Arbour v. McCullough

• Decision Date: 16 February 1982
• Citation: 440 A.2d 980,186 Conn. 280
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: John G. ARBOUR v. John E. McCULLOUGH.

Page 980

440 A.2d 980

186 Conn. 280

John G. ARBOUR v. John E. McCULLOUGH.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Dec. 11, 1981.

Decided Feb. 16, 1982.

Daniel B. Lewis, Stamford, for appellant (defendant).

Albert J. Barr, Stamford, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before PETERS, HEALEY, PARSKEY, ARMENTANO and SHEA, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

This appeal questions the propriety of a judgment ordering the defendant to reimburse the plaintiff for one-half of the plaintiff's loans to two presently inactive corporations in which the parties were principal shareholders and officers, together with one-half of the interest payments on those loans by the plaintiff made in behalf of the corporations.

The following facts are undisputed: The parties formed General Film Development Corporation (hereinafter General Film), a Delaware corporation having its principal place of business in Connecticut, in November, 1971, for the purpose of fostering a photographic imaging process. Contemporaneously with its incorporation, General Film borrowed $155,000 from the Union Trust Company (hereinafter Union Trust), which loan was secured by shares of the plaintiff's Travelers Insurance Company stock valued at $700,000. The parties, together with a third shareholder who by agreement later was released from liability, personally guaranteed the loan to General Film. In May, 1972, Union Trust demanded repayment of the loan. The plaintiff made payment by executing a personal note for $155,000, again secured by his Travelers Insurance Company stock and personally guaranteed by the defendant.

In the fall of 1972, the parties and an inventor formed General Optimation, Incorporated (hereinafter General Optimation), a Delaware corporation, which merged with General Film approximately two and one-half years later. Upon the merger, General Film, as the surviving corporation, became liable for the debts of General Optimation.

The plaintiff funded the operation of both corporations by personally borrowing from the Bank of New York and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., and by selling personal assets. The amount the plaintiff directly loaned to the corporations from these sources was $287,975, together with interest payments in the amount of $46,181.44 made in behalf of the corporations. In addition, the plaintiff executed personal notes with Union Trust rolling over his initial $155,000 loan to a peak amount of approximately $246,000. Part of the $91,000 excess over his initial loan the plaintiff used personally. By 1978, the plaintiff had reduced the principal amount to $20,000.

On April 26, 1972, the defendant, as president of General Film, signed an acknowledgment that all funds loaned to the corporation were loaned equally by the plaintiff and the defendant. ¹ General Film repaid only a small portion of the funds loaned and interest payments made in its behalf by the plaintiff before the corporation became inactive sometime between 1976 and 1978.

In a 1978 complaint, as amended, the plaintiff sought recovery of one-half of the unreimbursed funds he loaned to the corporations, including one-half of the principal and interest the plaintiff paid in behalf of General Film. ² The plaintiff based his claim for recovery of one-half of the debt resulting from the Union Trust loan upon the defendant's personal guaranty. The other claims were grounded upon an express oral agreement between the parties that they would share equally the liability for the debts of their two ventures. The defendant denied that his liability to the plaintiff exceeded one-half of the $155,000 principal loaned by Union Trust, together with interest thereon, guaranteed by him. ³ He based this denial and his denial of liability for one-half of the plaintiff's other loans to the corporations on his claim that the plaintiff had agreed to contribute funds and the defendant had agreed to contribute solely his business expertise, time and effort to the corporations.

After a trial to the court, the court rendered judgment for the plaintiff in the amounts of $206,187.50 principal and $23,090.72 interest, a sum equal to one-half of the remaining indebtedness recorded in the corporate loan registers for each of the corporations. The court based its order upon its finding that the parties had an agreement that each was liable for one-half of the corporations' indebtedness to the other. The court expressly discredited the defendant's testimony to the contrary.

Although recognizing that the weight accorded to testimony is within the sole province of the trier of fact, the defendant essentially claims in the present appeal that the trial court erred in crediting the testimony of the plaintiff and the documentary evidence introduced by the plaintiff, and in discrediting the testimony of the defendant, on the ground that the plaintiff's case was insufficient as a matter of law. ⁴ We cannot agree.

The plaintiff testified that the defendant had agreed to share equally in the indebtedness of the corporations, including liability for one-half of the funds the plaintiff loaned to the operation of the businesses. Both the plaintiff and the third initial investor in General Film testified that there existed no agreed division of responsibility for the development of the corporation. Each of the parties was to contribute funds, business expertise, time and effort. Their corporate attorney corroborated the fact that this was the understanding of the parties, although he had not seen it in writing. According to the plaintiff, the defendant was aware of all the loans made to General Film by the plaintiff and had never objected to any of them. The plaintiff explained that the bank loans, the proceeds of which he in turn loaned to the corporations, were in his name because his collateral secured the notes.

The plaintiff introduced into evidence, without objection by the defendant, ⁵ two loan registers, one entitled "GFD Loan Register, J. E. McCullough & J G. Arbour," and the other entitled "General Optimation, Inc., Loan Register, J. E. McCullough & J. G. Arbour." In the plaintiff's view these titles indicated the parties' equal liability for the corporate indebtedness and interest payments indicated on the registers, which included entries dated October 10, 1971, through June 29, 1976.

In finding an agreement between the parties to share equally the indebtedness of the corporations, the trial court found significant General Film's acknowledgment to that effect, signed by the defendant as its president, the fact that the parties were principal shareholders and officers, and the testimony of their corporate counsel and of the plaintiff. With respect to the loans from Union Trust, the trial court noted that the bank's representative had testified that he believed that Union Trust could sue the defendant on the guaranty of the plaintiff's loans. ⁶

The evidence construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff more than adequately supports the court's conclusion that an agreement existed between the parties. We cannot agree with the defendant that the trial court erred in crediting this evidence and discrediting the testimony of the defendant to the contrary. ⁷ "This court cannot retry the facts or pass upon the credibility of the witnesses." Kalleher v. Orr, --- Conn. ---, ---, 438 A.2d 843 (42 Conn.L.J., No. 33, pp. 14, 15) (1981). "It is the trial court which had an opportunity to observe the demeanor of the witnesses and the parties; thus it is best able to judge the credibility of the witnesses and to draw necessary inferences therefrom." Kukanskis v....