Brown v. Traders National Bank (In Re Spears)

39 B.R. 91, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5882
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedApril 13, 1984
DocketBankruptcy No. 1-82-01823, Adv. No. 1-82-0977
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 39 B.R. 91 (Brown v. Traders National Bank (In Re Spears)) 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
Brown v. Traders National Bank (In Re Spears), 39 B.R. 91, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5882 (Tenn. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

RALPH H. KELLEY, Bankruptcy Judge.

This is a dispute over a herd of hogs and 448 acres of land. The court will deal first with the claims to the hog herd since all the parties assert claims to the hogs.

Part I

The debtors, Dick and Barbara Spears, had been engaged in large scale farming for several years before they filed their petition under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. That was in September, 1982. At the time a large herd of hogs was located on farm land belonging to Dick Spears and Doyle Richardson.

Doyle Richardson is an attorney who had represented Dick Spears at various times, had participated in several business ventures with Dick Spears, and was involved in *93 the transaction that led to acquisition of the hogs.

Centerre Bank holds the earliest perfected security interest. The security agreement granted a security interest in any hogs belonging to Dick Spears at the time or subsequently acquired by Dick Spears.

Warren County Bank has the second earliest perfected security interest. It was perfected in 1200 pigs belonging to Dick Spears. The security agreement simply covered 1200 pigs. It did not provide for a security interest in after-acquired pigs.

Traders National Bank financed the purchase of the hogs in question, or their ancestors, after Centerre Bank and Warren County Bank had perfected their security interests. However, the transaction was conducted with the intent of making Dick Spears’ sons, Jeff and Eddie, the owners of the pigs. Only Traders National Bank perfected a security interest in pigs belonging to Jeff and Eddie Spears.

Shortly before the debtors filed their chapter 11 case, Hubbard Milling began selling feed to Dick Spears. The feed was for the pigs in question. Dick Spears represented that he owned the hogs and signed a security agreement granting Hubbard Milling a security interest in “his” hogs.

The court is of the opinion that Warren County Bank does not have a security interest in any of the pigs in question. Doyle Richardson testified that there were no pigs on the farm when the pigs financed by Traders National Bank were put on the farm. Tom Strawn was the president of Traders National Bank. He and Dick Spears visited various farms belonging to Dick Spears before Traders National lent the money to buy the hogs. They visited all the farms where the pigs were to be located. Strawn didn’t see any pigs on the farm or farms where the new herd was to be kept. Eddie Spears testified that his father had about 50 hogs at another farm but they were not mixed with the new herd. Jeff Spears testified that there may have been about 30 “scrubs”, left over from Warren County Bank’s collateral, but they were destroyed rather than mixed with the new herd.

If Warren County Bank’s security interest had applied to after-acquired pigs, it could have applied to any 1200 pigs belonging to Dick Spears. Without the “after-acquired” clause, the agreement appears to have covered a particular herd of 1200 pigs that no longer existed and left no offspring among the herd in question. The result is that Warren County Bank cannot have a security interest in any of the hogs in question.

Centerre Bank could have the first perfected security interest in the pigs if they belong to Dick Spears. The main question between Centerre Bank and Traders National is whether Dick Spears owns the hogs or they belong to Jeff and Eddie Spears. The answer to this question requires a detailed review of the facts.

In March or April, 1981, Dick Spears approached Tom Strawn about obtaining a loan from Traders National Bank to establish a “feeder pig” operation and buy 448 acres of land. The loan was to be used generally as follows:

$141,000 to buy 4,700 pigs,
$70,500 to buy medication and protein supplement (feed), and
$312,000 to buy 448 acres of land.

Dick Spears represented that most of the other feed would be furnished by him from his farms. He would also manage the operation, using his facilities and labor. The pigs would all be fattened and sold in as short a time as possible. The sale proceeds were supposed to be enough to pay the entire debt to Traders National. The land would be deeded to Dick and Barbara Spears for life with the remainder to Jeff and Eddie. The gist of the plan was to use the hog operation to pay for itself and the land. Dick Spears called this “estate planning” since the proposed outcome was for the Spears family to acquire the 448 acres of land free of the purchase money mortgage.

Tom Strawn agreed, in principle with the condition that Dick and Barbara Spears *94 personally guarantee repayment of the loan. Mr. Strawn also asked Doyle Richardson to give him a legal opinion on whether the pigs would be subject to the claims of Dick Spears’ creditors since they would be on his land and under his management. Tom Strawn then turned over the handling of the transaction to Bob Graham, a vice-president of the bank.

Bob Graham met first with Tom Strawn and Dick Spears explained the proposed deal. Later, Jeff and Eddie Spears and Doyle Richardson met with Bob Graham. Jeff and Eddie Spears had not been directly involved in big transactions and asked Doyle Richardson to accompany them to the bank. Jeff and Eddie were 22 and 21 years old. They had not bought any land before. Eddie farmed about 100 acres as his own but put the income back into the family business, rather than keeping it for his own use.

Doyle Richardson thought that the purpose of the deal was to acquire the land for Jeff and Eddie Spears so they could get started on their own. He did not know that Dick and Barbara Spears would have a life estate in the land.

Jeff and Eddie and Bob Graham and Doyle Richardson discussed the mechanics of getting the loan money paid to the pig sellers and the suppliers of feed and medication. Bob Graham also advised Jeff and Eddie to avoid confusing their pigs with pigs owned by Dick Spears. Doyle Richardson warned that the pig sellers would probably invoice the pigs to Dick Spears. He advised everyone to have any incorrect invoices corrected. Jeff and Eddie opened a checking account at Traders National in the name of Spears Brothers.

The sellers did invoice the pigs to Dick Spears. Bob Graham returned the incorrect invoices to Jeff and Eddie. The invoices were returned with “Dick Spears” marked out.

Jeff and Eddie executed a separate note and security agreement each time Traders National advanced money to pay a seller. At first Traders National paid the sellers directly by using a bank money order. Later the advances were credited to the Spears Brothers checking account and Jeff and Eddie wrote checks to the sellers.

All the notes were secured by the 4,700 pigs. The security agreements covered offspring but not after-acquired pigs. All the notes were made due on August 18, 1981.

On August 13, 1981, Jeff and Eddie Spears executed a note for almost $209,-000. This note consolidated all the notes arising from purchases of pigs, feed, and medication. The consolidated note was due November 15, 1981.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Hackney
351 B.R. 179 (N.D. Alabama, 2006)
Limor v. Fleet Mortgage Group
12 S.W.3d 449 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2000)
McCook National Bank v. Myers
503 N.W.2d 200 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1993)
In Re Lockwood Enterprises, Inc.
54 B.R. 829 (S.D. New York, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
39 B.R. 91, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-traders-national-bank-in-re-spears-tneb-1984.