Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc.

815 F. Supp. 2d 495, 80 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 801, 2011 WL 4709867, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114992
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedOctober 4, 2011
DocketCivil No. 08-1833 (SEC)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 815 F. Supp. 2d 495 (Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc., 815 F. Supp. 2d 495, 80 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 801, 2011 WL 4709867, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114992 (prd 2011).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SALVADOR E. CASELLAS, Senior District Judge.

Before the Court are defendant UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico’s (“UBS”) motion to set aside judgment under Rule 60(b) (Docket # 110), and plaintiff Madeline Candelario Del Moral’s oppositions thereto (Docket # 112).1 After considering the parties’ submissions and the applicable law, the Court DENIES UBS’s motion.

Background2

The Related Litigation: Candelario v. Her Ex-husband

This diversity tort-suit began over three years ago as a spillover of a longstanding divorce dispute between Candelario and her ex-husband, David Efron. Docket # 1. When the two lawyers parted ways in 2001, their 16-year marriage had yielded two daughters and a multi-million dollar marital estate. Docket # 50-2. Unsurprisingly, the question how to properly allocate those assets soon pitted Candelario and Efron against each other. Candelario alleged that Efron had remained in exclusive control of the assets, refusing her [498]*498access to them. Docket # 50-2. In disagreement, Efron filed a separate suit to liquidate the marital estate. Docket # 110-1. Be it as it may, on May 3, 2001, the Superior Court of San Juan ordered Efron to pay $50,000 a month to Candelario “as enjoyment of assets and a cash amount that enables her to support herself.” Docket # 110-1, p. 2. Candelario nonetheless would soon learn that the Superior Court’s order constituted nothing more than a pyrrhic victory.

She returned to state court a few months later. Docket # 110-1, p. 27-28. Apparently, Efron had failed to make the requisite monthly payments, so Candelario requested the Superior Court to intervene. Id. The Court, however, sat on her motion for months, forcing Candelario to seek aid from the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals. Id. Thus, compelled to action by the higher court, the Superior Court denied Candelario’s motion, concluding that her right to monthly payments was a provisional remedy applicable only until the divorce judgment became firm and final. Id.

Candelario appealed. Id. at p. 28. In siding with her, the Court of Appeals held that, even though Candelario could not claim a provisional remedy, she was entitled to enjoy her share of the marital estate. Id.3 Candelario then returned to the Superior Court to request that the $50,000 monthly payments be reinstated until the marital estate was liquidated. Id. Although the Superior Court granted her request on May 28, 2005, it reduced the monthly payments to $20,000. Id.

Both Candelario and Efron appealed. Id. She requested the monthly payments to be increased to $50,000, and he challenged the Superior Court’s legal conclusions. Id. The Court of Appeals, however, sided with Candelario, finding the record devoid of evidence to justify a reduction from the $50,000 monthly payment the Superior Court had ordered years earlier. Id. at p. 29. Thereafter, on Candelario’s request, the Court of Appeals entered an amended judgment (the “Amended Judgment”), clarifying that the $50,000 monthly payments, together with the corresponding legal interest, were retroactive to June 4, 2001, the date in which the divorce judgment became firm and final. Id.

On October 9, 2006, the Superior Court issued an Order and Writ of Execution (the ‘Writ of Execution”) against Efron. Docket # 38-6. In pertinent part, the Writ of Execution directed the Marshal to attach assets “in an amount sufficient to respond for the principal sum of $4,160,522.61 interest over said sum at a rate of 10.50% annually from June 4, 2001 and up to the date of full payment.” Id. The Writ of Execution also ordered third parties in possession of Efron’s assets to turn them into cash proceeds sufficient to satisfy the Amended Judgment and then to send the cash proceeds to the Court. Id.

In disagreement, Efron requested a hearing, which the Superior Court held on November 13, 2006 (the “November 2006 Hearing”). Docket # 110-1, p. 30. There, Efron managed to persuade the Judge, who, among other things, verbally vacated the Writ of Execution. Id. Even though Candelario immediately moved for reconsideration, the Judge denied her request in open court. Docket #23-8. The Judge, however, failed to enter a written order or to sign the minutes of the proceedings reflecting his verbal orders. Id.

A few days later, Candelario reappeared before the Court of Appeals, this time, seeking to revoke the Judge’s verbal order. Docket # 110, p. 31. But her motion [499]*499was found premature and denied on jurisdictional grounds:

We rule that a verbal notice of an interlocutory finding of the first instance court in a civil case does not constitute a notice that is required to activate the term provided by law to file a motion for reconsideration or a recourse of certiorari before the Circuit Court. The notice that activates these terms must be set forth in writing and said document must be notified to the parties.

Docket # 38, ¶ 16 (emphasis supplied).

Still dissatisfied, Candelario sought relief from the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, which also denied her certiorari petition, concluding that it lacked “the necessary documents reflecting what was ruled in the oral hearing before the First Instance Court on November 13, 2006.” Id. at ¶ 20. Candelario’s request for reconsideration was also denied. Id. at ¶ 21

After her setbacks at the appellate level, Candelario returned to the Superior Court, where she asked the Judge to sign and notify the minutes. Docket # 110-1, p. 31. Efron joined her request. Docket # 38-27, p. 17-18. In the interim, the case was reassigned to a different Superior Court Judge, who, on June 18, 2007, issued a written order indicating that time was needed to revise the record before adjudicating pending motions. Id.

Two days later, Candelario moved the Court of Appeals for an order requiring the Superior Court to execute both the Amended Judgment and the Writ of Execution. Id. On that occasion, able to entertain the merits of Candelario’s request, the Court of Appeals ruled for her. Id. It ordered the Superior Court Judge “to execute as soon as possible the orders, resolutions or proceedings necessary and required by [Candelario] .... Id. The Judge did so on August 20, 2007, ordering “the sale of assets leading to the execution of the judgment as requested by [Candelario].” Id.

Efron timely appealed the Sale Order, but the Court of Appeals reaffirmed. Docket # 38-27. It noted that Candelario’s previous motion had been dismissed because the Superior Court’s verbal order was not final (the minutes had not been signed) for appellate review purposes. Id. at p. 23. The Court then observed that her second motion was different because it had arisen from a written order by the Superior Court. Id. It also established that the Amended Judgment was firm and final, and thus, that the Superior Court could not revisit the issues adjudicated therein. Id. Efron’s reconsideration request was denied on July 15, 2008, and the Sale Order eventually became firm and final. Docket # 110-1, p. 32.

Candelario’s plight to collect the Amended Judgment as well as the monthly payments due thereafter continued, however.

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Related

Ortiz-Lebron v. United States
945 F. Supp. 2d 261 (D. Puerto Rico, 2013)
Candelario-Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc.
290 F.R.D. 336 (D. Puerto Rico, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
815 F. Supp. 2d 495, 80 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 801, 2011 WL 4709867, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114992, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/del-moral-v-ubs-financial-services-inc-prd-2011.