Baldwin-United Corp. v. Garner

678 S.W.2d 754, 283 Ark. 385, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1845
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 22, 1984
Docket84-162
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 678 S.W.2d 754 (Baldwin-United Corp. v. Garner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baldwin-United Corp. v. Garner, 678 S.W.2d 754, 283 Ark. 385, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1845 (Ark. 1984).

Opinion

Webb Hubbell, Chief Justice.

Appellants Baldwin-United Corporation and D. H. Baldwin Company appeal from the circuit court’s order which adopted a Plan of Rehabilitation proposed by appellee, the Arkansas Insurance Commissioner, and denied appellants’ motion to amend the Plan. The Plan concerns three Arkansas insurance companies: National Investors Pension Insurance Company, National Investors Life Insurance Company, and Mt. Hood Pension Insurance Company. All three companies are appellants’ subsidiaries. Appellants argue two points on appeal. First, they assert that the circuit court erred in making a series of rulings about its jurisdiction which prevent appellants from asserting claims against their subsidiaries in any other forum. Second, appellants argue that the Plan of Rehabilitation is not fair and equitable because it will compensate policyholders far beyond what they would have received had the insurance companies never encountered financial difficulties. We affirm.

Baldwin-United Corporation is the corporate parent of the Baldwin-United group of companies. D. H. Baldwin Company is a subsidiary of Baldwin-United. Two of the Arkansas insurance subsidiaries, National Investors Pension Insurance Company and National Investors Life Insurance Company, are direct subsidiaries of D. H. Baldwin. Mt. Hood Pension Insurance Company is an indirect subsidiary of Baldwin-United.

The Arkansas insurance companies’ principal insurance product is a single premium deferred annuity (SPDA). An SPDA guarantees the purchaser the right to a deferred stream of annuity payments in exchange for the payment of a one-time premium. Interest is periodically credited to the policyholder’s account at a specified crediting rate. The policyholder can withdraw principal and interest by surrendering the policy, by making periodic withdrawals, or by electing to receive annuity payments.

On July 13, 1983, the circuit court entered Orders of Rehabilitation concerning each of Appellants’ Arkansas insurance subsidiaries, appointed the Arkansas Insurance Commissioner as Rehabilitator of the insurance companies, and ordered her to take possession of all the insurance companies’ property and to propose a plan for their rehabilitation.

In its July 13, 1983 order, the court entered an injunction “restraining all persons and other legal entities” from “the making of claims or the commencement of further prosecution of any actions in law or equity or administrative [proceedings] except in this Court,” and from “the making of any levy, garnishment or execution against any of the property, personal or real, of respondent or its assets or its policyholders.”

On September 26, 1983, appellants entered reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code, 11 U. S. C. §§ 1101 et seq. Those proceedings are pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

On October 17, 1983, appellee submitted to the court below a proposed Plan of Rehabilitation. The proposed Plan sought to provide the Arkansas insurance companies, within 3-1/2 years, with assets at least sufficient to support the amount of the accumulated value of their single premium annuities as of May 1, 1984 plus, at a minimum, an assured rate of interest from May 1, 1984 with the possibility of receiving a higher crediting rate from May 1, 1984.

Appellants intervened in these proceedings and filed a motion to amend the Plan. Appellants challenged: (1) the parts of the Plan which continued the July 13 injuction of actions against the insurance subsidiaries in any other forum and provided that no judgment obtained elsewhere would be paid until the rehabilitation ended and all policyholder claims had been satisfied; (2) the part of the Plan which subordinated all claims against the assets to the claims of the policyholders; and (3) the part of the Plan which proposed certain rates of interest for some of the options available to holders of single premium deferred annuities. The court held hearings concerning the proposed Plan and various motions to amend, and on March 23,1984, the court approved the Plan of Rehabilitation substantially as proposed and denied appellants’ motion to amend.

In addition to its ruling on the Plan, the court made three rulings concerning its purported power over all controversies relating to the insurance companies. First, the court found that it had exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate all claims involving the property of the insurance subsidiaries:

[T]he Court has exclusive jurisdiction of the [subsidiaries] and the assets of the [subsidiaries] and has exclusive jurisdiction with respect to the administration of the assets of the [subsidiaries] to determine the validity or invalidity of all claims against such assets.

Second, the court continued the injunction originally entered in its July 13 Rehabilitation Order:

The injunctions issued by the Court on July 13, 1983 are hereby reaffirmed the same being reasonable and necessary to protect the jurisdiction of the Court . . . and all persons or other entities are hereby enjoined from the commencement, prosecution, or further prosecution of any suit, action, claim or proceedings against the [subsidiaries] and their assets or the Receiver other than in this Court except to the extent, if any, this Court grants it permission to do so upon written Orders entered hereafter upon good cause shown

Finally, the court announced it would not recognize any judgment affecting the Arkansas insurance companies from any other court:

No sale, assignment, transfer, hypothecation, lien, security interest, judgment, order, attachment, garnishment or other legal process of any kind or nature with respect to or affecting these [insurance companies] or their assets or the Receiver shall be effective or enforceable unless entered in this Court in accordance with [the injunction provision quoted above].

I.

Appellants claim that, beginning in 1981, they gave their Arkansas insurance subsidiaries cash, securities, and other assets for less than fair consideration. Appellants believe that they may be entitled to set aside these transfers as fraudulent conveyances and preferential transfers under Bankruptcy Code §§ 544, 547, and 548. Although the record is silent as to the size or exact nature of their claims, appellants assert on appeal that the transactions could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Appellants.have not presented any other claims other than those they claim might arise under the bankruptcy act.

Appellants contend that the circuit court erred in making a series of rulings concerning its purported jurisdiction which prevent appellants from presenting their fraudulent conveyance and preferential transfer claims in any forum other than the rehabilitation court. By these rulings appellants are enjoined both from bringing their claims in bankruptcy court and from petitioning the bankruptcy court to determine whether certain assets should be included in the bankruptcy estate.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
678 S.W.2d 754, 283 Ark. 385, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldwin-united-corp-v-garner-ark-1984.