A.G. Campbell & Co. v. Chemical Separations Corp. (In re Chemical Separations Corp.)

29 B.R. 240, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6417
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedApril 14, 1983
DocketBankruptcy No. 3-82-01569; Adv. No. 3-82-1150
StatusPublished

This text of 29 B.R. 240 (A.G. Campbell & Co. v. Chemical Separations Corp. (In re Chemical Separations Corp.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A.G. Campbell & Co. v. Chemical Separations Corp. (In re Chemical Separations Corp.), 29 B.R. 240, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6417 (Tenn. 1983).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

CLIVE W. BARE, Bankruptcy Judge.

Although the gravamen of this adversary proceeding concerns questions of contract law, there is an auxiliary issue involving the propriety of plaintiff’s attachment, pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 29-6-101(2) (1980), of defendant’s bank account. Defendant contends plaintiff’s affidavit, required by Tenn.Code Ann. § 29-6-113 (1980), was insufficient to support the issuance of the writ of attachment. Defendant also contends plaintiff either knew or should have known the averments in its supporting affidavit, furnished by A.G. Campbell, president of the plaintiff, were untrue. While disputing the latter contention, plaintiff also maintains defendant waived any objection to the sufficiency of its affidavit by filing an answer to the merits of the complaint and failing to object to the sufficiency of the supporting affidavit. Furthermore, citing Tenn.Code Ann. § 29-6-124 (1980), plaintiff contends any deficiency in its affidavit is a matter of form, not substance, which may be corrected by amendment. This Memorandum is limited to the issues associated with the validity of the attachment of defendant’s bank account.

I

On June 11,1982, plaintiff A.G. Campbell & Co., Inc., a pipe fabricator in Chattanooga, filed its complaint in Hamilton County Chancery Court against defendant Chemical Separations Corporation (Chem Seps), a manufacturer of waste and water treatment systems. The affidavit of A.G. Campbell, dated June 18, 1982, in support of plaintiff’s petition for an ancillary writ of attachment was filed on June 21, 1982. This affidavit recites in material part:

5. That Plaintiff is advised the Defendant is attempting to cease operations at its Knoxville, Tennessee location and that its equipment, some of which is for a project in Mississippi, part of which has been fabricated by Plaintiff, is about to be removed from Tennessee.
6. Deponent prays that Plaintiff be granted an attachment of One Hundred Six Thousand Four Hundred Eight Dollars ($106,408), together with costs, upon the personal property of Defendant in its bank accounts and at its facilities at One Technology Drive, Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, to answer for the indebtedness due Plaintiff in such amount arising from work, labor and services rendered at Defendant’s specific request by Plaintiff, which is a just claim and for which attachment should issue under TCA § 29-6-101(2).

[242]*242On June 21,1982, based on the averments in Campbell’s affidavit, the chancellor in Hamilton County issued a writ of attachment to the Knox County Sheriff, who thereupon attached a bank account of defendant Chem Seps at the former United American Bank of Knoxville. Because there were several outstanding checks issued against and payable from the attached account, defendant necessarily had to either furnish a sufficient bond to obtain a release of the attachment or contend with the payees of the outstanding checks and the concomitant, adverse effect upon its credit reputation. Defendant proffered a surety bond in the amount of $110,000.00 for the discharge of the attachment against its bank account. (The surety on the bond is Federal Insurance Co.) An order was entered, by the chancellor, on June 28, 1982, providing for the release of the attachment.

Defendant Chem Seps filed its answer and counterclaim in the chancery proceeding on August 20, 1982. Defendant does not deny it was indebted to plaintiff when the attachment was issued. However, in its counterclaim, defendant alleged no legitimate ground existed for the issuance of the writ of attachment because plaintiff either knew or should have known the statements in A.G. Campbell’s supporting affidavit were false. As damages for the allegedly wrongful attachment, defendant requested judgment against plaintiff in the amount of $50,000.00.

On or about October 15, 1982, defendant filed its motion to quash the ancillary attachment and release its surety bond. For the first time, defendant specifically raised the issue of the sufficiency of Campbell’s supporting affidavit. According to defendant, the affidavit is deficient because Campbell states only that he is affiant is advised defendant’s equipment is being moved out of the state, as opposed to asserting such removal as a fact based upon personal knowledge. A request was made that defendant be permitted to withdraw the surety bond.

In response, a motion to amend the affidavit given in the ancillary attachment proceeding and a second affidavit of Campbell were filed. This second affidavit recites in material part:

2. That the affidavit of deponent, dated June 18, 1982, was for the purpose of affirmatively stating to this Court that defendant was about to remove its equipment from the State.
3. That deponent did not intend to modify or otherwise affect the true and full import of his statement concerning the removal of defendant’s equipment from the State by the word “advise” as suggested by the instant motion’s papers. Rather, it was deponent’s purpose to state he was advised defendant was attempting to cease operations at Knoxville. A clerical error omitted the semicolon which should have followed “location” in paragraph “5” of the deponent’s affidavit of June 18, 1982.

An affidavit dated October 28, 1982, of Carl R. Hazen, president of defendant Chem Seps, was offered in support of defendant’s motion to quash the ancillary attachment and release the surety bond. Essentially, Hazen averred: (1) defendant Chem Seps did not own any property on or about June 18, 1982, (the date of A.G. Campbell’s first affidavit) which was about to be removed from the State of Tennessee; and (2) the equipment which defendant was preparing to ship to Mississippi, a portion of which had been fabricated by plaintiff, actually belonged to TVA and was merely stored on defendant’s premises pursuant to a contractual agreement.

Plaintiff, in reply to Hazen’s affidavit, submitted an affidavit dated November 1, 1982, of Leon Riggs, vice-president of operations for defendant Chem Seps from April 27, 1981, until June 25, 1982. In apposite part Riggs’ affidavit states:

4. On June 18, 1982, to deponent’s personal knowledge, equipment was being shipped to the Caterpillar Company in Lafayette, Indiana, and other parts were about to be shipped. Such shipments were continuous until and after deponent left his employee [sic]. This equipment had a value of $50,000.
[243]*243In addition, Chem-Seps equipment was being fabricated and assembled for shipment to Container Corporation in Fer-nandina Beach, Florida, of a value of $200,000. This equipment was about to be shipped on June 25, 1982, when deponent left Chem-Seps regular employ, and he has personally returned to Chem-Seps plant since June 25,1982, and verified the equipment was in fact shipped.

In an effort to clarify the inconsistencies between the averments in the affidavits of Hazen and Riggs, a second affidavit of Carl R. Hazen was submitted by defendant. Hazen’s second affidavit, dated February 25, 1983, provides in part:

3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
29 B.R. 240, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ag-campbell-co-v-chemical-separations-corp-in-re-chemical-tneb-1983.