Frank Ahlgren III and the Copernican, LLC v. Frank Ahlgren Jr. and Elise Leake, as Co-Trustees of the Ahlgren Management Trust

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 25, 2022·No. 13-22-00029-CV·Published

Opinion

NUMBER 13-22-00029-CV

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

FRANK AHLGREN III AND THE COPERNICAN, LLC, Appellants,

v.

FRANK AHLGREN JR. AND ELISE LEAKE, AS CO-TRUSTEES OF THE AHLGREN MANAGEMENT TRUST, Appellees.

On appeal from the 261st District Court of Travis County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION ON ORDER REVIEWING SUPERSEDEAS

Before Justices Longoria, Hinojosa, and Silva Memorandum Opinion by Justice Hinojosa Appellants Frank Ahlgren III (Paco)1 and The Copernican, LLC have appealed a

judgment in favor of appellees Frank Ahlgren Jr. (Nim) and Elisa Leake, in their capacity

as co-trustees of the Ahlgren Management Trust. Before the Court is appellants’ motion

to modify the trial court’s supersedeas order. 2 See TEX. R. APP. P. 24.4. We grant the

motion in part.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellees sued appellants for various causes of action, alleging that Paco and his

company The Copernican “absconded” with assets that were held in trust for the benefit

of Paco’s father Nim. Appellees alleged that Paco commingled the trust assets with his

own and that Paco “accumulated substantial wealth, mainly through purchases of

cryptocurrency[3] made possible by Nim’s contributions . . . .” Appellees claimed that Paco

breached his fiduciary duty when he refused Nim’s request to return his share of the

assets in October of 2019.

The case proceeded to trial, and a jury found in favor of appellees on their claims

for breach of trust, breach of informal fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment. The jury found

that Paco used trust funds to acquire the following assets: (1) Bitcoin; (2) a Park City,

Utah property; (3) an Austin, Texas property; and (4) gold. The jury found that Paco

1 To distinguish between the Ahlgren parties, who are father and son, we will refer to each by their preferred names as set out in the parties’ filings. 2 This cause is before the Court on transfer from the Third Court of Appeals in Austin pursuant to

a docket-equalization order issued by the Supreme Court of Texas. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001. 3 “A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium

of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.” Cryptocurrency, WIKIPEDIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency (last visited Apr. 8, 2022). “Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is the first decentralized cryptocurrency.” Id. 2 obtained fifty percent of the foregoing assets with his own funds. It found that the value

of Nim’s share of the assets at the time of Paco’s breach was as follows: (1) $9,074,390 4

in Bitcoin; (2) $1,900,000 for the Park City property; and (3) $375,000 for the Austin

property. The jury was not asked to value Nim’s interest in gold. Finally, the jury found

that Paco earned a $29,329,378 profit resulting from his breach.

Appellees filed a motion for entry of judgment, electing to recover on its breach of

trust claim. They requested monetary damages in the amount of $29,329,378 as well as

a constructive trust awarding a fifty percent interest in the aforementioned assets.

Appellees asserted that its request for money damages represented Paco’s “ill-gotten

gains/profit in breach of his fiduciary duties.” Appellees further requested a permanent

injunction to prevent the dissipation of assets that would be subject to the constructive

trust.

The trial court signed a final judgment awarding $29,329,378 in damages and a

constructive trust over the following property: (1) 1,079 Bitcoins (fifty percent of the 2,158

Bitcoins held by Paco); (2) a fifty percent interest in the Park City property; (3) a fifty

percent interest in the Austin property; and (4) a fifty percent interest in gold held by Paco.

The final judgment contains a detailed calculation of the jury’s finding that Paco profited

$29,329,378 from his breach. It explains that the amount is based on the appreciation in

Bitcoin from the time of Paco’s breach to the date of trial. In particular, the value of a

single Bitcoin increased by $27,182 during this period. As explained in the judgment, the

jury’s profit calculation represents this appreciation multiplied by 1,079—the number of

As we discuss later, the value of Bitcoin appreciated considerably between the time of Paco’s 4

breach and the commencement of trial. 3 Bitcoins that the jury determined belonged to Paco.

The final judgment included a permanent injunction restraining appellants from

“selling, transferring, or encumbering” the constructive trust assets. It also restrained

appellants from:

selling, transferring, or encumbering any cryptocurrency, including [B]itcoin, (i) under the direct or indirect control or ownership of [appellants] as of the date of this judgment (including the proceeds of any such cryptocurrency . . .) or (ii) received from [appellants] after March 13, 2020 [the date appellees filed suit], except as provided in Paragraph 5 [of the permanent injunction.]

Paragraph 5 of the permanent injunction permits appellants to sell cryptocurrency under

certain circumstances, conditioned upon appellees’ prior written consent and that the sale

be “for fair market value in an arm’s length transaction” with half of the proceeds to be

deposited in the registry of the trial court or at appellees’ direction.

After appellees engaged in efforts to collect on the judgment, appellants filed an

emergency motion to set security for strictly the monetary portion of the judgment. In their

motion, appellants maintained that the $29,329,378 award was not compensatory

damages and that they need only post security in the amount of court costs. See TEX.

CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 52.006(a) (limiting the amount to supersede a money

judgment to compensatory damages, post-judgment interest, and costs); TEX. R. APP. P.

24.2(a)(1) (same). Appellees responded to the motion, requesting that the trial court set

security for the monetary award at the maximum amount of $25,000,000. Appellees filed

a counter motion requesting the trial court to set separate security of $45,504,235.40 5 to

This amount represents the value of the 1,079 Bitcoins awarded to appellees as measured at the 5

commencement of trial. 4 collectively supersede the constructive trust and permanent injunction parts of the

judgment. Appellees also requested that the trial court enter a post-judgment injunction,

maintaining that appellants were likely to transfer or dissipate assets to avoid satisfaction

of the judgment. Appellees cited evidence that Paco previously sold large quantities of

Bitcoin in violation of the trial court’s earlier temporary injunction and that he has engaged

in efforts to conceal his Bitcoin transactions.

The trial court signed an order setting the amount of security as follows:

(1) $25,000,000 for the monetary award; and (2) $45,504,235.40 for the constructive trust

and permanent injunction collectively. The trial court found that “allowing [appellants] to

supersede only the monetary portion of the final judgment without also superseding the

constructive trust and injunctive portions of the final judgment as set forth herein will not

adequately protect [appellees] from any loss or damage that the appeal might cause.”

Thus, the trial court ordered “that the district clerk shall not accept any security attempting

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Frank Ahlgren III and the Copernican, LLC v. Frank Ahlgren Jr. and Elise Leake, as Co-Trustees of the Ahlgren Management Trust, (Tex. Ct. App. 2022).

Frank Ahlgren III and the Copernican, LLC v. Frank Ahlgren Jr. and Elise Leake, as Co-Trustees of the Ahlgren Management Trust (Frank Ahlgren III and the Copernican, LLC v. Frank Ahlgren Jr. and Elise Leake, as Co-Trustees of the Ahlgren Management Trust) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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