Miller v. NBD Bank, N.A. case brief

Miller v. NBD Bank, N.A. case brief summary
701 N.E.2d 282 (1998)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appellant claimant challenged the decision of the Hendricks Superior Court (Indiana), which granted summary judgment to appellee grantor's estate that effectively disallowed appellant's claim against the supervised estate. Appellant's claim arose from a lease-purchase agreement between appellant and grantor and a modification of the agreement. The genuineness of grantor's signature on the modification was disputed.

CASE FACTS
Appellant claimant and grantor entered into a lease-purchase agreement. After grantor's death, appellant filed a claim against appellee grantor's estate to enforce the contract and a modification. Appellee denied the claim alleging the signature on the modification was not that of grantor. The trial court granted summary judgment.

DICUSSION

• However, the appellate court reversed and remanded the matter. 
• It found that appellee did not meet its initial burden of proving there was no genuine issue of material fact regarding grantor's signature and rejected appellee's contention that it was not required to designate evidence to support its motion. 
• Further, the affidavit of grantor's daughter in support of the summary judgment motion did not indicate she was personally familiar with her father's signature or otherwise state why she concluded that her father had not signed the contested document. 
• The verified letter of the expert also did not create a genuine issue of material fact as he only affirmed that it was highly probably that the challenged signature was not grantor's signature. 
• The court also concluded that appellant was not competent to testify about grantor's execution of the modification agreement.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed and remanded the matter because appellee grantor's estate did not meet its initial burden of proving there was no genuine issue of material fact regarding grantor's signature. It also concluded that, on remand, appellant claimant was not competent to testify on the issue of whether appellant claimant could testify on remand about grantor's execution of agreement.

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