 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Marion v. 396 Investment Co.5/17/2005
mortgage debts. Anaheim broadly asserts that all the plaintiffs were relieved of their full mortgage debts, including, apparently, the Friedmans and the Salyers. Although Anaheim is not terribly articulate on appeal as to why the Friedman and Salyer mortgage debts should be construed as having been paid in full, when the lenders did not cancel the debts, Anaheim argued before the trial court that the promissory notes were unenforceable against the Friedmans and the Salyers despite the assignments. We shall address each of these two judgments in turn.
(b) Friedman Judgment
The October 9, 2002 judgment in favor of the Friedmans reflects a total verdict amount of $1,891,186.44. The judgment contains no offsets. Anaheim contends that the judgment should have contained an offset in the amount of $1,304,538, which represents $779,364 in settlement payments received from 396 plus $525,174 in mortgage debt relief. We are unable to verify these precise, figures, however.
To substantiate the amount of the settlement payments received, Anaheim cites to its own trial brief. The trial brief in turn cites to certain factual stipulations and to what Anaheim terms a "calculated amount." The factual stipulations filed March 4, 2002 (Factual Stipulations) state that $3,100,000 in settlement payments from 396 were divided among the Salyers, the Stevenses, the Wongs, and the Friedmans, but do not articulate the breakdown as to the particular parties. However, Rick E. Rayl, attorney for Anaheim, filed a May 10, 2002 declaration in which he stated that Attorney Robert Wolfe had provided him with the settlement payment breakdown as to the Salyers, the Stevenses, and the Wongs. Anaheim subtracts the total of the amounts Attorney Rayl said had been paid to those parties, from the $3,100,000 in question, and concludes that the remaining $668,253 is the Friedmans' share of the $3,100,000. However, assuming the $668,253 figure is correct, it is not all the Friedmans received. The Factual Stipulations made clear that the Friedmans received $111,111.11 from 396, in addition to the Friedmans' share of the $3,100,000 amount. Anaheim adds the $111,111.11 amount specified in the Factual Stipulations to the $668,253 "calculated amount" and concludes that the Friedmans received a total of $779,364 in settlement payments from 396.
This reasoning has a certain logical appeal. However, we cannot accept it at face value, because the declaration of Attorney Rayl is contradicted by the December 6, 2002 declaration of Attorney Wolfe. While Attorney Wolfe made no declaration with respect to the amounts received by the Friedmans, he contradicted what Attorney Rayl said with respect to the amounts that had been received by the Salyers, the Stevenses and the Wongs. However, we note that were we to assume the figures supplied by Attorney Wolfe were correct, then we would conclude that the amount of money received by the Friedmans was far greater than the amount urged by Anaheim.
As best we are aware, the trial court made no findings as to which, if either, attorney declaration was correct and what amounts had been received by these various sets of parties. Therefore, we can reach no conclusions on appeal as to which set of figures may be correct and we cannot extrapolate the correct figures with respect to the Friedmans. Nonetheless, it would seem apparent that the Friedmans received a substantial amount of money from 396, over and above the $111,111.11 payment that they have acknowledged.
Aside from the amount of settlement money received from 396, Anaheim also argues that the Friedmans were relieved of a $525,174 mortgage debt and that the offset should have included that additional amou
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 California 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
|