Zanetti v. Zanetti

689 P.2d 1116, 1984 Wyo. LEXIS 343
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1984
Docket83-170
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 689 P.2d 1116 (Zanetti v. Zanetti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zanetti v. Zanetti, 689 P.2d 1116, 1984 Wyo. LEXIS 343 (Wyo. 1984).

Opinion

ROSE, Justice.

Nature of the Action

Plaintiffs-appellees — the elder Pete Za-netti, his second wife, Donna, and Peter A. Zanetti, Jr., together with James F. Zelen-ka and Edwin Magagna — sued Pete Senior’s sons, Terry and William Zanetti, for alleged breach of an oral agreement to sell their interests in a joint venture, in which action they sought specific performance, damages and partitioning of certain joint-venture property. 1 Peter A. Zanetti, in *1118 turn, sought affirmative relief from his father on another alleged contract for the purchase of his (Peter’s) interest in the joint venture. Pete Senior denied that he was obligated to his son Peter upon any enforceable contract to purchase his son’s interest in the venture.

Terry and William denied liability under any agreement with their father on the ground that he, as manager and overseer of the joint-venture properties, was attempting to defraud and cheat them and it was for this reason that they refused to go through with an agreement to sell their interests in the joint venture.

In addition to the above disputes, the contractor and the engineer who had been hired to aid in the development of the joint-venture property filed separate suits for their expenses and services. In all, three actions were filed and consolidated for trial and appeal.

FACTS

In 1974, Pete Zanetti, father of Terry, William and Peter A. Zanetti, acquired a one-half section of land in Sweetwater County with a view to a quick resale to Texasgulf, Inc. So that his friends Magag-na, Zelenka and G. Gordon James, a trailer-sales business person, could share in the venture, Pete invited them and his sons to participate — and they all accepted and entered into a written joint-venture agreement. The initial capital investment of each of the adventurers was $6,400, of which Pete loaned son Peter $5,924.81 and son William $4,669.43. The relevant provisions of the agreement provide:

“WHEREAS, PETE ZANETTI, has heretofore entered into an Agreement with the ROCK SPRINGS GRAZING ASSOCIATION, a Wyoming Corporation, for the purchase of:
“The South Half (S ⅝) of Section Eleven (11), Township Eighteen (18) North, Range One Hundred Six (106) West of the Sixth (6th) Principal Meridian, Sweetwater County, Wyoming;
“AND, WHEREAS, PETE ZANETTI, has heretofore advanced funds which have been applied upon the purchased price, upon the cost of surveys, the cost of interest upon balances due or funds borrowed for said purposes and will hereafter be obligated to additional funds for the same purposes;
“AND, WHEREAS, it was and is the intent of the parties hereto that the purchase of said land, the improvement, development and sale thereof be a joint venture of PETE ZANETTI and the undersigned, PETE A. ZANETTI, JR., TERRY M. ZANETTI, WILLIAM M. ZA-NETTI, JAMES F. ZELENKA, G. GORDON JAMES and EDWIN Y. MAGAG-NA, upon the following terms and conditions:
“1. The title to said property until sold or otherwise disposed of shall remain in the name of Pete Zanetti.
“2. Advances heretofore made or hereinafter made or obligated to be made, up to but not to exceed the total sum of $196,000.00 shall be computed as capital investment by Pete Zanetti and the undersigned.
“3. Any advances by PETE ZANETTI, or by any one of the undersigned in excess of one-seventh (⅛⅛⅛) of the capital investment, or in excess of $28,000.00 shall be computed as loans, to be repaid to the person making said loan from funds of said joint venture, together with interest at the highest current rate being charged by the North Side State Bank to Pete Zanetti, individually or to any one of his bus corporations.
“4. Any gain or loss resulting from said joint venture shall be shared one-seventh (Vrth) by Pete Zanetti and each of the undersigned.
“5. Pete Zanetti and each of the undersigned shall be obligated to furnish up to one-seventh (Vith) of the various amounts that may be required from time to time.
“6. Funds received from any source shall be applied as follows:
“(a) In payment of amounts due to third parties;
“(b) In payment of loans of Pete Zanetti and the undersigned;
*1119 “(c) On a pro-rata basis of one-seventh (V7th) each to Pete Zanetti and the undersigned.”

The sale to Texasgulf did not materialize, but Pete settled this sales agreement on a basis that was beneficial to the venture in that the settlement figure was nearly sufficient to pay the remaining balance due on the Purple Sage property. When Texas-gulf refused to go through with the purchase of the Purple Sage property, Pete, who all adventurers agreed would be the managing partner, had trouble disposing of the property, mostly because of the unavailability of water. In an effort to improve its saleability, Pete undertook to drill water wells on an adjoining piece of land owned by Pete Zanetti. The brothers at first objected to contributing to the costs of the water wells because they were not drilled on the venture’s property and for the further reason that the costs were too high, but the record discloses that they ultimately paid their share of these costs. The brothers admonished their father not to drill more wells, but he did it anyway and some of the wells produced water.

In behalf of his further efforts to subdivide and sell the property, Pete Zanetti contracted for substantial development and engineering work. However, he first bought out G. Gordon James, whose interest had been divided by transferring one-half to Herman Franks. Pete paid for the James interest out of venture funds, and the Franks interest from his personal moneys, with the entire interest being held by him personally. The evidence revealed that it was necessary to acquire the James and Franks interests before development financing would be made available.

After a meeting with the other members of the venture and in pursuit of his development plans, it was Pete Senior’s understanding that he had an oral commitment from all of them that they would sell their various interests in the venture to him. The elder Zanetti offered to buy out the remaining interest holders by paying into the venture $3,500 per acre for 136 acres, with an option to pay $7,000 per acre for the remaining 173 acres — a price substantially in excess of the amount that each had contributed to the enterprise.

With the understanding that he had an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding venture interests, Pete went ahead with the development project, and in the course of doing this, he incurred substantial expense. When the brothers learned about this development activity, they were reluctant to sell — particularly was this so in the case of Terry Zanetti, who had bought from and paid the venture for 11 acres but had not received a deed for the property. Terry was also critical of the fact that the venture had bought and paid for the interest of G.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
689 P.2d 1116, 1984 Wyo. LEXIS 343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zanetti-v-zanetti-wyo-1984.