Ames v. Ames

757 S.W.2d 468, 1988 WL 101357
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 14, 1988
Docket09-87-125 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 757 S.W.2d 468 (Ames v. Ames) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ames v. Ames, 757 S.W.2d 468, 1988 WL 101357 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

In the trial court R.E. Ames and R.G. Ames were plaintiffs and the Heights State Bank, now known as the NBC Bank, Houston-N.A., was a defendant. The litigation involved the claims of R.E. Ames and R.G. Ames, who were participants in the Threaded Steel Products Company employees profit sharing plan, hereafter “the plan”. The litigation was also brought by the plaintiffs against Roger Michael “Mike” Ames, the trustee of the profit sharing plan, based on his failure to distribute sums of money owing to the plaintiffs under the plan, and for his wrongful conversion of those sums of money to his own uses.

The proceeding was brought against the Heights State Bank to recover certain funds of the plan that had been deposited in the bank evidenced by a certain certificate of deposit placed with the bank. The funds in the certificate of deposit originated in the profit sharing plan which belonged to the plaintiffs but were wrongfully pledged by Mike Ames as trustee as collateral for commercial loans made to the Threaded Steel Products Company.

In a juried proceeding the district court signed and rendered a judgment against Mike Ames for conversions of the sums due the plaintiffs in the sum of $212,161.40 to R.E. Ames and a separate sum of $94,-501.00 to R.G. Ames. The judgment awarded an additional $10,000.00 in punitive damages for tortious conversion committed by Mike Ames. However, the court below entered judgment that R.E. Ames and R.G. Ames take nothing against the Heights State Bank. The Appellants, plaintiffs below, have properly and timely perfected their appeal from the take nothing judgment entered on their claims against the Heights State Bank, hereinafter “State Bank”.

The appeal involving State Bank is based on two points of error, the first being that the district court erred in denying the Appellants’ Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict as to the State Bank because the evidence herein established as a matter of law that the funds in the certain certificate of deposit were the profit sharing trust funds that actually belonged to R.E. Ames and R.G. Ames.

The second point of error argues that the district court erred in denying the Appellants’ Motion for New Trial because of the jury’s negative answer to a question whereby the jury failed to find that the funds on deposit in certificate No. 28793 were profit sharing trust funds belonging to the two plaintiffs, this failing to so find being against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.

The General Background

R.E. “Eddy” Ames and R.G. Ames were both employees of Threaded Steel Products Company. Eddy Ames started working for the company in 1948. He began as a laborer. Threaded Steel was a family owned company. Later, Eddy joined the Air Force for four years. Afterwards he returned to Threaded Steel and remained there until 1980, serving as an employee for thirty years. He rose to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. R.E. “Eddy” Ames possessed an ownership interest in the company, owning approximately 20% of the stock. R.E. and R.G. Ames were, as employees, members of the profit sharing plan at Threaded Steel.

Steps were taken in 1983 to terminate and wind up the profit sharing plan. The first efforts made to set up such a profit sharing plan began around 1972. R.E. “Eddy” Ames did not withdraw his share of the plan because he was not sixty years [471]*471old at the time he left Threaded Steel. After the plan was terminated he was told that Mike Ames, the plan trustee, had put the funds belonging to R.E. Ames and R.G. Ames in a certificate of deposit at the Heights State Bank in Houston.

Mike Ames, the sole trustee, never distributed or delivered any profit sharing benefits under the plan to either R.E. Ames or R.G. Ames even though he was asked for these funds on several occasions.

It is important to note that Mike Ames as trustee opened an account with the Heights Bank in November of 1982. Mike Ames told Mr. James E. Sheffield directly, who was a senior vice-president of the State bank, which Sheffield admitted, that he, Mike Ames, was the sole trustee of the profit sharing plan (also referred to as the pension plan) for Threaded Steel Products Company’s employees.

At that time a check from Southwestern Life Insurance Company in the amount of $424,000 and some-odd dollars was delivered and negotiated to the Heights State Bank. This was the cheek that Mike Ames used to open the initial account in Heights State Bank in November of 1982. After these funds were deposited with the Bank an amount of approximately $254,000.00 was deposited in a checking account styled R.E., R.G., and R.L. Ames, with Mike Ames as the sole signatory. This $254,000.00 was part of the $424,000.00 from Southwestern Life Insurance Company. Out of this sum $156,500.00 was used to purchase a certificate of deposit in the name of Threaded Steel Products Company employees profit sharing — distribution account. An additional $13,741.00 was deposited into a checking account in the name of Threaded Steel Products Company employees profit-sharing distribution account.

The $13,741.00 was subsequently distributed to a group of employees entitled to the same. The $156,500.00 was subsequently deposited into the same account as the $13,741.00. The CD was in effect for about thirty days. It was renewed one time for another sixty days or so. The $156,500.00 was “rolled over” and put into a checking account. It was distributed to the employees.

Background narrative of events prior to November, 1982

In the fall of 1982 prior to the above-described transaction, Mike Ames contacted James E. Sheffield, who was then acting as a senior vice-president in the commercial loan department.

In September of 1982 a loan application was made by Mike Ames in behalf of Threaded Steel Products Company in the amount of $180,000.00. The loan was declined and never thereafter approved. The lack of approval was due to the poor financial condition of Threaded Steel Products. It should be borne in mind, as we interpret Defendant’s Exhibit No. 1, that Threaded Steel Products, according to its Financial Analysis, had a loss in 1977. This loss before taxes was about $87,000; in 1978, the loss was approximately $259,000; in 1979, about $70,000; in 1980, about $441,-000; and, in 1981, about $228,000. Apparently, Threaded Steel had a profit during the first six months of 1979 but not the last six months. These financial facts showing heavy losses clearly prove that any funds used by Threaded Steel Products as collateral for commercial loans necessarily came from the profit-sharing plan, inasmuch as Threaded Steel Products only five months before was denied a loan due to its poor, distressed financial condition. The State Bank knew about these horrendous losses. They totalled $1,085,000.00. These losses are up to date through 1981. Then, very shortly, in the late summer of ’82, Threaded Steel Products made its application for a loan in the amount of $180,000.00 with the State Bank.

$254,646.02 of the profit-sharing funds were transferred to InterFirst Bank in Beaumont. Later, $157,895.02 was transferred by wire back to the State Bank. A CD was bought in the name of R.M. “Mike” Ames, Trustee. The CD was in the total amount of $254,000.00. This sum represented the $157,895.02 plus an additional, approximate $100,000.00, which was borrowed from the bank, less about $3,000 [472]*472deposited to a checking account.

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Ames v. Ames
757 S.W.2d 468 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
757 S.W.2d 468, 1988 WL 101357, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ames-v-ames-texapp-1988.