 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
SouthTrust Bank v. Jones3/18/2005
SouthTrust Bank ("the Bank") appeals from a summary judgment in favor of Jones, Morrison, Womack & Dearing, P.C.; Stokes, Clinton, Fleming & Sherling; Stokes & Clinton, P.C.; and Paul Clinton (hereinafter sometimes referred to collectively as "the lawyers") in a third-party legal-malpractice action. We reverse the summary judgments and remand the cause to the Mobile Circuit Court for further proceedings.
The undisputed facts of this case reveal the following: In 1993, the Bank issued a business credit card to LaCoste Construction Company, Inc. ("LCCI"), located in Mobile, Alabama. LCCI authorized nine of its employees, including Brewton Neal Greene, to use the credit card. None of the nine employees, including Greene, was a guarantor of the credit-card indebtedness, and none was personally liable for any of the charges made on the credit card. When LCCI failed to make payments on its credit-card account, the Bank employed the Atlanta, Georgia, law firm of Jones, Morrison, Womack & Dearing, P.C. ("the Jones, Morrison firm"), to collect the debt. The Bank sent the Jones, Morrison firm its file on the LCCI account. The file included a guaranty agreement that named LCCI and Neal Greene as "borrowers" and that was signed by Vincent D. LaCoste as "guarantor."
Upon receiving the LCCI collection file from the Bank, Saundra Morrison, the office manager at the Jones, Morrison firm, wrote a letter on August 9, 1999, to Sandra Nash, an employee in the Bank's recovery department, inquiring as follows:
"Pursuant to your note, the above Company has a personal guarantee. Do we have a guarantee for all nine individual that are signed on the individual accounts or do we just have a personal guarantee on Vincent D. LaCoste? Please advise."
On August 23, 1999, Sezette Spivey, a legal-accounts representative for the Bank, wrote to Bill Morrison, an attorney in the Jones, Morrison firm, as follows:
"In response to the letter from your office dated August 9, 1999: Attached you will find a copy of the Guaranty of Payment. If you have any questions, please feel free to call."
A document entitled "Guaranty of Payment" enclosed with Spivey's letter states, in pertinent part, the following:
"To induce Bank to make a loan or extend credit or make other financial products or services available to LaCoste Construction Co., Inc. - Neal Greene (as hereinafter further defined, called the 'Borrower'), Guarantor hereby agrees with Bank as follows:
"1. This Guaranty is made for the purpose of securing to Borrower, at Guarantor's request, one or more loans or extensions of credit with ... Bank. ... All such loans or other financial products or services now or hereafter provided by Bank to Borrower, and all extensions or renewals of debts or other obligations now or at any time hereafter owing by Borrower to Bank, are made by Bank in reliance on this Guaranty....
"2. Guarantor jointly and severally if more than one, hereby unconditionally guarantees to Bank the payment and performance by Borrower of all the Guaranteed Obligations (as hereinafter defined)...."
LaCoste's signature on the guaranty agreement is not accompanied by a typewritten version of his name. Spivey knew that the signature was that of LaCoste, but she did not inform the Jones, Morrison firm of that fact. She also did not send the Jones, Morrison firm a copy of the other guaranty agreements, each bearing the name of a different LCCI employee as a "borrower" but containing the signature of the sole guarantor, Vincent D. LaCoste.
The Jones, Morrison firm associated the Mobile firm of Stokes, Clinton, Fleming & Sherlin
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Alabama Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
By using the system, you agree to TERMS OF SERVICE
|