Webster v. Koch Industries, Unpublished Decision (1-31-2001)
Webster v. Koch Industries, Unpublished Decision (1-31-2001)
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
Plaintiffs-appellants Steve and Mary Webster appeal the December 16, 1999, Judgment Entry of the Richland County Court of Common Pleas granting Summary Judgment in favor of defendant-appellee Koch Industries, Inc.THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT KOCH WAS ENTITLED TO JUDGMENT IN [SIC] MATTER OF LAW.
A. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT THE WEBSTERS' REJECTION OF KOCH'S "RIGHT OF FIRST OPPORTUNITY TO PURCHASE" EXTINGUISHED THEIR "RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL."
B. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT KOCH ULTIMATELY SOLD THE PROPERTY TO PETERSON UNDER THE SAME TERMS AS WERE ORIGINALLY OFFERED TO THE WEBSTERS.
Summary judgment proceedings present the appellate court with the unique opportunity of reviewing the evidence in the same manner as the trial court. Smiddy v. The Wedding Party, Inc. (1987),
CONTRACT GRANTING RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL
. . . Steve Webster and Mary Webster (the "Websters"), husband and wife, are interested in having a first-look right to buy the Property and Koch agrees to grant the Websters a certain right of first refusal as herein expressly set forth ("Right") for such. . . . The parties agree as follows: If Koch receives a bona fide offer from an unaffiliated third person or entity to buy the Property, Koch shall first offer the Property to the Websters for the price and on the terms of that third person or entity offer if Koch otherwise intends to accept the offer. The Websters shall have ten (10) days receipt of that from [sic] notice from Koch to Websters in which to accept it, if at all.
If the Websters want to match that offer, they must deliver that acceptance in writing to Koch within the ten (10) day time limit along with $5,000.00 earnest money. If the Websters do not respond within the ten (10) day time limit or reject such offer, the Right and this contract shall expire and thereafter be of no further force or effect.
If Koch plans to make an offer to sell the Property to an unaffiliated third person or entity, Koch shall first offer the Property to the Websters for the price and on the terms of that intended offer. The Websters shall have ten (10) days from receipt of notice, by Koch to Websters of such offer in which to accept it, if at all.
If the Websters want to accept that offer, they must deliver that acceptance in writing to Koch within the ten (10) day time limit along with $5,000.00 earnest money. If the Websters do not respond within the ten (10) day time limit or reject such offer, the Right and this contract shall expire and thereafter be of no further force or effect, provided, however if in offering the Property for sale to any unaffiliated third person or entity, after expirary or [sic] the ten (10) day period without the Webster's acceptance and Koch modifies that offer in any way changed to that last presented to the Websters, then [sic] that modified offer must first be presented to the Webster [sic] under the procedures of this contract stated above.
The trial court initially agreed that the contract gave the Websters two rights: 1) the right to match any bona fide offer for the real estate that appellee proposed to accept; and 2) the first chance to buy on terms upon which appellee proposed to offer the real estate for sale to others. The trial court, based upon the language of the contract, found that when appellant rejected Koch's September 8, 1998, offer, presumably made pursuant to the Websters' contractual right of first chance to purchase upon terms offered to the public or a third party, the right to match any bona fide offer was extinguished as well. The only remaining limitation under the contract was that Koch could not sell the property to a third party on more favorable terms then the offer rejected by the Websters. We agree. "The agreement of the parties to a written agreement is to be ascertained from the language of the instrument, and there can be no intendment or implication inconsistent with the expressed terms thereof." Latina v. Woodpath Development Co. (1991),
The letter flatly rejected the offered price and terms indicating only an interest to negotiate a purchase at a future time and "opportunity pursuant to the Right of First Refusal to match a "modified offer". We find that under the terms of the contract, the Websters' rejection of the offer by not responding within 10 days, terminated the contract, with one exception. At that point, the only contractual right remaining to the Websters pursuant to the contract, was the right to be presented with any modified offer. This interpretation is consistent with the understanding expressed in Websters' counsel's October 13, 1998, letter. The letter expressed an understanding that appellants continued to have the contractual right to match modified offers. That letter also expressed that the Websters would welcome further negotiations if the environmental problems were set forth in an audit and were proven to have been resolved in compliance with EPA standards. "Negotiating a purchase" does not reflect a belief that Koch continued to have a duty to offer the property to appellants at the terms and conditions as offered to a third party, if those terms and conditions are the same as the terms and conditions already rejected by the Websters. This brings us to the Websters' second argument: the Websters claim the trial court erred in holding that Koch sold the property to Peterson under the same terms as were previously offered to the Websters. The Websters argue that regardless of the outcome of their first argument, they had the right to consider "modified offers". The Websters assert that the contract entered into between Koch and Peterson for the purchase of the property was different than the offer presented to them. Specifically, the Websters allege that the two offers involved two different closing dates and that the "modified" contract included a "no further action letter" from an evironmental consultant. The contract offered to the Websters included a term by which the closing was required to be completed within 60 days of acceptance. While the Websters assert that Peterson closed on December 14, 1998, the Websters argue that they would have been required to close September 22, 1998. However, while the Websters assert that the closing dates were different, the important factor was whether Peterson was required to close within 60 days of acceptance. In an affidavit, Brent Stewart, a Koch employee responsible for marketing the property, stated that the property was sold to Dennis Peterson under the same exact terms as offered to the Websters in the September 8, 1998, letter. The Websters have presented no evidence nor specific facts to show when Peterson accepted Koch's offer or that the closing was not required to have been concluded within 60 days of acceptance. As to the environmental consultant's letter, such a letter was not a term of the contract. The property was offered "as is" to the Websters and the Websters do not contend that the property was offered to Peterson other than "as is". At most, Peterson had more information available to him when he made his decision whether to purchase the property than was available to the Websters but such an evaluation of the property was not required by the contract. Further, the Websters' counsel's October 13, 1998, letter acknowledged the potential environmental problems and stated that the Websters would be interested in negotiating a purchase should apparent environmental problems be "proven to have been resolved in compliance with EPA standards." A letter from the environmental consultants, dated October 6, 1998, asserted that they "[believed] that no further action is warranted for this property and [do] not have any plans to further investigate or remediate this site." The date of this letter is just seven days before appellants' counsel's letter dated October 13, 1998, which asserted that "[e]ven the untrained observer can see that this property is still in need of environmental remediation." Further, in a letter dated October 28, 1998, the environmental consultants acknowledged to Koch that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency [hereinafter OEPA] had not responded to their assertion that the property no longer required remediation and that the consultants "cannot predict what actions, if any, the OPEA may require for this property in the future. . . ." In that these letters from the environmental consultants are so close in time to the Websters' letter which states that the need for remediation was so apparent and, further, did not represent that the OPEA was satisfied with remediation, we cannot find that the letter would have influenced the Websters' decision. The letters from the consultants did not prove that the environmental problems had been resolved, as was stated as a requirement before the Websters would be interested in negotiating a purchase. Lastly, appellants contend that Peterson and Koch engaged in negotiation for the sale of the property as early as January 26, 1998. The Websters point to a letter, dated January 26, 1998, which indicated that Peterson had made an offer on the property and the offer had been submitted to Koch by their realty service. The letter does not provide specifics of the offer nor indicate that Koch accepted the offer. We do not find this factor to be relevant to the issues raised by appellant in their assignment of error. Therefore, we conclude that no genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether the Websters were offered their rights pursuant to the contract. Therefore, Koch was entitled to summary judgment. Appellants' assignment of error is overruled.
The judgment of the Richland County Court of Common Pleas is affirmed.
Edwards, J. Hoffman, P.J. and Milligan, V.J. concur
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.