JJJJ Walker, LLC v. Yollick

447 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 10763, 2014 WL 4933040
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 25, 2014
DocketNo. 14-13-00161-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 447 S.W.3d 453 (JJJJ Walker, LLC v. Yollick) 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
JJJJ Walker, LLC v. Yollick, 447 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 10763, 2014 WL 4933040 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

SUBSTITUTE OPINION

TRACY CHRISTOPHER, Justice.

We deny the appellee’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our opinion and judgment dated June 5, 2014, and issue this substitute opinion in its place.

In this fraud case, the plaintiffs prevailed in their claims against a bank, the bank’s corporate agent, and the bank’s attorney, but the trial court granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the claim against the bank’s attorney on the ground that no evidence supported the liability finding. In arguments that we treat as cross-points, the attorney argues that the economic-loss rule and attorney immunity bar the appellants from any recovery against him, and that the verdict against him should be set aside due to improper jury argument by opposing counsel. We conclude that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury’s fraud finding, and the arguments presented in the attorney’s cross-points do not vitiate the verdict. We therefore reverse the judgment as to that defendant and remand for rendition of judgment consistent with this opinion.1

I. Factual and PROCEDURAL Background

In early 2009, three hospitals — one in Dallas, one in Houston, and one in Groves — were among the assets of a hospital system in bankruptcy. The hospitals formed part of the collateral for a debt owed to First National Bank (“the Bank”). Greg Walker, Kailee Wong, and their associates were interested in purchasing the hospitals, but before that was arranged, the hospitals were essentially emptied of patients. At the beginning of March 2009, the Bank’s branch president Linda Burley and its outside counsel, appellee Greg Yol-[456]*456lick, negotiated a term sheet with Walker and Wong for a group of investors to purchase the hospitals. The Bank dictated the structure of the transaction, and the bankruptcy court approved it. The parties agreed that a group of six limited-liability companies — appellants BD • Texas, LLC; JJJJ Walker, LLC; Renaissance Properties of Texas, LLC; Priya Properties, LLC; Dynafab USA, LLC; and KW Hospital Acquisition, LLC (collectively, “the Investors”) — would form and own a seventh limited-liability company, and that together, these entities would purchase the hospitals. The seventh limited-liability company, Louisiana Texas Healthcare Management, LLC (“LTHM”), would hold the property through six subsidiary limited-liability companies. Each subsidiary owned either the real estate or the operations of a single hospital. The parties further agreed that Wong would be a direct or indirect principal of LTHM. The Bank was to provide the funds for the purchase and for initial working capital.

A. The Initial Loan of March 16, 2009 The loan closed on March 16, 2009. To finance the purchase and provide initial working capital while, the hospitals increased their patient populations, LTHM and its subsidiaries (“the LTHM Group”) borrowed approximately $37 million from the Bank. Security for the loan included a lien on all accounts receivable; liens on the real property; and the Investors’ execution of a pledge agreement granting the Bank a security interest in their ownership interest in LTHM. Effective as of the date of the closing, the Bank hired Duane Ross-mann to act as a “health care consultant” and required the LTHM Group to report to him on the development of the hospitals’ business. Less than thirty days after the closing on the hospital purchase, the Bank and the parties to the loan amended their agreement to make loan payments due quarterly rather than monthly. The first payment was due on June 15 or June 16, 2009.

B. The Letter Agreement of May 14, 2009

In early May 2009, it became apparent to Walker that additional money was needed to make payroll. The parties negotiated a complicated arrangement requiring the creation of a new entity, Merensky Reef Hospital Corporation (“Merensky Reef’), which would operate under the Bank’s control. Through the execution of a Letter Agreement dated May 14, 2009, the parties agreed as follows:

1. The parties acknowledged that the LTHM Group needed $2 million to meet accrued payroll obligations that were payable on May 15, 2009.
2. The Bank would loan the money (“the bridge loan”) to Merensky Reef for thirty days from the first date that the funds were advanced (“the forbearance period”).
3. The Investors would continue attempting to raise additional funding, and the LTHM Group could grant second liens on their property to secure such funding.
4. The parties would enter into “Transfer Documents” that (a) gave the Bank an assignment of the Investors’ membership interests in LTHM to Merensky Reef; and (b) mutually released all claims between and among the Investors and the Bank relating to the LTHM Group and the obligations of the LTHM Group and the Investors to the Bank, except for the obligations under the Loan Agreement of March 16, 2009.
5. Merensky Reef would hold the Transfer Documents in trust, but would have the exclusive right to vote the Inves[457]*457tors’ membership interests in LTHM during the forbearance period. If the bridge loan were not repaid during the forbearance period, then Merensky Reef would continue to have the right to vote the Investors’ membership interests in LTHM. If the bridge loan were timely repaid, then the Transfer Documents would be deemed extinguished.
6. During the forbearance period, (a) the LTHM Group would take no action resulting “in a material adverse effect upon the LTHM Group’s value, operations, assets, members, governance or liabilities,” and (b) the Bank and the LTHM Group would coordinate with the Investors in efforts to market the hospitals and their operations.
7. If the LTHM Group did not repay the bridge loan within the forbearance period and the Bank elected to release the Transfer Documents, then LTHM’s members would use “commercially reasonable'efforts to effectuate the orderly transition of the LTHM Group’s operations” to the Bank or to the Bank’s assignee or designee.
8. During the forbearance period, the Investors’ prior approval would be required for any proposed business expenditure outside the ordinary course of business in excess of $20,000.

C. Merensky Reefs Actions

On May 14, 2009 — the same date as the Letter Agreement — Yollick formed Meren-sky Reef. Yollick also asked his wife, his longtime friend Jim Jenkins, and Duane Rossmann to serve as Merensky Reefs board of directors, and all three agreed.

According to Merensky Reefs minutes and the evidence at trial, Merensky Reef held three meetings at Yollick’s office that day. At 7:00 p.m., Merensky Reefs initial director Jenkins elected Rossmann as Merensky Reefs president and secretary and issued all of the corporation’s shares to Mara Drake as trustee of the Witwatersrand Trust. Mara Drake’s legal name is Tamara Yollick; she is Yollick’s wife. She testified that Yollick asked her to identify herself as Mara Drake in connection with Merensky Reef and the Witwatersrand Trust, but he did not tell her why. At 7:05 p.m., Jenkins, Rossmann, and Drake were elected to Merensky Reefs board of directors. As relevant here, Merensky Reef .voted at 7:15 p.m. as follows:

1.

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Bluebook (online)
447 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 10763, 2014 WL 4933040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jjjj-walker-llc-v-yollick-texapp-2014.