Hambleton Bros. Lumber Co. v. Balkin Enterprises, Inc.

We must decide whether a Washington timber company’s claims arising from the alleged breach of a timber contract were properly dismissed on summary judgment.

Hambleton Brothers Lumber Company appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Jim Ballinger on Ham-bleton Brothers’s claims of breach of contract, piercing of the corporate veil, fraudulent concealment, unfair and deceptive trade practices under the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and shareholder distributions recoverable pursuant to Oregon Revised Statute section 60.645. Ballinger was formerly the president of Balkin Enterprises, an Oregon corporation that had entered into a contract with Hambleton Brothers in 1994 giving Ham-bleton Brothers the right to all merchantable timber on a particular parcel of land for a period of just over three years. Before Hambleton Brothers could log the property, it was sold by one William Abraczinskas, an unauthorized individual purporting to be Balkin’s agent, and then logged by another company. Hambleton Brothers, gaining nothing for the funds it had paid for the logging rights, brought suit naming all parties involved both in the timber contract and in the property…