Conley v. Easley
Conley v. Easley
Opinion of the Court
On the first day of July, 1943, Martha Brown Conley, in her own right and as widow and executrix of her husband, George Thomas Conley, deceased, and Ella Saltón, in her own right and as administratrix of her husband, R. A. Saltón, deceased, Russel A. Saltón, Jr. and Virginia Saltón Yost, and John W. Yost, her husband, as lessors, entered into a lease agreement with Dr. George W. Eas-ley, leasing to said Easley what is known as the Williamson Memorial Hospital, located in the City of Williamson, West Virginia, for a term of three years, at a monthly rental of $3,400.00. The lease was extended, under the terms thereof, for three years, and made to end on the 30th of June, 1949. Paragraph 12 of the lease, out of which grows this litigation, reads as follows:
“The Lessee covenants and agrees that if the Lessors, or the Williamson Memorial Hospital, late a corporation, or its Trustee if it be dissolved, shall so desire, then that he, the Lessee, will undertake to collect any accounts and bills receivable, due unto the corporation as of July 1, 1943, on the following terms and conditions:
“ (a) The accounts and demands to be assigned without warranty and without recourse in law or in equity to the Lessee.
“ (b) The Lessee will make demand for, and receive from the debtors, such funds as they may be induced to pay, on account of the accounts and bills receivable.
*647 “(c) The Lessee will keep a separate account of the funds so received, and shall be permitted to appropriate and use such funds, for himself.
“ (d) The Lessee will pay off and discharge the accounts for merchandise or labor, due or owing by the corporation on July 1, 1943, and keep an account thereof.
“ (e) At the expiration of the Lease, original or as extended, the Lessee will, in turn, assign unto the Lessors, or their nominee, any bills or accounts receivable which may be owing unto him, in an amount not less than the amount of the bills and accounts receivable, hereby assigned or to be assigned unto him, as hereinbefore recited. The writing of assignment shall be without warranty as to the validity of the demands, and without recourse either in law or in equity as to the assign- or; in which event the assignees of the Lessee shall assume the payment of such amounts as the said Lessee shall be owing on account of labor and supplies, but the amount so assumed by the Lessors shall not exceed the amount paid out by the Lessee, as provided in paragraph (d).”
The following facts, in relation to the accounts and other matters mentioned in the paragraph quoted above, are admitted. One: At the beginning of the said lease, the accounts which Dr. Easley was permitted to collect and use amounted to the sum of $114,714.85, of which Easley collected the sum of $15,489.94; Second: The aggregate of bills owing by the hospital, all of which Easley was required to pay under the provisions of Paragraph 12, was $5,050.59, leaving a balance which Dr. Easley was entitled to use as his own of $10,439.35; Three: The amount of uncollected accounts of those assigned to Dr. Easley, at the beginning of his lease, was, on June 30, 1949, the date when he surrendered the same, $99,224.91; Fourth: The amount of additional uncollected accounts which accumulated during the six years Dr. Easley operated said hospital, under his lease, was $124,204.83; and Five: The amount of the bills which the hospital owed ■to various persons, on June 30, 1949, was $7,061.43.
The matter in dispute, and it is a legitimate matter of
This is a declaratory judgment proceeding under the provisions of Chapter 26, Acts of the Legislature, 1941, and, as stated above, the controversy is one which comes within the act. The facts as narrated above are set up in what is termed a bill of complaint in which the lessors in the lease of July 1, 1943, and Woodrow W. Scott and Russel A. Saltón, Jr. are made plaintiffs, the latter by reason of their being the present lessees of the hospital, and being interested in the accounts involved, and Dr. George W. Easley, defendant. Defendant filed his answer and crossbill in which he sets up his claim to the said accounts. The case was heard upon the bill and the answer and crossbill, and on October 27, 1950, the court rendered a written opinion in the case which is made a part of the record, and entered the following judgment:
“IT IS, THEREFORE, ADJUDGED, ORDERED AND DECREED:
“1. That the accounts receivable owing to the Williamson Memorial Hospital as of June 30, 1949, which accounts are of. the total sum of $223,-429.94 according to the audit made by T. R. Joseph and filed as an exhibit with the defendant’s answer, belong to and are the property of the defendant, Dr. George W. Easley.
“2. That the defendant, Dr. George W. Easley, shall account to the plaintiffs in the sum of $10,-439.35, payable out of the monies collected out of the accounts receivable as of June 30, 1949, and*649 further that the defendant, Dr. George W.' Easley, shall account to the plaintiffs in the sum of $7,-061.43, which is likewise to be paid out of the said accounts receivable or those collected by the plaintiffs; making a total sum of $17,500.78 to be accounted for by the defendant to the plaintiffs, payable out of the said accounts receivable owing to the Williamson Memorial Hospital as of June 30, 1949. Any balance collected on said accounts receivable, after payment of said sum of $17,500.78 to the plaintiffs, shall be paid to the defendant, Dr. George W. Easley, and the balance of the accounts receivable, as of June 30, 1949, not collected, shall be turned over and delivered to Dr. George W. Easley as and for his own property. And that after the plaintiffs shall have collected the total sum of $17,500.78 out of said accounts receivable, they shall then turn over to the defendant all the remaining unpaid accounts receivable as of June 30, 1949.”
On March 19, 1941, at the instance of the plaintiffs, we granted this appeal.
The majority of the Court is of the opinion that there is no sound basis for the decision of the trial court. That decision completely ignores the express’ provision of Paragraph 12 of the lease in respect to accounts, and is based upon what the chancellor believed to be the equities of the situation. Not having before us the information as to the amount of the accounts which have been collected since June 30, 1949, by the present lessees, or the other plaintiffs, we are in no position to deal with the equities of the case, even if we were permitted to do so. We think, however that we are not permitted to depart from the terms of the agreement between the parties, and should, so far as possible to do so, enter a decree within the frame work of the written agreement the parties made, and in so doing we must deal with the accounts which were the subject of that agreement.
At this point, the Court is unable to agree upon a solution of the case. Two members of the Court would affirm the judgment of the trial court, and two would reverse the trial court, and remand the case with directions
It seems to me that the whole controversy may be equitably determined, within the terms of the agreement, by disposing of two questions: First, what accounts should we take into consideration; and, second, whether the reference contained in Subsection (e) of Paragraph 12 of the lease agreement was intended as a limitation on the amount of the accounts which the lessee should return to the lessors when he surrendered his lease. In my opinion, the $99,224.91 accounts remaining uncollected from those turned over to Easley, on July 1, 1943, should no longer be considered, and they should remain the property of Easley. I think we would be justified in taking this course, because they are barred by the statute of limitations, and the passage of time, and the small amount collected during the period of six years indicates that they have no value. Certainly it was not contemplated in the agreement that Easley could turn over an equivalent amount of accounts by using these worthless accounts to make up the total of the sum required to be assigned to the lessors at the termination of his lease. There is nothing in the agreement that prevents us from eliminating from any present consideration the accounts aggregating $99,224.91 which are treated as of no value. I -think the situation before us warrants us in so doing. Therefore, I think what we are dealing with is the $124,-204.83 of accounts which were accumulated under Dr. Eas-ley’s administration of the hospital. Some of these accounts may be barred by the statute of limitations; others may be collectible; but they are of the same general character of accounts as those received by Easley in 1943, when he took charge of the hospital.
We then come to the important question in the case as to what accounts were to be turned over by Easley to his lessors on the termination of his lease. I have
“At the expiration of the Lease, original or as extended, the Lessee will, in turn, assign unto the Lessors, or their nominee, any bills or accounts receivable which may be owing unto him, in an amount not less than the amount of the hills and accounts receivable, hereby assigned or to be assigned unto him, as hereinbefore'recited. * * *” (Emphasis ours.)
The amount of the bills and accounts which Easley took over was $114,714.85, as afterwards determined by an accounting, recognized as correct by all parties. Clearly, the underscored portion of the quotation above refers to, and, in my opinion, limits the amount of the accounts which Easley was required to assign. What the parties had in mind was to place the owners of the property in the same position as they were in when the lease was made in July, 1943. To show that this is true, the same section provides:
“* * * in which event [referring to the same amount of accounts] the assignees of the Lessee shall assume the payment of such amounts as the said Lessee shall be owing on account of labor and suppliés, but the amount so assumed by the Lessors shall not exceed the amount paid out by the Lessee, as provided in paragraph (d).”
As a matter of fact, the accounts which were due from the hospital to various persons at the time Easley surrendered his lease was $7,061.43; therefore, if Easley be required to turn over from the accounts accumulated during his administration of the hospital the sum of $114,-714.85, the hospital would only have been required, under the terms of the lease, to pay the bills accruing under Easley’s administration to the amount of $5,050.59, leaving Easley to pay the difference between that amount and the total amount of said bills. That solution of the matter would leave the parties in exactly the same position as they were in in July, 1943, save and except a question which we have no way of determining, and that
If we are to decide this case on the record as now presented, it seems to me that we must give recognition to the provision of Subsection (e) of Paragraph 12 of the lease, which, in plain language, requires the lessee, at the expiration of his lease, to assign to the lessors, or their nominee, any bills or accounts which may be owing to him in an amount not less than the bills and accounts which had been assigned to him at the time he entered on his lease in 1943, which was the sum of $114,714.85. My disagreement with the two members of the Court, who would hold that all of thesé accounts which had been accumulated by Easley, as well as those which had been assigned to him when he took over the lease in 1943, now belong to the plaintiffs, is that I think it was plainly intended to require only that Easley should assign accounts to the amount of those which had been assigned to him. I am not willing to go further than to place the present owners, and present lessees, in the same position in which Easley stood when he took over the lease in 1943, and I think this was the plain intention of those who entered into the lease. If that had not been intended, there was no occasion whatever for the use of the language “in an amount not less than the amount of the bills and accounts receivable, hereby assigned or to be assigned unto him, as hereinbefore recited.” If it had been intended that Easley should assign all these accounts, the provisions of Subsection (e) should have ended at the point where the language immediately above
The question may be asked, how are we to make a division of accounts, as between the plaintiffs and the defendant, constituting the difference between the total of the accounts, accruing under the terms of Easley’s lease, $124,204.83,' and the sum of $114,714.85, the aggregate of the accounts turned over to' Easley in 1943, that difference being $9,489.98. Someone may inquire as to what accounts should be turned over to Easley. My solution of this case on this point would be to require Easley to turn over all of these accounts to the plaintiffs, on the condition that there be paid to him, from collections thereof, the sum of $9,489.98. I would require that upon the assignment of these accounts by Easley, the plaintiffs pay, on account of the bills of the hospital existing at the conclusion of Easley’s administration thereof, the sum of $5,050.59, which would, of course, leave Easley the burden of paying the balance between that sum and the aggregate of the said bills which was $7,061.43. I agree, of course, that there should not be a separation of the accounts, but it is not necessary that any such method be employed. Certainly a court of equity in determining an intricate matter of this character may make a money decree of the nature I have suggested.
In the situation presented by the inability of the majority of the Court to agree upon any final solution of the matters in controversy, but a majority of the Court being of the opinion to reverse the decree of the Circuit Court of Mingo County, the same is reversed, and the
Reversed and remanded.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the syllabus, as prepared by Judge Fox, which reverses the judgment of the Circuit Court of Min-go County and remands this proceeding to that court for further consideration. I do not, however, agree with the views expressed in the opinion filed by him with respect to the amount of the accounts to be assigned by the defendant to the plaintiffs, or the reasons stated by him in determining such amount, or the division which he would make of the proceeds of the accounts between the respective parties. Any method, such as that indicated by Judge Fox, or that adopted by the circuit court in its final judgment, by which the amount of the accounts, existing at the termination of the lease, is limited or reduced, except to the extent necessary to pay from them the amount of $5,050.59 on the bills incurred by the defendant, disregards and departs from the plain and unambiguous provision of the lease relating to the accounts and substitutes a provision entirely different from that agreed to by the parties themselves. In short, Judge Fox, as I understand his opinion, would modify or rewrite the contract of the .parties, to the extent necessary to conform to his idea of a fair and equitable contract between them instead of giving full force and effect to the clear and express terms of the contract which, upon full consideration, they themselves entered into and adopted. To that disposition of this case I can not agree, for the reason that it would violate the sound principles of law governing the interpretation of written contracts which are clearly stated in 12 Am. Jur., Contracts, Section 228, in this language: “Interpretation of an agreement does not include its modification or the creation of a new or different one. A court is not at liberty to revise an agreement while professing to. construe it. Nor does it have the right to make a contract for the parties- — -that is, a contract different from that actually entered into by them. Neither abstract justice nor the rule of liberal construction justifies the creation of a contract
The judgment entered by the able and experienced judge of the circuit court, based on his obvious desire and effort to do what he considers equity between the parties, changes and rewrites the provision of the contract to an even greater extent than the opinion of Judge Fox indicates that he would do. As the judgment of the circuit court departs from the applicable provision of the contract, it is clearly erroneous and should be reversed. 12 Am. Jur., Contracts, Section 228.
As stated in the opinion of Judge Fox paragraph 12 (e) of the lease contains this provision:
“ (e) At the expiration of the lease, original or as extended, the Lessee will, in turn, assign unto the Lessors, or their nominee, any bills or accounts receivable which may be owing unto him, in an amount not less than the amount of the bills and accounts receivable, hereby assigned or to be assigned unto him, as hereinbefore recited. The writing of assignment shall be without warranty as to the validity of the demands, and without recourse either in law or in equity as to the assignor; in which event the assignees of the Lessee shall assume the payment of such amounts as the said Lessee shall be owing on account of labor and supplies, but the amount so assumed by the Lessors shall not exceed the amount paid out by the Lessee, as provided in paragraph (d).”
The subsection of the paragraph just quoted is free from ambiguity and its meaning, it seems to me, is entirely clear. It means, first, that the accounts owing to the lessee, the defendant, at the expiration of the lease,
The words relating to the accounts receivable “in an amount not less than the amount of the bills and accounts receivable, hereby assigned or to be assigned” to the lessee, mean exactly what they say, and they mean that the lessee should have bills and accounts receivable, at the end of the lease “in an amount not less than” $114,-714.85, which was the amount of the accounts receivable assigned to him. They do not mean, as Judge Fox ap
It is clear to me that the parties to the lease, by the terms of paragraph (e), intended to impose a minimum amount, but not a maximum amount, of the accounts receivable to be assigned at the termination of the lease, and did not impose the requirement that the accounts receivable to be assigned should be “equal to” or should not “exceed” the amount of the accounts receivable assigned to the lessee. If they had so intended they easily
The meaning which I would place upon the language of subsection (e) of the paragraph gives effect to each of its words when used in its common and usual sense and significance, and accords with the well established rule that words of an unambiguous written contract should be given their ordinary, usual and commonly accepted meaning and significance when it does not appear that they are used in a different sense or that such meaning will produce an absurd or unreasonable result. 12 Am. Jur., Contracts, Section 236; Farber v. Mutual Life Insurance Company, 250 Mass. 250, 145 N. E. 535, 36 A. L. R. 806. It also avoids the confusion and the uncertainty which would necessarily result from any attempt to divide or distribute the accounts receivable, or their proceeds when collected, between the plaintiffs and the defendant which, it seems to me, must be done if the views expressed by Judge Fox in his opinion should be followed. In my judgment there is no way, except by agreement between the parties, who are unwilling to
As already pointed out, the language of subsection (e) of the paragraph of the lease is clear and unambiguous and its meaning as expressed by the parties is plain. When a written contract expresses the intent of the par-
For the reasons stated, I would reverse the judgment of the circuit court and hold that, under the plain and
I am authorized to state that Judge Riley concurs in the views set forth in this opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
In my view there is ambiguity in the contract to be interpreted. As applied to the instant case, it appears immaterial whether the ambiguity is patent or latent. In either event the trial court was justified in interpreting the contract in the light of the situation of the parties at the time the agreement was made, the circumstances surrounding them, and any subsequent acts of the parties, relating thereto, throwing light upon their intentions in the making of the contract. Uhl v. Railroad Co., 51 W. Va. 106, 41 S. E. 340. I think the situation of the parties and the material circumstances are fully disclosed by the record. It is not contended, of course, that the terms of a written contract can be varied by extraneous circumstances, but we should keep in mind the wide difference between the varying or changing of the terms of an agreement, and the establishment of the intentions of the parties thereto. Stewart v. Steel Corporation, 100 W. Va. 331, 130 S. E. 447; Watson v. Coal Co., 95 W. Va. 164, 120 S. E. 390; Clayton v. County Court, 58 W. Va. 253, 52 S. E. 103.
Much stress is placed upon the word “any”, used in Subsection (e), as showing that no ambiguity exists in the provision of the contract under consideration, the intention apparently being that “any” must necessarily mean “all”. Of course the word may be made to mean “all” by context. In truth, the meaning of the word “any” usually depends upon context. In 32 C. J. S., Evidence, Section 961, Subsection c, the author states: “The am
If any further demonstration of uncertainties rendering the contract ambiguous were necessary, I would simply refer to the fact that not more than two members of this Court can arrive at the same conclusion with reference thereto. I am not unmindful of the rule sometimes
“Unless intention of parties to contract is manifest by language employed, subject-matter, and surrounding circumstances, that construction should be given which is consistent with the right of the case.” Telephone Co. v. Telephone Co., 142 Va. 529, 129 S. E. 389. The trial court merely applied these principles in its effort to determine the true meaning and intent of the language contained in Subsection (e) of Section 12 of the contract. In so doing, that court did not necessarily forget the principles relating to interpretation of contracts, and disposed of the matter entirely upon equitable principles. So viewing the question, I can not say that his interpretation is wrong. At least not more than two members of this Court can agree that he erred as to any principle of law. In addition to having the parties before him, in being permitted to consider the situation of the parties and the circumstances surrounding them, resultant equities and inequities that would possibly arise under any interpretation of the contract, as above indicated, he could look to each and all of the provisions of the contract. From these provisions he would find that the parties contracted with reference to furniture and other personal property in the hospital, with reference to taxes and other assessments, with reference to repairs to the hospital building, with reference to alterations of that building, with reference to insurance, with reference to inventories, from all of which he would certainly discover that the intention of the parties as to such matters was that, upon the termination of the lease, the parties be placed in as nearly the same position as they were at the beginning of the lease. Could this not be considered in determining their intentions with reference to the accounts receivable and the accounts' payable? The result reached by the trial court as to the accounts receivable and the accounts pay
I do not think that we should make a fetish of the word “any” and rely on it as solving the. problem presented by this record. Nor should we give literal meaning to a group of ambiguous words which would result in inequitable or unconscionable disposition of this controversy. I think it is better to arrive at a fair and equitable result upon the theory that the parties to the lease here considered did not intend to take from each other any right or rights which in all fairness belong to the other. I think that the Circuit Court of Mingo County has given effect to the intention of the parties as nearly as could be done, in the circumstances disclosed by this record.
It will be noticed that the syllabus prepared by Judge Fox, and concurred in by Judges Haymond and Riley, remands the case for “consideration” only. Therefore, I presume there can be no further development of the case as it relates to interpretation of the contract. “Consideration” alone may be given it by the trial court. Not more than two members of this Court are able to agree upon any proposition of law or fact which should be considered again by the trial court. I have been unable to find any precedent or reason for reversal of the decree of the trial court in such circumstances. The record shows that the trial court fully and carefully considered every phase of the matter involved. His views were clearly expressed in a written opinion. The judgment entered is in accord with those views. Inasmuch as not more than two members of this Court can say that the trial court erred as to any principle of law, I would affirm that judgment. This Court should not expect the trial court to discover some mystic formula for solving a problem that we are unable to solve.
Being of the views indicated, I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to say that Judge Lovins concurs in the views expressed herein.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Martha Brown Conley, Et Al. v. Dr. George W. Easley
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