Capital Investors Co. v. Executors of the Estate of Morrison

800 F.2d 424
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 12, 1986
DocketNos. 85-2270, 85-2271
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 800 F.2d 424 (Capital Investors Co. v. Executors of the Estate of Morrison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Capital Investors Co. v. Executors of the Estate of Morrison, 800 F.2d 424 (4th Cir. 1986).

Opinion

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge.

This is the sixth appeal of a diversity action arising out of events which occurred in 1963.1 In May of that year, James Benn fraudulently persuaded Arthur R. Morrison to transfer a tract of Florida land to a company wholly owned by Benn, Capital Investors Company. Capital Investors in turn transferred the land in June of 1963 to Do-Mor Incorporated, a Florida Corporation, which gave in exchange for the land four promissory notes secured by a mortgage on the property. Benn moved these promissory notes through several corporations which he controlled and in 1965 endorsed two of the notes over to Norman Frost, who persuaded Harry Dreisen to hold the notes as his nominee. Taking the notes with notice that they were in default, Frost paid consideration totalling $150,000 for them. Subsequently, in 1969, Frost transferred an undivided half interest in [426]*426these overdue notes to Dreisen in exchange for $75,000.2

In the meantime, Arthur Morrison’s estate had brought suit seeking control of the Do-Mor notes on the theory that they were proceeds resulting from Benn’s fraud. In 1971, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia agreed that a constructive trust should result from Benn’s fraud, but in a subsequent hearing the court held that Frost and Dreisen had taken the notes free of the constructive trust. In 1973, we reversed that decision on the ground that Frost and Dreisen had taken the notes after they were overdue, could not be holders in due course, and as a result, had acquired only such rights as Benn, the defrauder, had in the notes. We then remanded the case for further proceedings, because Frost and Dreisen had not been parties to the original proceeding which had declared a constructive trust.

After remand, the district court ruled that a constructive trust did not result against Frost’s and Dreisen’s interests in the notes. In 1978, however, we reversed that decision under the law of the case doctrine, because Frost and Dreisen had produced no new evidence that the district court had not considered in its earlier decision. Consequently, the constructive trust that had been proper against Benn was also proper against Frost and Dreisen, who had only acquired Benn’s title in the notes, and as a result, we again remanded the case for transfer of the notes or their proceeds to Morrison’s estate. We instructed the district court, however, to credit Frost and Dreisen for the expenses that they had legitimately incurred in handling the notes.

Faced with this task, the district court enforced the constructive trust, but Dreisen and Frost had foreclosed on the notes against Do-Mor in 1973 and had sold the land that they had acquired through the foreclosure. The foreclosure and the years following required considerable litigation to clear title to the land, but this litigation was necessary to fully realize the value of the notes. Similarly, the land sales involved considerable expenses because of the need to divide the tract into parcels as well as the need for real estate brokerage services and legal advice. Consequently, when the district court enforced the constructive trust, it followed the instructions in our 1978 opinion and awarded Morrison’s estate the amount realized from the land sales plus interest and less the legitimate expenses incurred by Frost and Dreisen in managing the constructive trust’s corpus. In the district court’s view, these legitimate expenses totalled $546,625.10 and included a credit of $74,015.00 for Dreisen’s work overseeing and selling the constructive trust’s real estate. The district court also ruled that since Dreisen and Frost each owned a half interest in the notes, each would be individually liable for one half of the judgment. Accordingly, the district judge entered judgment against Frost’s estate 3 in the amount of $360,405.32 and against Dreisen’s estate in the amount of $359,405.32.4

Arguing that the Frost estate should be jointly and severally liable for the total judgment, that the district court erroneously included certain items as legitimate expenses of the constructive trustees, and that the district court erroneously failed to award it taxable costs, Morrison’s estate has brought this appeal. In a cross appeal, the estates of Frost and Dreisen assert that a 1964 Florida judgment bars the district court’s decision and that the district court should have dismissed the action because Morrison’s estate failed to timely substitute Frost’s estate following Frost’s death and never achieved personal jurisdiction over the personal representative of [427]*427Frost’s estate. Convinced that Morrison’s estate should receive a more substantial judgment, we reverse in part and affirm in part.

In its first argument, Morrison’s estate maintains that Frost’s sole ownership of the notes from 1965 to 1969 should render his estate jointly and severally liable for the entire judgment. Because Morrison’s estate has a right to a money judgment against Frost’s estate for property received to the extent that it cannot trace and recover the proceeds of the notes, we agree.

Our 1973 and 1978 opinions held that because they were not holders in due course, Frost and Dreisen acquired only such title as Benn had in the notes and as a result held the notes as constructive trustees. Capital Investors v. Executors of Morrison, 484 F.2d 1157 (4th Cir.1973), and 584 F.2d 652 (4th Cir.1978). Frost held all of the notes alone from 1965 to 1969, however, and even at that time he held the notes as a constructive trustee under a duty to return the notes to Morrison’s estate. United States v. Fontana, 528 F.Supp. 137, 143-46 (S.D.N.Y.1981); 5 Scott on Trusts § 462.4 (1967).5 When a plaintiff succeeds in enforcing a constructive trust, moreover, courts treat him as if he were enforcing a duty to deliver property under an express trust, G.G. Bogert, The Law of Trusts and Trustees § 471, at 6-7 (2d ed. 1982), and as a result, an enforcing plaintiff has the right to receive the property or its proceeds from the constructive trustee, Soderstrom v. Kungsholm Baking Co., 189 F.2d 1008, 1013 (7th Cir.1951); White v. Roberts, 637 S.W.2d 332 (Mo.Ct.App.1982); G.G. Bogert, The Law of Trusts and Trustees § 866 (2d ed. 1982), as well as the right to receive a money judgment for property received against the constructive trustee. Meadows v, Bierschwale, 516 S.W.2d 125 (Tex.1974); Baron Bros. Co. v. Stewart, 182 F.Supp. 893 (S.D.N.Y.1960); Restatement of Restitution § 202 (1937). In fact, where it is necessary to make the successful plaintiff whole, courts have been quite willing to allow the plaintiff to recover a portion of the trust property or its proceeds along with a money judgment for the remainder. Meadows v. Bierschwale, 516 S.W.2d 125 (Tex.1974); Church v. Bailey, 90 Cal.App.2d 501, 203 P.2d 547 (1949); Van Blarcom v.

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