Bell Family Trust v. Bell (In re Bell Family Trust)

350 B.R. 700, 2005 Bankr. LEXIS 3060
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedJune 21, 2005
DocketBankruptcy No. 02-50477; Adversary No. 02-5045
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 350 B.R. 700 (Bell Family Trust v. Bell (In re Bell Family Trust)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bell Family Trust v. Bell (In re Bell Family Trust), 350 B.R. 700, 2005 Bankr. LEXIS 3060 (La. 2005).

Opinion

REASONS FOR DECISION

GERALD H. SCHIFF, Bankruptcy Judge.

The Bell Family Trust (“Trust” or “Debtor”) filed a voluntary petition for relief under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code1 on March 8, 2002 (“Petition Date”), and on that day an order for relief was duly entered. W. Simmons Sandoz (“Trustee”) is the duly appointed, qualified and acting trustee of the Debtor’s estate.

In furtherance of his statutory duties, the Trustee brought the instant proceeding against the named Defendants2. Basically, the Trustee seeks to (1) avoid certain transactions between the Debtor and Mary Sue Bell (“Ms.Bell”) asserting several causes of action, including sections 544, 547 and 548, and (2) avoid other transactions [702]*702and recover property from Ms. Bell and/or Sue Bell Holdings, L.L.C. (“LLC”).

The trial of the complaint was held in February 2004. After receiving testimony, the court directed the filing of post-trial briefs. All briefs have now been filed.

BACKGROUND

The Trust was created by Wilfred Bell on October 8, 1996. The beneficiaries of the Trust are Mr. Bell’s seven children and/or their descendants. Ms. Bell, one of his children, was named as the trustee of the Trust.

Mr. Bell transferred two parcels of property to the Trust. The first occurred on October 8, 1996, when he donated 288 acres of farmland to the Trust. The second donation consisted of Mr. Bell’s house and surrounding one acre. While the second donation was dated October 8, 1996, the transaction was not recorded in the public records until April 10, 2000. Although the house and one acre were free and clear of any liens or encumbrances at the time the donation was date, in March 1997, Ms. Bell was granted a $40,000 mortgage on the house and one acre.

At the time the Trust was created, Mr. Bell, along with several other individuals, had been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual exploitation. The criminal proceeding included an effort by the government to provoke a forfeiture of Mr. Bell’s home and surrounding one acre.

The Trust document had a provision whereby through majority vote of the beneficiaries, Ms. Bell could be removed as trustee and a new trustee appointed. On January 2, 1998, the day before Mr. Bell was to report to a Federal Medical Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, the Trust document was amended. The amendment deleted the provision that allowed the beneficiaries to remove Ms. Bell as Trustee and essentially appointed her as trustee for life, even allowing her to name her own successor.

On the same day that the Trust document was amended, Mr. Bell executed a Power of Attorney in favor of Ms. Bell. That document was witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. N.J. Domingue and notarized by Frank Dawkins. Both Mr. and Mrs. Do-mingue testified, however, that Mr. Daw-kins was not present in the hotel room when the document was signed and that they had never seen Mr. Dawkins prior to seeing him in court at the trial of this matter.

On June 19, 2001, Wilfred Bell was interdicted through proceedings initiated by Ms. Bell.

The Trust document contains a provision allowing the trustee to take “reasonable compensation.” The document is silent regarding rates or terms of compensation; further, there was never any agreement regarding such compensation between Ms. Bell and either Wilfred Bell or the other beneficiaries. No compensation was taken by Ms. Bell until June 14, 1999, when she paid herself a lump sum of $12,000 and then $3,000; thereafter, she began drawing $1,000 per month. This payment commenced after Ms. Bell inquired of Joan Martin, a CPA as to what a reasonable compensation would be. Ms. Martin testified that she agreed that $1,000 per month would be reasonable assuming that Ms. Bell was working full time on Trust business. Ms. Bell did not advise the other beneficiaries that she was drawing compensation from the Trust.

Up until 2001, Ms. Bell had made distributions to the beneficiaries, including herself. Some time in the summer of 2001, however, those distributions stopped causing inquiries from the other beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were unable to obtain information from Ms. Bell so a group of them hired attorney Glenn Marcantel to [703]*703investigate. Mr. Marcantel made an informal written request for information and an accounting on July 31, 2001. This request was answered by Stan Gauthier who indicated that he was the attorney for Ms. Bell as trustee of the Trust. After repeated correspondence between Mr. Marcantel and Mr. Gauthier, Mr. Gauthier produced copies of the Trust document, the amendment, two donations and year-end financial statements for 1998, 1999 and 2000. An accounting was not provided until March 28, 2002, with a corrected accounting subsequently provided on May 8, 2002.

During the time that the beneficiaries were attempting to obtain an accounting, Ms. Bell received an offer in the amount of $120,000 for the purchase of mineral rights of the Trust. Also around this time, Ms. Bell started preparing an invoice to retroactively bill the Trust for her services for the period June 6, 1998, through August 2001, claiming a total indebtedness due her from the Trust in the amount of $330,151.60.

On August 21, 2001, Ms. Bell formed the LLC, and on August 30, 2001, Mr. Gauthier prepared a Dation En Paiment and Termination of Trust (“Dation”). The Dation was signed by Ms. Bell as trustee of the Trust and as agent for the LLC. In addition, an Act of Exchange was executed whereby Ms. Bell transferred her alleged claim for compensation to the LLC.

The Dation terminated the Trust as to Ms. Bell, and, purportedly to distribute her interest in the Trust, transferred the following Trust assets to the LLC: (1) 185 of the 288 acres, (2) 100% of the mineral rights for all of the acreage, and (3) miscellaneous assets including a $16,000 note due from Nedia Bell, the Bell family home and one acre and some co-op stock.

The only water well that serviced the rice farming operation on the Trust property was situated on the 185 acres transferred to the LLC. According to Kenneth Gaspard, a farmer, the acreage that remained could not be farmed without a water well and further that drilling a new well for the limited acreage would be an unreasonable expense.

Although Mr. Marcantel was making inquiries regarding the Trust at the very time that these transactions were taking place, neither Ms. Bell nor Mr. Gauthier advised Mr. Marcantel or the other beneficiaries about them. Mr. Marcantel initially learned of these dealings in December 2001 when he first had to opportunity to personally review all of the Trust documents.

Following that discovery, the other beneficiaries filed a state court law suit and sought a temporary restraining order against Ms. Bell from further dissipating Trust assets. A TRO was issued but was ultimately not converted to a preliminary injunction. The state court, however, did order that a co-trustee be appointed and that an accounting be provided by Ms. Bell. On March 4, 2002, Ms. Bell filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy on behalf of the Trust. The accounting was eventually provided after the bankruptcy filing.

This action was filed by Mr. Sandoz, the bankruptcy Trustee, alleging five separate grounds of recovery against Ms. Bell and Ms. Bell Holdings, LLC, namely:

Count I — contends that Ms. Bell breached her fiduciary duty to the Debtor as its trustee.

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350 B.R. 700, 2005 Bankr. LEXIS 3060, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-family-trust-v-bell-in-re-bell-family-trust-lawb-2005.