A. Well, I think there is a pretty strong reason to believe that, and the reason why-
Q. Mr. Krebs, do you know whether it happened?
A. I already told you that the answer is no, I do not recall the Dick Brown conversation.
Q. -Do you recall whether or not Mr. Pen-namped asked you to call Mr. Brown?
A. I already stated that I'm assuming that if the conversation took place the reason it did was I was asked by Mr. Pennamped to do so.
Q. Do you recall Mr. Pennamped asking you to do that?
A. No. No. No.
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Q. You discussed nothing else other than that generally?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you have any other conversation with him subsequent to that telephone conversation on August 5?
I'm not sure.
"kt *# * *# * *
Q. Prior to the closing, Mr. Krebs, did you ever fax to Mr. Wright or to Mr. Brown any document containing the changes which are contained in the last two exhibits that we've talked about?
A. I'm not sure.
Q. Is there a reason that you're not sure?
A. Yes. Because I, in going through my files and the things that I've looked at, I've seen no evidence that I did and, therefore, I'm not sure. That doesn't mean I could not have. It just means I'm not sure.
Q. Do you remember doing it?
A. No. That's why I said I'm not sure.
MR.

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Wright v. Pennamped
664 N.E.2d 394 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)

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Bluebook (online)
664 N.E.2d 394, 1996 WL 224193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-pennamped-indctapp-1996.