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Court ruling reversed
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Posted on Apr 13 1999
The Supreme Court yesterday disagreed with the findings earlier made by the lower court and ruled in favor of Saipan Honeymoon Corporation.
Justices Marty W.K. Taylor, Ramon G. Villagomez and Pedro M. Atalig considered the Bill of Sale as a binding agreement between Saipan Honeymoon Corporation and Mi Sook Seol and Young Jin Kim.
The Bill of Sale contained the description of the ship, was notarized and signed by the parties concerned.
“Since the Bill of Sale was an integrated document, there was no reason to go outside the four corners to look at the intent of the parties,” the court said.
Both parties entered into a partnership agreement in August 1993 for an equal allocation of the tour boat operation and split its monthly profits.
After 60 days, the company sold the boat to Kim for a sum of $100,000 by Bill of Sale and canceled the partnership agreement.
The following year, both Seol and Kim filed a complaint against Saipan Honeymoon for breach of the agreement.
The Superior Court then ordered Saipan Honeymoon to return the investment made by Seol and Kim in the amount of $67,100, including interest.
However, this was reversed by the Supreme Court’s decision which granted Saipan Honeymoon the amount due on the Bill of Sale totaling to $32, 900.
The higher court’s judgment said that a partnership took effect for about 60 days and later both parties executed an agreement to nullify it.
On the allegation that Saipan Honeymoon breached the agreement because they failed to deliver half of the profit, the Supreme Court replied that there was no accounting made to determine whether a profit had been made.
