Monroe Street Properties, Inc., an Arizona Corporation v. Orville S. Carpenter, Trustee, Etc.

Appellant, Monroe Street Properties, Inc. (“Monroe”), appeals from a judgment in favor of the defendant Carpenter entered after Carpenter’s motion for a summary judgment was granted. Carpenter is a party in his capacity as a trustee for Western Equities, Inc. (“Western”). Federal jurisdiction is based upon diversity of citizenship.

Monroe’s action is for claimed breach of a written contract between Monroe and Western in which Western agreed to buy from Monroe ten insured first mortgages and notes having a face value of $1,250,000 in exchange for $1,000,000 worth of Western’s common stock. The District Court granted summary judgment on the ground that the uncontroverted facts showed that Monroe neither performed nor tendered performance on its side and, therefore, Western was not in breach of contract. Monroe contends that there was a genuine issue of material fact within the meaning of Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Could Monroe have performed its agreement by delivering clear insured title to the first mortgages during the life of the contract? We reject Monroe’s contention and affirm the judgment.

The following facts are undisputed. On March 27, 1962, Western…