Bollard & Associates, Inc. v. H & R Industries, Inc.

161 A.3d 254, 2017 Pa. Super. 122, 2017 WL 1436381, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 291
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 24, 2017
DocketBollard & Assocs. v. H&R Industries, Inc. No. 1601 EDA 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 161 A.3d 254 (Bollard & Associates, Inc. v. H & R Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bollard & Associates, Inc. v. H & R Industries, Inc., 161 A.3d 254, 2017 Pa. Super. 122, 2017 WL 1436381, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 291 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION BY

RANSOM, J.:

Appellant, Bollard & Associates, Inc., appeals from the May 23, 2016, order determining that $188,536.31 in a Wells Fargo Bank account was exempt from garnishment. We reverse and remand for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

We adopt the following statement of facts from the trial court’s opinion, which in turn is supported by the record. See Trial Court Opinion, 8/2/16, at 1-5. In Feb *255 ruary 2016 judgment was entered in favor of Appellant and against H & R Industries, Inc. and Harry Schmidt (“Appellee”) in the amount of $406,984.07 plus interest at 6% per annum. Appellant commenced execution on the judgment and served interrogatories in aid of execution against Appellee and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”), as garnishee. In response, Wells Fargo filed an answer and new matter, averring that Gary Schmidt, Appel-lee’s son (“Mr. Schmidt”), held a joint bank account with Appellee. Accordingly, Wells Fargo could not release the attached assets without appropriate order of the court.

Mr. Schmidt and Appellee filed a claim for exemption, seeking a statutory exemption of $800.00 and for social security payments totaling $2,108.00. Mr. Schmidt also sought an exception for other money held in a joint bank account with Appellee, namely, proceeds from the sale of a home. Prior to the hearing on the claim, the parties agreed that Appellee and Mr. Schmidt were entitled to a $300.00 statutory exception and the first $10,000.00 of a direct deposit of social security benefits.

In May 2016, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing. Mr. Schmidt testified that prior to 2013, he resided at 2032 Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The residence was titled jointly in Mr. Schmidt’s and Appellees’ names, but Mr. Schmidt averred that the home was his and titled jointly solely for estate planning purposes. Mr. Schmidt paid taxes, insurance, and utility bills for the property. In 2013, Mr. Schmidt moved in with Appellee to a different location.

In May 2015, Mr. Schmidt sold the Arch Street home for net proceeds of $385,073.36; he placed the proceeds into a joint bank account held with Appellee at Wells Fargo. Mr. Schmidt made withdrawals totaling $196,537.15 from the account over the course of' approximately ten months. Mr. Schmidt also acknowledged that he and Appellee each received án IRS form 1099 for the proceeds of the sale, reflecting a 50%' share of the gross proceeds. However, the 1099 form for Mr. Schmidt was not entered into evidence at the conclusion of the hearing.

Following the’ hearing, the' trial court entered an order finding that $188,536.31 held in the joint Wells Fargo Account was exempt from judgment. This amount represented the balance remaining from the net proceeds of the sale of the property.

Appellant filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that 1099 forms provided, by Appellee and signed by Mr. Schmidt were evidence that the property was 'jbintly owned, as Mr. Schmidt and Appellee each received a 50% share of the gross proceeds. See Motion for Reconsideration, 5/23/16, Exhibit C. Appellant also argued that Mr. Schmidt had acknowledged in writing that the proceeds were intended to be distributed jointly. The court denied the motion.

Appellant timely appealed and filed a court-ordered Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement of errors complained of on appeal. The trial court issued a responsive opinion.

Herein, Appellant raises two questions for our review:

A. Did the trial court improperly deny [Appellant’s] [motion] to reconsider based on the prior representation that Gary Schmidt was seeking an exemption of one-half of the garnished funds?
B. Was the trial court finding of exemption contrary to and against the, weight and sufficiency of the evidence? , ..

Appellant’s Brief at 4 (unnecessary capitalization and punctuation omitted).

Appellant first argues ,that the: -trial court improperly denied its motion for reconsideration. See Appellant’s Brief at 13. *256 Appellant contends that a 1099 form provided by Appellee’s counsel established that Mr. Schmidt was only entitled to half of the proceeds of the sale, and that Appel-lee was entitled to the other half. Id. Moreover, according to Appellant, Appel-lee acknowledged in a handwritten addition to the 1099 form that Mr, Schmidt intended to claim only half of the proceeds. See Motion for Reconsideration, 5/23/16, Exhibit C. Importantly, the alleged ac-knowledgement was never entered into evidence.

An order denying reconsideration is unreviewable on appeal. See Huntington Nat. Bank v. K-Cor, Inc., 107 A.3d 783, 787 (Pa. Super. 2014) (“Pennsylvania case law is absolutely clear that the refusal of a trial court to reconsider, rehear, or permit reargument of a final decree is not renewable on appeal.”); see also Rabatin v. Allied Glove Corp., 24 A.3d 388, 391 (Pa. Super. 2011) (noting that issues not raised before the trial court are not preserved for appeal, and issues raised in motions for reconsideration are beyond the jurisdiction of this Court). Further, a trial court may also properly refuse to consider new evidence presented for the first time in a motion for reconsideration. See Kelly v. Siuma, 34 A.3d 86, 94 n.8 (Pa. Super. 2011). Accordingly, Appellant is not entitled to relief on this issue.

Next, Appellant argues that the trial court’s finding of exemption was contrary to and against the weight and sufficiency of the evidence. See Appellant’s Brief at 20. According to Appellant, undisputed evidence established that Appellee was entitled to one-half of the proceeds of the Arch Street property sale. Id.

Mr. Schmidt filed a claim for exemption from attachment pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 3123.1(a), which provides that a defendant may claim exemption or immunity of property from attachment by filing with the sheriff a claim substantially in the form provided by the rules of civil procedure. Both parties agreed, and the trial court accepted, that the instant matter concerns ownership of proceeds from the sale of property held in a joint bank account, which is governed by Chapter 63 of the Probate, Estates, and Fiduciaries Code and, specifically, the Multiple-Party Accounts Act. See Trial Court Opinion (TCO) at 7; see also 20 Pa.C.S. §§ 6101-6103.

The Act provides that joint accounts belong, during the lifetime of all parties, to the parties in proportion to the net contributions by each to the sum on deposit, unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent. See 20 Pa.C.S. § 6303(a). A person depositing funds into a multiple-party account does not normally intend to make a gift of any part of the funds. See Deutsch, Larrimore & Farnish, P.C. v. Johnson, 577 Pa.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 A.3d 254, 2017 Pa. Super. 122, 2017 WL 1436381, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bollard-associates-inc-v-h-r-industries-inc-pasuperct-2017.