Greg Gutman v. Trent De Giulio Also Known As, Trent Di Giulio, and Alvin D. James

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 25, 2022
Docket05-20-00735-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Greg Gutman v. Trent De Giulio Also Known As, Trent Di Giulio, and Alvin D. James (Greg Gutman v. Trent De Giulio Also Known As, Trent Di Giulio, and Alvin D. James) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greg Gutman v. Trent De Giulio Also Known As, Trent Di Giulio, and Alvin D. James, (Tex. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

AFFIRMED and Opinion Filed February 25, 2022

S In The Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-20-00735-CV

GREG GUTMAN, Appellant V. TRENT DE GIULIO ALSO KNOWN AS, TRENT DI GIULIO, AND ALVIN D. JAMES, Appellee

On Appeal from the 95th District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. DC-18-04002

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Carlyle, Smith, and Garcia Opinion by Justice Garcia Greg Gutman, appearing pro se, raises nine issues complaining about the trial

court’s amended turnover orders and refusal to replace the receiver. Concluding

Gutman’s arguments are without merit, we affirm the trial court’s order.

I. BACKGROUND Gutman sued Alvin James and Trent De Giulio for fraud and obtained a

judgment against them. Gutman subsequently moved for a turnover order against De

Giulio (the “Judgment Debtor”). The Judgment Debtor did not appear at the hearing,

and the court granted the motion and appointed a receiver. On April 5, 2019, a visiting judge signed the turnover order Gutman drafted and provided to the court

(the “Initial Order”).

The initial order provided, in pertinent part:

The Receiver shall take possession and control of all property of any kind, owned by Respondent legally or beneficially, in whole or in part, real or personal, together with any and all documents of title and other documentation sufficient to identify each item of property to the Receiver to be sold as under execution.

Without limiting any of the foregoing, the property to be turned over to the Receiver shall include vehicles, financial accounts, any income derived by Respondent from any source other than what is reasonably required for his living expenses, investments, securities, video and audio recording equipment, and other property used to operate any business involving film making of any type. Respondent shall not be required to turn over to the Receiver the furnishings found in his home other than furniture or other personal property that can reasonably be characterized as collector items or unusually valuable. The Receiver is specifically authorized to make demand and collect any such property from any third party or where such property may be found.

(Emphasis added).

Gutman later requested that Eric Gormly be substituted as turnover receiver.

On June 28, 2019, the court signed an order (the “First Amended Order”) appointing

Gormly as receiver (the Receiver).

After a series of events, including the Judgment Debtor’s bankruptcy and

settlement negotiations, the relationship between the Receiver and Gutman

deteriorated. Gutman filed a motion to replace the Receiver and the Receiver filed a

brief reporting the results of the turnover inquiry and requesting that the court review

the Initial Order and strike it as void. The brief advised the court that the Initial Order

–2– required the Receiver to attach and seize property that is “clearly exempt by statute.”

Gutman responded.

A visiting judge conducted a hearing and denied Gutman’s motion to replace

the Receiver and granted the Receiver’s request to set aside the Initial Order. But no

order was signed. Gutman filed a renewed motion to replace the Receiver and the

Receiver responded and requested sanctions.

A different visiting judge conducted another hearing. At the conclusion of the

hearing, the court ruled in favor of the Receiver and against Gutman. The judge

signed an order on July 29, 2020 (the “Second Amended Order”) ordering that the

Receiver remain in place, finding that the Initial Order “as drafted and tendered” by

Gutman violates the governing statutes by ordering seizure of exempt property and

is void and unenforceable. “Based on the premise that the turnover application . . .

is valid,” the order finds that the Receiver’s conclusions about the property subject

to seizure are in accordance with the governing statutes and directs that the Receiver

attach only the one item of property the Receiver found and reported to be exempt.

On August 3, the original visiting judge signed an “Order on Receiver’s First

Amended Motion for Court Review of Turnover Order and Ruling to Dismiss” (the

“Third Amended Order”). The Third Amended Order concludes that the Initial Order

is “unenforceable as contrary to law and therefore void” except as to the portion that

may be enforced under the applicable statutes, finds that the Judgment Debtor’s

nonexempt property, as found by the receiver, consists of one 1995 Jaguar XJ6, and

–3– orders that the Receiver take possession of that property and dispose of it through

sale, collect his compensation through the proceeds and pay the remainder to

Gutman.

Gutman appeals from the Second and Third Amended Orders.

II. ANALYSIS At the heart of this dispute is Gutman’s insistence that the Receiver must seize

or attach the Judgment Debtor’s exempt property because the Initial Order did not

exclude exempt property, and no one objected. To this end, Gutman raises nine

overlapping issues arguing that the trial court: (1) had no jurisdiction to declare the

Initial Order void because its plenary power had expired, (2) erred because the

Receiver had no standing to request modification and there was no justiciable

controversy, (3) wrongfully ruled that the judgment debtor was entitled to

exemptions or alternatively, included property that is not exempt, and (4) abused its

discretion by refusing to remove and replace the Receiver.

A. The Third Amended Order

While none of the orders following the Initial Order are specifically labeled

“amended order,” they can be reasonably construed as such. See generally, Chapa

v. Chapa, No. 04-12-00519-CV, 2012 WL 6728242, at *5 (Tex. App.—San Antonio

Dec. 28, 2012, no pet.) (looking at substance and function of an order in the context

of the record rather than the title or form of the order).

–4– An amended order generally supersedes and nullifies the order it amends. See

Black v. Shor, 443 S.W.3d 170, 175–76 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 2013, no pet.)

(stating that “[o]rdinarily, an amended final order supersedes any prior final order

when the ‘order amounts to something more than marking through [an earlier date]

and substituting another date on the final order’”); Bahar v. Lyon Fin. Servs., Inc.,

330 S.W.3d 379, 386 (Tex. App.—Austin 2010, pet. denied) (same). The same is

true for turnover orders; an amended turnover order supersedes and renders moot

previously issued turnover orders. See Goodman v. Compass Bank, No. 05-15-

00812-CV, 2016 WL 4142243, at *3, n.3 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2016, pet. denied

(mem. op.) (involving an amended turnover order and stating that “[t]he rule that an

amended order supersedes the order it amends applies to appealable orders rendered

in aid of enforcing a judgment”). Thus, when the Third Amended Order was entered,

it rendered the Second Amended Order moot. But even if we treated the third order

as a supplement to the second, the analysis remains the same and Gutman’s

overlapping challenges to both orders fail.

B. Jurisdiction to Amend the Initial Order

The Second Amended Order found the Initial Order “void and

unenforceable,” and the Third Amended Order concluded that the Initial Order was

“unenforceable as contrary to law, and thus void.” Gutman argues that the trial

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Greg Gutman v. Trent De Giulio Also Known As, Trent Di Giulio, and Alvin D. James, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greg-gutman-v-trent-de-giulio-also-known-as-trent-di-giulio-and-alvin-d-texapp-2022.