Justia Contracts Opinion Summaries

"Homes by George," run by Adelaide and Rick George, developed residential real estate known as "Esther's Estates" in Newton. Homes by George entered into a written contract with Defendant Al Hoyt & Sons, Inc., in which Defendant agreed to perform certain work in connection with the development. Defendant was paid but did not complete the work. Plaintiffs alleged breach of contract and claimed that Defendant violated the State Consumer Protection Act (CPA). Defendant counter-claimed that Plaintiff failed to pay amounts due in accordance with the contract. The trial court bifurcated the proceedings to allow a jury to first determine liability claims. A second trial was held on the contract claims. Plaintiffs won on all liability claims in the first trial, and received damages on its breach of contract and CPA claims at the second. Both parties appealed to the Supreme Court. Plaintiffs challenged the amounts of damages they were awarded by the trial court. Defendant argued that the trial court erred in its finding of violations under the CPA, and in its damages awarded to Plaintiffs. Upon careful consideration of the arguments and the applicable legal authority, the Supreme Court affirmed part and reversed part of the lower court's decision. The Supreme Court found that the grant of damages was appropriate in light of the terms of the contract, the state case law, and the evidence presented at trial. However, the Court questioned how the trial court arrived at the amount of damages. The Court remanded the case back to the trial court for further proceedings on its damages award to Plaintiffs. The Court affirmed the trial court in all other aspects of its decision.

Plaintiff filed a complaint alleging contract and negligence claims against defendants. Defendants subsequently appealed from a district court order denying its motion under M.R.Civ.P 55(c) to set aside an entry of default and its motion under M.R.Civ.P 60(b) for relief from default judgment. Plaintiff cross-appealed the court's denial of attorney fees. The court held that good cause did not exist to set aside the entry of default where defendants willfully disregarded the judicial process when it failed to answer after being served properly and where defendants had not established that it possessed a meritorious defense that would have completely eliminated its liability. The court also held that no default judgment existed when defendants moved for relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) where an interlocutory judgment did not constitute a final judgment order under the rule. The court declined to address the issue raised for the first time on appeal regarding default judgment against defendants. The court further held that the district court correctly denied plaintiff's request for attorney fees where the complaint raised no allegations related to a default on defendants' loan and the trust indenture provision did not entitle either party to attorney fees under these circumstances.

Husband and wife executed a will in 1980, which was expressly identified as being "joint and mutual," bequeathing all of their property to each other as the survivor in fee simple and at the death of the survivor, the residue of the estate was to be divided equally among husband's two children, David and Darrell, and wife's two children, Deana and Diane. After husband died in 2005, wife probated the 1980 will, became the executor, and conveyed husband's estate to herself. In November 2005, wife executed another will which could, at her death, leave 20% of the estate to appellant, Deana, and the residue to the children of Deana and Diane. Deana then obtained wife's power of attorney and conveyed all of her mother's real estate to her two children and to appellee, Diane's child. When wife died in 2008, Deana offered the 2005 will for probate and Diane filed a caveat and also sought to petition the 1980 will as the last will and testament. The court held that the trial court did not err when it applied the law in place before the 1998 probate code was adopted to determine whether husband and wife had a contract not to revoke the 1980 will; when it concluded that the 1980 will was joint and mutual and that husband and wife had an enforceable contract not to revoke the 1980 will; when it did not in fact find that the fee simple conveyance to wife was a marital trust; when it made no rulings as to whether wife's 2005 will was a contract, and as such, that issue could not be raised on appeal; and when the 1980 will specifically provided that the residue of the survivor's estate was to be divided equally among the four children. Accordingly, the court affirmed the trial court's order that the 1980 will would be specifically enforced by equity.

Plaintiffs Knipe Land Company (KLC) and John Knipe appealed a jury verdict in favor of Defendants Richard and Johnnie Robertson and Robertson Kennels, Inc. KLC is a real estate broker that specializes in agricultural and commercial real property. In 2005, the Robertsons signed an employment contract with KLC, where KLC was granted an exclusive listing to sell 1400 acres they owned. KLC would earn a percentage commission of the sales price or nonrefundable portions of any earnest money paid. In 2005, Robert and Sheila Harmon signed a purchase contract to buy the Robertsons' 1400 acres. The Harmons paid $50,000 as earnest money. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, $35,000 of the earnest amount would be non-refundable. The Harmons did not purchase the property, and the nonrefundable portion of the earnest money was transferred from the Harmons' real estate broker to KLC, which in turn distributed it to the Robertsons. In 2007, Robertson Kennels signed an employment contract with KLC to sell 1887 acres of land it owned. MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Company, LLC entered into a purchase agreement to purchase all of the Robertsons' property. The company paid $450,000 as nonrefundable earnest money. MidAmerican did not purchase the Robertsons' property. After the Harmon and MidAmerican purchase contracts ended, KLC demanded the Robertsons' pay its commission from the two cancelled purchase agreements. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the Robertsons "clearly breached the unambiguous employment contracts and there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict." The Court vacated the damages and attorney fees that were awarded to the Robertsons at trial, and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.

Plaintiff-Appellee Steven Johnson wanted to purchase a tract of commercial real estate from Defendant-Appellant Harrell Sellers and his wife Sandra Green. The purchase agreement, dated May 2009, was prepared by Mr. Johnson's attorney and incorrectly indicated that Mr. Sellers was a single person. Mr. Sellers was married at the time, but in the process of obtaining a divorce from Ms. Green. Ms. Green moved out in October 2008, and divorce proceedings started in January 2009. Sometime after signing the purchase agreement, Mr. Sellers told his attorney about the mistake in the agreement. Mr. Sellers' counsel advised him that Ms. Green would need to give her permission to sell the property. In June 2009, Ms. Green would not authorize the sale. The parties tried to work out agreements as to the closing and problems with the title, but could not resolve their problems. Mr. Sellers tried to rescind the original purchase agreement, arguing that issues with his divorce made closing on the property impossible. Mr. Johnson sued for specific performance. The trial court ruled that Mr. Sellers waived his rights pertaining to certain terms of the original purchase agreement. The Supreme Court concluded that the impediments to closing were resolved within a reasonable time, and because of this, the court could award specific performance of the contract. The Court affirmed the decision of the circuit court.

Petitioner entered into a contract with respondent for the construction of a hotel. After seventeen months of work on the project, petitioner terminated the contract with respondent and respondent subsequently filed a lien against the hotel property for amounts it claimed remained owing. Petitioner filed a petition to strike the lien pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. 29-1-311(b), which the district court denied on the ground that petitioner failed to prove respondent knew, when it filed its claim of lien, that the lien was groundless or contained a material misstatement or false claim. Petitioner appealed, claiming that the district court improperly placed the burden of proof on petitioner and that the district court's factual findings were clearly erroneous. The court affirmed and held that, although it agreed that the burden of proof under the statute was on the lien claimant, the court found that the district court's ruling was properly based on the evidence presented by the lien claimant, respondent, and on the failure of petitioner to allege proper grounds for relief under the statute.

This case involved a residential construction scheme, which required the investor, the mortgage broker, the builder, and the bank providing the builder with the funds to construct the house to enter into certain independent contractual arrangements. Petitioners, investors whose builders went under and left them with unfinished houses or vacant lots, sought a writ of mandamus asking the court to order the district court to require respondent, the bank's executive vice-president for mortgage lending, to make a restitution in an amount equivalent to one point of their construction loans. The court held that the cause of petitioners' loss was not respondent, but the fact that the builders became insolvent and were unable or unwilling to complete their work. Therefore, the writ of mandamus was denied where petitioners assumed the risk that the builder might walk off the job; that if it did, the bank would declare the construction loan in default; and that, as the bank's borrower, they would be liable for the draws the builders had received plus interest.

Petitioners Dana and Robin Murphy appealed a judgment entered in favor of Respondent HSBC Mortgage Services, Inc. (HSBC), which allowed HSBC to foreclose on and sell the Murphyâs house. The Murphys contended that the court erred by granting HSBC summary judgment when there were numerous errors that primarily concerned HSBCâs evidence of its ownership of the note and mortgage to their house. In particular, the Murphys challenged the trustworthiness of multiple affidavits filed by HSBC in support of its motion. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the affidavits submitted by HSBC were âinherently untrustworthyâ and the business records attached to them were not admissible at trial. The Court held that the trial court erred by granting a summary judgment in this case, and remanded the case for further proceedings.

Hollywood Mobile Estates Limited ("Hollywood") filed a complaint in district court against the Seminole Tribe of Florida ("Tribe") where the Tribe and the Secretary of the Interior ("Secretary") approved a lease assignment between Hollywood and the Tribe. At issue was whether Hollywood alleged an injury fairly traceable to the Secretary or redressable by the district court in a complaint that alleged that the Tribe had threatened to repossess tribal property in violation of the lease. Also at issue was whether the interests of Hollywood were within the zone of interests protected by the Indian Long-Term Leasing Act, 25 U.S.C. 415, and its accompanying regulations. The court held that Hollywood lacked constitutional standing to maintain its complaint and therefore, vacated in part the judgment entered by the district court and remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court also held that Hollywood lacked prudential standing to sue the Secretary and therefore, affirmed the denial of the motion for leave to amend the complaint as futile.

Plaintiffs Terry and Susan Brown purchased land adjacent to Defendant James Hanson. The neighbors signed a well-and-road easement agreement, which was recorded with the County Register of Deeds. Believing that the Browns had violated the terms of the agreement, Mr. Hanson filed a letter "rescinding" the agreement with the Register of Deeds. The Browns sued Mr. Hanson, and the trial court ruled that a rescission was not the appropriate remedy for a breach of the easement. Mr. Hanson appealed that decision, and the appellate and Supreme Courts affirmed it. The case was remanded back to the trial court for other issues, one of which was that the Browns alleged Mr. Hanson slandered their title by filing his "rescission" letter with the Register of Deeds. Furthermore, that letter created a cloud on the Browns' title, which the Browns claimed interfered with their contract to sell the property to a third party. The trial court entered a judgment in the Browns' favor. Mr. Hanson again appealed. The Supreme Court found that the trial court did not err in finding Mr. Hanson slandered the Browns' title and tortiously interfered with their sales contract. The Court remanded the case for the redetermination of attorney's fees.