Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp. v. Tatro

• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: CROSS
• Citation: Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp. v. Tatro, 416 S.W.2d 696 (Mo. App. 1967)
• Decision Date: 05 June 1967
• Docket Number: No. 24543,24543
• Parties: UNIVERSAL C.I.T. CREDIT CORPORATION, Respondent, v. Ralph W. TATRO, Appellant.

Page 696

416 S.W.2d 696

UNIVERSAL C.I.T. CREDIT CORPORATION, Respondent, v. Ralph W. TATRO, Appellant.

No. 24543.

Kansas City Court of Appeals, Missouri.

June 5, 1967.

Richard L. White, Kansas City, for appellant.

William C. Paxton, Independence, for respondent.

CROSS, Judge.

Defendant has appealed from an adverse judgment of the circuit court awarding plaintiff loan company $1,437.44 as actual damages sustained by reason of defendant's alleged fraud practiced to procure a loan, and punitive damages in the amount of $500.00.

The case was tried upon the theory pleaded by plaintiff in its second amended petition to the effect that defendant went to plaintiff's office and applied for a loan; that as a condition precedent to granting the loan plaintiff required, in addition to defendant's own signature, that he obtain the signature of his wife, Billie Tatro, on certain necessary loan papers, including a promissory note, and deliver those documents to plaintiff; that plaintiff furnished the necessary loan papers to defendant who took them home with him from the loan office for that purpose; that defendant later returned and delivered the papers to plaintiff purportedly bearing the signature of Billie Tatro and affixed thereto his own signature, whereupon he received from plaintiff the monies called for by the promissory note; that in truth and fact the purported signatures of Billie Tatro on the loan documents were not genuine, but were forgeries; that defendant delivered the promissory note and accompanying loan papers to plaintiff with knowledge that the purported signatures of Billie Tatro thereon were forgeries; that he 'wrongfully, maliciously and intentionally submitted them to the plaintiff to induce plaintiff to loan said defendant, Ralph W. Tatro, this money which was in fact loaned by said plaintiff all to their loss'.

Defendant Ralph W. Tatro testified both as a witness called by plaintiff for cross examination and on his own behalf. The trial court itself subjected him to a lengthy, critical examination. The substance of his testimony is here set out: Sometime prior to October 3, 1961, defendant and Billie Tatro, who at that time was, but no longer is his wife, desiring to purchase a carpet, went to the office of plaintiff to apply for a loan for that purpose. They were informed by plaintiff the loan would be forthcoming. Later, on or about October 3, 1961, defendant returned to plaintiff's office, unaccompanied by his wife, to complete the loan arrangements. Plaintiff wanted defendant's wife present to complete the loan. A 'gentleman' in plaintiff's office, on its behalf, called and talked to Billie Tatro at her place of employment and learned she was unable to leave her work and come to the loan office. Then plaintiff's representative agreed that defendant could sign the papers and take them home with him for his wife to sign and informed defendant that when he brought them back signed he would receive 'the money represented by this loan'. The papers were given to him in an envelope. He took them home and presented them to Billie Tatro for her signature, but she informed him she was leaving the house at that time but would sign them later and give them to him next morning. The next morning she threw 'the papers' on a table with the statement, 'Here's your papers back'. The papers were still in the envelope. Defendant didn't see her sign the papers, didn't look at them after he picked them up, or otherwise identify her signature before returning them to plaintiff's office. He claimed he had already signed them and never saw them again until produced in court. He 'picked up the envelope, took it down and gave it to the Universal C.I.T. Company'. He 'guessed' that somebody there must have looked at the papers because 'they give me the check'. During cross-examination of defendant, the loan papers were identified as Plaintiff's Exhibit 1, the promissory note (and chattel mortgage) in the principal sum of $2040.00, dated October 3, 1961; Plaintiff's Exhibit 2, a carbon copy of Exhibit 1; Plaintiff's Exhibit 3, a financial statement dated October 3, 1961; Plaintiff's Exhibit 4, a list of property owned by borrower dated October 3, 1961. Defendant admitted he had signed all four documents. Concerning the purported signatures of Billie Tatro he testified:

'Q. Now, are you acquainted with the signature of your wife? A. Yes.

Q. And is it your testimony that the signature as it appears on these instruments, is the signature of your wife as you know it to be? A. No, I wouldn't say that. It looks more like a child's signature to me, unless she was drunk at the time she signed it.

Q. In other words, it really doesn't look like her signature? A. Right.

Q. Well, why did you tender it back to Universal C.I.T. as her signature? A. I never even looked at it, they were in the enevelope and I took it down there and they give me the check for it. From the time I took those home until the time it come up in court before, I had never seen those papers again.

Q. You are not denying that they gave you the papers and said to get your wife's signature on them, and you brought these papers back with this signature on them, but this signature doesn't look like your wife's signature, and they give you the money? A. Right'.

William Vornold, plaintiff's branch manager of Universal C.I.T. testified that defendant came to its office on October 3, 1961, in the early part of the morning, and arranged for a loan to buy a carpet. No person accompanied him. Necessary loan papers were given to him with accompanying instructions that he would have to take the papers out for his wife to sign and return them, and that after the signatures were affixed the loan would be completed, and he could have his check. Defendant didn't sign the papers at that time. He left the office, taking the documents with him, and brought them back late in the afternoon of the same day. He signed them after turning them over to plaintiff. Vernold stated they were not out of the office overnight. He further stated that Mr. and Mrs. Tatro did not come to plaintiff's office and discuss the October 3d loan at any time prior to that date. The witness also testified that it was normal practice to send loan papers out for people to sign if they have a previous account with the plaintiff because you can verify the signature. Plaintiff had a previous account with Mrs. Tatro. In May, 1962, Vornold had a 'discussion with him (Tatro) about the papers'. At that time Tatro said they were signed when he picked them up at home to bring back to the loan office, but that he didn't know who signed them. In July, 1962, Tatro was in the loan office discussing the transaction. On that occasion he stated that 'it was her signature' (on the loan papers).

Billie Tatro (Pinet), defendant's former wife, was called as a witness by plaintiff. She denied having signed any of the loan documents (Plaintiff's Exhibits 1, 2, 3 and 4), denied that she had ever signed any credit application, chattel mortgage, or any kind of note with Mr. Tatro to Universal C.I.T., and denied that she had ever been in its office.

Defendant was adjudged a bankrupt on a date undisclosed by the record but subsequent to October 3, 1961, and thereafter, on July 11, 1963, received a final discharge in bankruptcy. Defendant had listed in his bankruptcy schedule of liabilities the October 3, 1961 promissory note payable to plaintiff, which defendant had himself admittedly executed. It was stipulated by the parties that the unpaid principal balance of that note was in the amount of $1,437.20.

At the conclusion of the evidence it was stipulated by and between the parties that the court submit to a handwriting expert the handwritings in question claimed to be the signatures of Billie Tatro, together with agreed authentic specimens of her signature, to determine whether the purported signatures on the former were her true signatures. Pursuant to this stipulation the trial court designated Mr. R. H. Burnup, a certified graphoanalyst, as a handwriting expert to examine the signatures and render his opinion on the disputed question. In his report to the court, duly filed, he expressed his opinion that the writings on plaintiff's Exhibits Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 purporting to be the signatures of Billie Tatro are not, in fact, her signatures.

The trial court made findings of fact as follows:

'That Ralph W. Tatro applied to plaintiff for a total loan of $1,655.32, including interest; that said promissory note was dated October 3, 1961. That as a condition precedent to the loan said Ralph W. Tatro agreed to have his wife, Billie Tatro, sign this promissory note and took it from the plaintiff's office for this purpose; that he brought it back to plaintiff purportedly signed by Billie Tatro, but in fact, Ralph W. Tatro knew that it was not her signature and knowingly tendered this false signature as being genuine to plaintiff to secure said loan with intent that it should be acted upon by plaintiff in a manner reasonably contemplated by said defendant by paying out the amount of the proposed loan; that plaintiff being ignorant of the fact that the signature purportedly being that of Billie Tatro was false, relied on its truth and defendant's representations, having a right to rely thereon and that plaintiff suffered consequent and proximate injury in the amount of $1,437.44, the unpaid balance of said promissory note.

II

'That Defendant Ralph W. Tatro received his final discharge in bankruptcy July 11, 1963, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri under case #27925; that plaintiff's debt was listed in said defendant's schedule therein and that plaintiff received proper notice thereof but that this debt as found in Paragraph I above falls within Section 17, Paragraph (2) of the Bankruptcy Act as a debt not affected by a discharge; that the liability of $1,437.44 arose by defendant's obtaining...