Marple v. Wyoming Production Credit Ass’n, 750 P.2d 1315 (Wyo. 1988)
Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the cited opinion.
- Citation: 750 P.2d 1315 (Wyo. 1988); 1988 Wyo. LEXIS 21
- Court / Year: Supreme Court of Wyoming, 1988 (Urbigkit, J.)
- Topic tags: equitable_interest, foreclosure, lien_priority
- Posture (read this first): Marple is not a buyer-resisting-forfeiture case and the Court expressly held it was not an installment sales contract. Fee title had already been conveyed to the buyers (the Pyers); the sellers (the Marples) retained only a recorded security interest plus a right to payment. The actual dispute was a lien-priority contest between the Marples’ retained-security interest and the later real-estate mortgages held by Wyoming Production Credit Association (PCA). The Court: “Contrary to the concept of litigants and the trial court, we do not find presented an installment sales contract since legal title to the property is vested in buyer and all that remained in seller was a right to payment and reserved security interest.”
- Disposition: Reversed and remanded. Summary judgment for PCA was reversed; the Marples’ recorded security interest was held senior to PCA’s later mortgages (PCA had actual/record notice). The Marples (sellers) won.
- Holding (on the cited principle): In characterizing an ambiguous security arrangement the Court looks to the parties’ intent from the documents and surrounding circumstances and states the principle — citing Martino v. Frumkin, 462 P.2d 853 (Ariz. 1970) — that “a security interest arrangement, in case of doubt, should be defined as a mortgage in order to protect all parties by denial of forfeiture and affording statutory rights of redemption.” That principle framed the Court’s recharacterization analysis here (it found a mortgage-type interest, not a land contract).
- Reasoning: The Court relied on the equitable-mortgage analysis of Baldwin v. McDonald, 24 Wyo. 108, 156 P. 27 (1916) and treatise authority, noting that the status of an executory sales agreement is foreclosed once fee title is actually conveyed — which is why, on these facts, what survived was a mortgage-equivalent security interest rather than a forfeitable land contract.
- Practical impact for CFD operators/buyers: Marple supplies the “in case of doubt, define it as a mortgage” principle that softens Wyoming’s otherwise contract-governed forfeiture rule for genuinely ambiguous security arrangements. Cite it for that principle, but note its posture: it arose in a priority dispute after fee title had passed, not as a live CFD buyer defeating forfeiture, and the “denial of forfeiture / redemption” language is the stated rationale of that principle rather than a holding relieving a CFD buyer. It does not override a clear, ordinary contract for deed (see angus-hunt-ranch-v-reb-1978, younglove-v-graham-and-hill-1974). Operators reduce recharacterization risk by drafting unambiguous installment-sale (not security) instruments — and by not conveying fee title before payoff.
- Good-law status: Good law.
- Source (retrieved): https://static.case.law/p2d/750/cases/1315-01.json · Verified: 2026-06-10
Jurisdictions that follow / cite: wyoming
Changelog:
- 2026-06-10 — Second-pass re-verification (case.law JSON + corroborating secondary). Corrected the Facts/Holding: prior version implied a live installment-land-contract whose characterization was disputed. The opinion expressly held it was not an installment sales contract (fee title had already passed; seller held only a retained recorded security interest), and the actual dispute was lien priority between the seller-security-holder (Marples, who won) and lender PCA; disposition reversed and remanded. The “in case of doubt define it as a mortgage” line is the stated principle (per Martino v. Frumkin), correctly quoted, but re-framed as principle/dictum in a priority posture, not a CFD-buyer anti-forfeiture holding. Added judge (Urbigkit, J.).
Disclaimer. Legal information, not legal advice. Confirm the opinion is still good law before relying on it.