In re Thornton

549 B.R. 922, 2016 Bankr. LEXIS 2070, 2016 WL 2986057
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 25, 2016
DocketCASE NUMBER 11-13222-WHD
StatusPublished

This text of 549 B.R. 922 (In re Thornton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Thornton, 549 B.R. 922, 2016 Bankr. LEXIS 2070, 2016 WL 2986057 (Ga. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

W. Homer Drake, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge

Before the Court is the Assertion of Superior Claim filed by Chuck Sylvester in the above-styled case. Sylvester contends that certain funds held by Theo D. Mann (hereinafter the “Trustee”), Chapter 7 trustee for the bankruptcy estate of Verna A. Thornton (hereinafter the “Debtor”), [923]*923belong to Sylvester and are not property of the Debtor’s bankruptcy estate. This is a core proceeding, see 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(A), over which this Court has subject matter jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. §§ 157(a), 1337.

An evidentiary hearing regarding this matter was held on February 24, 2016, at 10:00 AM. Having considered the arguments and evidence of the parties presented at the hearing, as well as the filings in the record, the Court concludes as stated below.

Background

In February of 2011, in anticipation of their marriage that May, Sylvester and the Debtor opened a joint bank account at Delta Community Credit Union (hereinafter “DCCU”). In August of 2011, Regina Bridges, as part of her efforts to collect a $3,241,881.87 medical malpractice judgment she had received against the Debtor, initiated a garnishment proceeding against the joint account. DCCU turned over' the $6,768.78 of available funds then in the account to the State Court of Fayette County, Georgia.

On August 24, 2011, before any judgment had been entered in the garnishment proceeding or any funds distributed, Sylvester filed an Assertion of Superior Claim in the State Court. Sylvester argued that he had deposited $8,000 into the account that he had never withdrawn, so the funds remaining in the account belonged to him, not the Debtor.

The State Court held a hearing on Sylvester’s assertion on September 23, 2011. At that hearing, Sylvester testified under oath that both he and the Debtor would deposit money into the account, but the Debtor was the only one who ever withdrew money from the account. Sylvester stated that the Debtor would use the money in the account for her personal expenses, and the account’s purpose “was to have a convenient place to deposit a reasonable sum of money for safekeeping and that ... she could use it, or I could use it as we may need to.” Exh. Transcripts, Doc. No. 92-2, at 12-13.

On September 30, 2011, before the State Court could render a judgment on Sylvester’s assertion, the Debtor filed her petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code.1 As a result of the bankruptcy filing, the $6,768.78 was turned over to the Trustee on January 27, 2012. After failing to reach an agreement with the Trustee regarding the disposition of those funds, Sylvester filed the instant Assertion of Superior Claim in this Court on December 9, 2015, once again alleging that the funds belonged to him. The Trustee has opposed Sylvester’s motion, contending that the funds are properly part of the Debtor’s bankruptcy estate.

At the hearing on Sylvester’s assertion held on February 24, 2016, Sylvester presented bank statements and deposit slips, which were admitted into evidence without objection. The deposit slips show that Sylvester made two deposits of $4,000 each into the account, one on March 25, 2011, and the other on April 6, 2011. The bank statements show other various deposits and withdrawals from February to August of 2011 for which the Debtor was responsible, including a $6,408 deposit on April 29th and a $5,000 withdrawal on May 13th. When the Court inquired as to what restrictions Sylvester had made on the Debt- or’s use of the joint account, Sylvester proffered that the couple’s understanding had been that each of them was to deposit funds in the account to cover their own individual expenses. Hearing at 10:06, Case No. 11-13222-WHD.

[924]*924Discussion

The question for the Court to resolve in this case is whether, at the time the Debtor filed her petition, the $6,768.78 that was the subject of the garnishment proceeding belonged to Sylvester or to the Debtor. If the funds belonged to the Debtor, they became property of her bankruptcy estate when she filed her petition. Section 541(a)(1) brings into the bankruptcy estate “all legal and equitable' interests of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case.” 11 U.S.C. § 541(a)(1). That section encompasses the interest a debtor holds in the funds in a garnished bank account. See Bowen v. Thompson (In re Thompson), 2013 WL 8214644, at *1-2 (Bankr.N.D.Ga. Apr. 30, 2013) (Massey, J.); see generally In re Eidson, 6 B.R. 613, 615 (Bankr.N.D.Ga.1980) (Drake, J.) (noting that as of the time of the filing of the petition for relief, “the Bankruptcy Court has exclusive jurisdiction over the property which is subject to the process of garnishment”). To determine the extent of a debtor’s interest in those funds, a court should apply state law. See In re Thompson, 2013 WL 8214644, at *2. Because the funds at issue in this case were the subject of a garnishment proceeding under Georgia law, that law “determines the extent of the interests of any party claiming an interest in those funds.” Id.

In Georgia, “[a] joint account belongs, during the lifetime of the parties, to the parties in proportion to the net contributions by each to the sums on deposit, unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent.” O.C.G.A. § 7-l-812(a). Here, the Court finds, and the parties do not dispute, that the $6,768.78 remaining is entirely made up of the remainder of Sylvester’s net contributions to the account.2 Thus, the issue is whether his intent in making his deposits was to gift those funds to the Debtor.

In determining the intent of the parties to the account, the Georgia statute “creates a presumption that a party funding a joint account does not intend to make a gift of the funds of the account during her life.” Caldwell v. Walraven, 268 Ga. 444, 448, 490 S.E.2d 384 (1997); accord Wallace v. McFarland (In re McFarland), 619 Fed.Appx. 962, 970 (11th Cir.2015) (per curiam). However, as the statute itself states, this presumption may be overcome by clear and convincing evidence of a contrary intent. See Caldwell, 268 Ga. at 448, 490 S.E.2d 384; Lamb v. Thalimer Enters., Inc., 193 Ga.App. 70, 71, 386 S.E.2d 912 (1989).

In his argument at the February 24th hearing, the Trustee relied entirely on Sylvester’s testimony in the State Court hearing regarding the Debtor’s ability to withdraw money from the account for any purpose she chose. The Trustee maintained that Sylvester’s testimony that only the Debtor ever withdrew funds from the account, and that the Debtor used the funds in the account for her personal expenses, showed that Sylvester must have intended his deposits into the account as gifts.

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Related

Parker v. Kennon
530 S.E.2d 527 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2000)
Caldwell v. Walraven
490 S.E.2d 384 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1997)
Lamb v. Thalimer Enterprises, Inc.
386 S.E.2d 912 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1989)
A. Stephenson Wallace v. Thomas J. McFarland
619 F. App'x 962 (Eleventh Circuit, 2015)
In re Eidson
6 B.R. 613 (D. Georgia, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
549 B.R. 922, 2016 Bankr. LEXIS 2070, 2016 WL 2986057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-thornton-ganb-2016.