- 30 - longer responsible. See id. at 243-244. After examining section 620.735(2), the Court of Appeals stated: No express or inferred agreement existed here. There was no express agreement between Weiss and the Hillman Group partners relieving Weiss of liability; Flagship did not expressly release Weiss from his personal guarantee; and nothing in the course of dealings be- tween the Hillman Group and Flagship permits the in- ference that Flagship released Weiss from his personal guarantee. Because the Tax Court did not indicate what course of dealings showed that Weiss was relieved of liabil- ity, we suppose that Flagship's extension of a $200,000 line of credit to the Hillman Group somehow influenced the Tax Court. But this credit extension is in no way inconsistent with the fact that Flagship still consid- ered Weiss personally liable on his guarantee of the loan participation. Without a clear inconsistency between the written guarantee and later conduct by Flagship, we see no reason to infer that Weiss had been discharged from his obligation pursuant to the guaran- tee. For example, we might decide that Weiss was relieved from his liability by the course of dealings if, without expressly releasing Weiss, Flagship had substituted a new written guarantee from the Hillman Group or one of its members after Weiss' partnership interest was terminated. Or, for another example, we might also have decided that Weiss was released if, in the course of dealings, Flagship had been forced to recover on their loan participation and sought recovery only from the Hillman Group and not from Weiss. But here nothing in the record shows that Flagship had released Weiss from his personal guarantee. [Id. at 245.] Petitioners attempt to distinguish Weiss. They contend that "Weiss did not present a situation, such as the instant case, where the loan became due and the payment was changed from a balloon payment to payment of interest only." As discussed above, we reject petitioners' position that the terms of the 1989Page: Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Next
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