JULIEN E. BALOGH, STIRLING LOAN COMPANY, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, RICHARD K. FINK, AS ESCROW AGENT, CONGRESS LOAN CO., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, AND BALOGH DIAMOND CUTTING CORP., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLANTS,
v.
HENRY CLEYS, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Cleys sold his loan company stock to Balogh in 1958 under an agreement entitling Cleys to tax savings from business losses for five years post-closing. The trial court awarded Cleys $4,090.22 for carry-back tax losses, but the appellate court reversed, finding no evidence Cleys reserved that right to himself, and remanded for consideration of Cleys's cross-appeal regarding an accounting for alleged breach of an implied duty to operate the company in good faith.
The agreement does not entitle Cleys to carry-back tax refunds because he failed to establish any right to a refund belonging to the corporation itself, having made no personal reservation of that asset. The court reversed the judgment for the carry-back amount and remanded for an accounting to determine what profits, if any, Cleys was entitled to recover for breach of an implied agreement to operate the company in good faith.
“That in addition to the aforesaid purchase price, the Purchaser shall pay unto the Seller on or before December 15th of each year, subsequent to the date of closing, for a period of five (5) years, a sum equal to the Income Taxes saved by reason of the deductions taken in the Annual Federal Income Tax Returns of the said corporation for reason of business losses'suffered by said corporation prior to the date of closing.”
The disputed contractual clause defining the tax savings obligation at issue in the case
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceOn August 8, 1958, Henry Cleys sold the stock of Stirling Loan Company, Inc. and related equipment to Julien Balogh and other defendants. The purchase…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Implied Covenant Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing cases and more on FLexlaw
The defendants appeal a final judgment in the sum of $4,090.22 entered for the plaintiff, Henry Cleys. The plaintiff cross appeals the action of the trial court in failing to require an accounting or damages from the defendants, who allegedly did not properly operate a small loan company for five years subsequent to the sale of the business by the plaintiff to the defendants.
It appears that the plaintiff, Henry Cleys, and the defendant, Julien Balogh, entered into an agreement dated August 8, 1958, whereby Cleys agreed to sell and Balogh agreed to buy the stock of Stirling Loan Company, Inc., together with certain other equipment belonging to Cleys. An agreement of purchase and sale and a bill of sale for the personalty were executed and delivered for a proper consideration between the parties.
Paragraph 4 of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale provides, in part:
“That in addition to the aforesaid purchase price, the Purchaser shall pay unto the Seller on or before December 15th of each year, subsequent to the date of closing, for a period of five (5) years, a sum equal to the Income Taxes saved by reason of the deductions taken in the Annual Federal Income Tax Returns of the said corporation for reason of business losses'suffered by said corporation prior to the date of closing. * * * ”
The defendants interpret this clause to entitle plaintiff Cleys to “savings from carry-forward taxes losses” of the loan company, but not to carry back tax losses. The plaintiff claims this clause provides that he is entitled to carry back tax savings in the sum of $4,090.22 for the years 1955 through 1957; or, if this clause is ambiguous, it should be reformed or interpreted to accord with the intentions of the parties.
*191The trial court obviously felt that the agreement was either ambiguous or did not cover the particular element [carry back tax loss], as it permitted parol evidence on this question. The defendants’ motion to add the defense of the Statute of Frauds was denied, and final judgment in the sum of $4,090.22 was granted to Cleys for the amount of the carry back tax loss due to the Stirling Loan Company, Inc.
The record before us does not show under what right or authority the plaintiff, Henry Cleys, is entitled to a tax refund belonging to Stirling Loan Company, Inc. There is no evidence that he reserved to himself personally this right to a carry back tax refund due the corporation. Paragraph 2 of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale which Cleys executed and delivered to Balogh established the formula by which the purchase price was determined and included an item entitled “all other assets of the said corporation”. ■ This indicates no reservation of this particular asset to the plaintiff Cleys.
The agreement specifically refers to a tax period of five years and indicates a tax loss (carry over) to be paid to plaintiff for this time. We find that the plaintiff has failed to establish in the record by what right he was entitled to receive a carry back tax refund belonging to the corporation, Stirling Loan Company, Inc., and we therefore reverse the judgment for the plaintiff for the amount of the carry back tax refund.
We have examined the record on plaintiffs cross assignment of error and conclude that an accounting should be held to determine what profits, if any, the plaintiff Cleys was entitled to recover for breach of an implied agreement to operate Stirling Loan Company, Inc. in good faith during the five year period of the life of the carry over tax agreement.
The cause is therefore reversed and remanded for action not inconsistent herewith.
Reversed and remanded.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Cleys v. Julien E. Balogh, 238 So. 2d 464 (Fla. 3d DCA 1970)…trial by the court final judgment in the amount of $4,090.22 was entered for Henry Cleys, the plaintiff and the present appellant. The plaintiff and the defendants appealed. Our opinion on those appeals is reported as Balogh v. Cleys, Fla.App.1966, 185 So. 2d 190. An examination of that opinion reveals that upon plaintiff Cley’s appeal we held that it was error for the trial court to deny plaintiff’s claim for an accounting, and we directed that upon remand an accounting should be held to determine: “what…