Samplid Enterprises, Inc. v. First Vermont Bank

• Decision Date: 08 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-347,95-347
• Citation: 165 Vt. 22,676 A.2d 774
• Parties: SAMPLID ENTERPRISES, INC. v. FIRST VERMONT BANK v. Gertrude HOLL.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Page 774

676 A.2d 774

165 Vt. 22

SAMPLID ENTERPRISES, INC. v. FIRST VERMONT BANK v. Gertrude HOLL.

No. 95-347.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

March 8, 1996.

Bruce M. Lawlor of Lawlor & Koitto, Springfield, for plaintiff-appellant.

John A. Serafino of Ryan Smith & Carbine, Ltd., Rutland, for defendant-appellee.

Before ALLEN, C.J., and GIBSON, DOOLEY, MORSE and JOHNSON, JJ.

GIBSON, Justice.

Plaintiff entered a purchase and sale agreement to buy property defendant had obtained by deed in lieu of foreclosure, and sued defendant for return of its deposit after the transaction failed to close. Defendant counterclaimed against plaintiff and brought a third-party action against Gertrude Holl, plaintiff's president, who was to take title. The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

I.

Defendant received title to the real property at the center of this dispute via deed in lieu of foreclosure from Classical Chef, Inc. in 1993, pursuant to an agreement between defendant and Classical Chef. That agreement was executed by the president of Classical Chef and two of its four shareholders, representing 90% of the voting power of the corporation. Defendant took title to the real and personal property and listed it for sale. In January 1994, the parties entered into a purchase and sale contract for the purchase of the property for $135,000, and a deposit of $13,500 was paid to the broker. The contract provided for a closing on March 7, 1994, but it did not state that time was of the essence, nor did it include a financing contingency.

On March 4, 1994, counsel for plaintiff notified defendant that missing from critical documents in the chain of title was a corporate resolution from Classical Chef, as required under the then-applicable statute, 11 V.S.A. § 2002, ¹ raising a question about the validity of the transfer from Classical Chef to defendant, and hence from defendant to plaintiff.

The parties thereafter proceeded on the basis that defendant would arrange for title insurance to cover any potential claim arising out of the alleged failure to comply with § 2002. Counsel for plaintiff objected to the coverage language of the first draft submitted for approval, suggesting removal of a policy exception and an adjustment in the coverage language to insure that the corporate problem was within the coverage.

A trial affidavit of plaintiff's counsel concedes that on April 6, 1994 he was advised that the title insurance company was willing to issue a policy omitting the exception objected to. Counsel further stated:

11. That on 7 April 1994, defendant, through its counsel, notified me that the corporate resolution I had requested from Classical Chef, Inc. to bring it into conformity with 11 V.S.A. § 2002 had still not been executed. At that time, I declined to accept the documentation proffered by the defendant and, pursuant to Paragraph 12 of the Purchase and Sale Contract, further declined to extend the date for closing;....

In plaintiff's memorandum of law opposing defendant's motion for summary judgment, the only objection noted to the April 6, 1994 version of the title insurance policy was that "defendant had yet to secure a resolution executed by the minority shareholders." The same memorandum noted that defendant was still pursuing acquisition of a corporate resolution from Classical Chef when the time for performance expired. The court found, however, and plaintiff did not contest, that as of April 7, 1994 defendant had tendered a corporate resolution signed by two Classical Chef shareholders representing a 90% ownership interest.

The closing did not occur for the reasons stated in the trial affidavit of plaintiff's counsel. The real estate broker for the transaction retained the deposit of $13,500, ² and plaintiff brought the present action for its return. Defendant moved for summary judgment, which the court granted, concluding that defendant took title via a mortgage deed, no shareholder of Classical Chef had grounds to complain, and defendant was ready, willing and able to convey title on April 7, 1994. Gertrude Holl's motion to be dismissed as third-party defendant was denied. Plaintiff's appeal followed.

II.

Summary judgment is appropriate only where the moving party establishes that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Murray v. White, 155 Vt. 621, 628, 587 A.2d 975, 979 (1991); V.R.C.P. 56(c). In determining whether a genuine issue of fact exists, the nonmoving party receives the benefit of all reasonable doubts and inferences. Pierce v. Riggs, 149 Vt. 136, 139, 540 A.2d 655, 657 (1987). Allegations to the contrary must be supported by specific facts sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510-11, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

In the present case, there is no factual dispute that as of April 7, 1994 defendant had in hand a corporate resolution of Classical Chef authorizing transfer of the property to defendant, executed by shareholders representing 90% of the ownership interest, that the second mortgage of the shareholders had been discharged, and that the shareholders had executed documents terminating their security interest in the personalty associated with the property. It is also not disputed that on April 6, 1994 defendant tendered a title insurance policy that purported to address plaintiff's concerns.

In light of these uncontested facts, plaintiff's arguments are essentially two-fold: first, that defendant had not obtained all signatures of Classical Chef's shareholders before the time for performance expired, and second, that as to the title insurance, the policy specifically exempted from coverage claims arising as the result of Classical Chef's noncompliance with the law. Neither argument is legally supportable. Either a legally effective corporate resolution or a timely, complete, and effective title policy would have sufficed to satisfy plaintiff's demands. Both were tendered no later than April 7, 1994.

A.

Corporate Resolution. Though plaintiff's argument is not specific, its only substantive objection to the resolution tendered on April 7, 1994 (i.e., other than timeliness) appears to be the absence of notice of the shareholders' meeting at which the resolution was adopted. Plaintiff relies on the proposition that shareholders representing 10% of the corporate stock might seek to upset the foreclosure deed to defendant on the basis of an absence of notice. Plaintiff argues that 11 V.S.A. § 2002 was designed to protect minority shareholders from the kind of general corporate mismanagement that in the end resulted in the company's failure and resultant default and foreclosure. Whatever mismanagement might have occurred within the company, however, is not addressed by § 2002, whose purpose is not to redress general mismanagement but to bar majority shareholders from unfairly dealing with minority owners in the sale of assets other than in the ordinary course of business. Hospitality Inns, Inc. v. South Burlington R.I., Inc., 153 Vt. 410, 415, 571 A.2d 40, 43 (1989).

In the present case, the minority shareholders could not have prevented foreclosure, nor could they have affected the amount of proceeds credited to the shareholders as a result of the sale in lieu of foreclosure. Plaintiff offers no theory under which the majority shareholders of Classical Chef could have obtained any...