- 15 - Or, as the Court of Appeal of California has written, in Sunniland Fruit, Inc. v. Verni, 284 Cal. Rptr. 824, 828 (Ct. App. 1991) (grower's obligation to repay broker's advances not conditional, notwithstanding provision that the advances would be deducted from funds due the grower after sale of grower's fruit): When the money claimed is an identifiable debt and there is no evidence establishing that the party advancing the monies assumed the risk inherent in the venture, identification of a particular pool of money as a source of payment does not limit or preclude recovery from other sources when the pool fails to materialize unless the agreement expressly so states. * * * Considering the note in its entirety, we find that the clause referring to Mark Mann's earnings is too ambiguous to be treated as an express limitation on his clearly stated and unconditional promise to repay the advances in full. We therefore disagree with respondent's assertion that Mark was only required to repay from his future earnings from petitioner. On the basis of the entire record, we find that petitioner and Mark Mann expected Mark's earnings from petitioner would be both the likely and a convenient source of repayment, but they did not intend or agree that Mark was obligated to make repayments only from that source. See Andrew v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. at 245; Bowman v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-259. We therefore conclude that Mark Mann and petitioner intended Mark to be unconditionally obligated--and that Mark was in fact soPage: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Next
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