Trident Center v. Connecticut General Life Ins. Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
847 F.2d 564 (1988)
Trident's (plaintiff) loan agreement with CGLI (defendant) set a 12-year no-prepayment period with a 10% acceleration fee for early default-triggered payment, and when falling interest rates led Trident to seek refinancing, CGLI insisted the note barred any prepayment during that period; Trident sued for a declaration it could prepay early, claiming the parties had actually agreed prepayment was always permitted despite the note's contrary text, and the district court dismissed the claim as frivolous based on the note's plain, unambiguous language.
Whether, under California law, extrinsic evidence must be admitted to interpret an agreement's terms even where those terms are facially clear and unambiguous.