Great Lakes Agri-Services, LLC v. State Bank of Newburg (In re Enright)

474 B.R. 854, 2012 WL 3065392, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 3474
United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Wisconsin·Decided July 27, 2012·No. Bankruptcy No. 11-29169; Adversary No. 11-2868·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND OBJECTION TO CONFIRMATION OF PLAN

MARGARET DEE McGARITY, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter came before the Court on the plaintiff Great Lakes Agri-Services, LLC’s motion for summary judgment seeking an order requiring the marshaling of assets, namely by requiring the State Bank of Newburg to liquidate the real property mortgaged by the non-debtors, Kenneth and Janet Enright, prior to executing on the real property mortgaged by the debtors, Steven and Jill Enright, in which Great Lakes also has a secured interest. The defendant State Bank of New-burg opposed the motion. The parties filed briefs supporting their respective positions and the Court took the matter under advisement.

This is a core proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(E), and the Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1334. This decision constitutes the Court’s findings of facts and conclusions of law pursuant to Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7052.

BACKGROUND

The parties have stipulated to the following facts. During the 1990s, Kenneth and Janet Enright owned the farmland and operated a dairy farm at which their son, the debtor Steven Enright, worked. Steven Enright and his wife, debtor Jill Enright, borrowed money from the State Bank of Newburg (“Bank”) to buy dairy cows and for other improvements to the Enright dairy farm. Any such dairy cows purchased in the 1990s by Steven and Jill were integrated into the herd of dairy cattle at the Enright dairy farming operation. During that same time period, Ste[856] ven and Jill Enright received an increasing portion of the milk check proceeds from the farming operations.

Also during the 1990s, the Bank demanded that Kenneth and Janet Enright guarantee, through unlimited guarantees, Steven and Jill’s loans with the Bank. Then, by letter dated September 17, 2001, Kenneth and Janet Enright indicated they “will no longer guarantee any additional loans taken out by Steven and Jill En-right.” (Stipulation of Facts ¶ 4). Early in 2001, Steven Enright indicated to the Bank that he wanted to develop a plan to transfer ownership of the farm to himself, but that his father was not yet willing to do so. In 2003, the dairy farming operation was transferred by Kenneth and Janet Enright to Steven and Jill Enright, as the Kenneth/Janet herd was culled and replaced by Steven/Jill stock, with Steven renting facilities from his parents and buying feed from a brother.

On February 6, 2002, the State Bank of Newburg created a summary of Steven and Jill Enright’s debt to the Bank. According to that summary, Steven and Jill had debt totaling $2,059,669.00, including nine loans from the Bank totaling $1,434,628.00. The balance of the debt was owed to other banks or lenders.

On April 18, 2002, Kenneth and Janet Enright signed a Limited Guaranty (“Guaranty”) of the debts of Steven and Jill Enright to the Bank. The Guaranty provided in part as follows:

For value received and to induce State Bank of Newburg ... to extend credit or to grant or continue other credit accommodations to Steven J. Enright and Jill Enright ... [Kenneth and Janet En-right] jointly and severally guarantee payment of the Obligations defined below when due....
“Obligations” means all loans, drafts, overdrafts, checks, notes, and all other debts, obligations, and liabilities of every kind and description, whether of the same or a different nature, arising out of credit previously granted, credit contemporaneously granted, or credit granted in the future by Lender to Debtor.
This Guaranty is also secured (to the extent not prohibited by law) by all existing and future security agreements between Lender and any of the undersigned and by any mortgage stating it secures guarantees of any of the undersigned.

(April 18, 2002, Continuing Guaranty (Limited), Exhibit 1 to Stipulation of Facts).

The Guaranty limited Kenneth and Janet’s liability to “$500,000, plus costs of collection,” and further provided that they were “being asked to guarantee a limited amount of the past, present and future Obligations of Debtor.” (April 18, 2002, Continuing Guaranty (Limited), Exhibit 1 to Stipulation of Facts).

Stapled to the Guaranty in the Bank’s records is a 1986 Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement. (March 13, 1986, Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement, Exhibit 2 to Stipulation of Facts). Kenneth and Janet Enright had previously executed the Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement in favor of the Bank, and the real estate listed thereon “secures all debts, obligations and liabilities of any Customer to Bank arising out of credit previously granted, credit contemporaneously granted, or credit granted in the future by Bank to any Customer, to any Customer at another, or to another guaranteed or endorsed by any Customer.” (March 13, 1986, Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement, § 2, Exhibit 2 to Stipulation of Facts).

The Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement from Kenneth and Janet En-right to the Bank is security and collateral [857] for Kenneth and Janet’s Guaranty of Steven and Jill’s debts with the Bank. Some parcels of real estate which originally served as collateral on the Agricultural Real Estate Security Agreement have since been sold and released by the Bank. Currently, the real estate identified in that security agreement consists of approximately 68.55 acres of land owned by Kenneth and Janet Enright.

In 2003, the Enright family, Kenneth and Janet, and Steven and Jill, retained the Twohig law firm of Chilton, Wisconsin to “prepare an agreement which defines the parties’ business relationships and provides a succession plan for your family’s farm business. Each of these services is necessary for your family’s farming business to continue.” A copy of the draft agreement was provided to the Bank. That draft states that “the parties have been operating a quasi joint venture fanning business called ‘Enright Farms.’ ” (Stipulation of Facts ¶ 13).

On May 12, 2003, the State Bank of Newburg prepared a another balance sheet relating to Steven and Jill Enright which, among other things, summarized the debt of Steven and Jill, including all debt to the Bank. That summary shows that as of May 12, 2003, there were 11 loans from the Bank to Steven and Jill totaling $1,708,113.00 out of total liabilities of $2,103,513.00. All of the note numbers assigned by the Bank for those 11 loans were new numbers when compared to the note numbers on the 2002 summary.

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Great Lakes Agri-Services, LLC v. State Bank of Newburg (In re Enright), 474 B.R. 854, 2012 WL 3065392, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 3474 (Wis. 2012).

474 B.R. 854 (Great Lakes Agri-Services, LLC v. State Bank of Newburg (In re Enright)) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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