Meincke v. Northwest Bank & Trust Co.

Janice Meincke (plaintiff), aunt of Craig Meincke and mother of his business partner Sandra Marti, had already loaned money to their company Scramm Enterprises in exchange for a mortgage, and when Northwest Bank & Trust Co. (defendant) agreed to lend Scramm additional funds to pay off a prior lender, it conditioned the loan on obtaining first-priority status ahead of Meincke's mortgage. Meincke testified Craig simply told her she had to sign a subordination agreement to be second in line, that she signed without further discussion, and that she did not think of signing as helping Marti and Craig, though she admitted it must have helped them since they asked her to sign it; Northwest later foreclosed and Meincke's mortgage recovered nothing, prompting her suit to invalidate the subordination agreement, which the trial court upheld.