Mesa Petroleum Co. v. Coniglio

16 B.R. 1015, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10489
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedJanuary 25, 1982
Docket75-28-Civ-Oc
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 16 B.R. 1015 (Mesa Petroleum Co. v. Coniglio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mesa Petroleum Co. v. Coniglio, 16 B.R. 1015, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10489 (M.D. Fla. 1982).

Opinion

ORDER

CHARLES R. SCOTT, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court upon motion of plaintiff Mesa Petroleum Company (hereinafter ‘Mesa’) for an order clarifying the duties of defendant C. John Coniglio in his capacity as trustee of the constructive trust created by this Court in its order of December 26, 1978.

On October 13, 1978, this Court entered a final judgment in favor of Mesa against the defendants C. John Coniglio and C. A. Locke, Jr. The judgment set forth that Mesa was to recover $159,290.67 from Locke and $159,290.67 from Coniglio, together with an award of costs plus interest from the date of judgment. The judgment also stated that the Court would, in a separate order, set aside certain real property conveyances from Locke and his wife to Conig-lio and his wife that were determined to have been made with the intent of defrauding Mesa. 1

*1016 On December 26, 1978, the Court entered an order awarding Mesa attorneys’ fees in the amount of $50,000. Moreover, having abandoned the idea of setting aside the fraudulent conveyances, the Court created a constructive trust, the res consisting of the fraudulently conveyed property referred to above. 2 The Court named defendant C. John Coniglio, who along with his wife was record owner of the property, as trustee. 3 The order directed Coniglio to hold the property, which consists of four tracts of land in Sumter County, Florida, in trust for Mesa, providing in paragraph three that “such trust shall be extinguished only upon the satisfaction of the judgment entered by this Court against defendant C. A. Locke, Jr. ... dated October 13, 1978, and upon satisfaction of this order entered by the Court against defendant C. A. Locke, Jr. ... dated December 26, 1978.” Locke has never satisfied either the judgment debt of October 13, 1978, or the attorneys’ fees order of December 26, 1978.

On August 31, 1979, Locke filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy. In re: Coy Aldridge Locke, Jr., d/b/a C & L Farms, Case No. 79-541-BK-J. On June 11, 1980, Locke was granted a personal discharge in the bankruptcy proceedings.

On April 27, 1981, Mesa filed its Motion for Order Clarifying Trustee’s Duties. The motion seeks an order from this Court directing Coniglio, as trustee under the trust created by order of December 26, 1978, to marshal the assets of the trust, liquidate the trust and satisfy the judgment against Locke in favor of Mesa. A hearing on Mesa’s motion was held November 4, 1981. The Court determined at that hearing that it lacked sufficient information as to the effect of Locke’s bankruptcy upon both the Court’s October 13, 1978 judgment and the trust created by order of December 26, 1978. Accordingly, the Court ordered all concerned parties to file memoranda elucidating and supporting their respective positions in this regard. This has been done and the Court is prepared to enter its decision.

Prior to reaching the legal issues involved herein, it is necessary to embark on a more detailed factual account that will serve as the foundation for the Court’s resolution of this matter. The Court’s final judgment of October 13, 1978, arose out of an action filed in 1975 by Mesa against Diamond T Cattle Company (hereinafter ‘Diamond T’) and Coniglio, Locke and G. Wilbur Hal-lauer, the sole shareholders of Diamond T. Mesa Agro, the agricultural division of Mesa, entered into a joint venture agreement with Diamond T whereby Diamond T was responsible for acquiring and grazing cattle in Florida that would subsequently be sold by Mesa in Texas. Following a serious decline in the cattle market that resulted in substantial losses to the joint venture, Mesa informed the shareholders of Diamond T that it would be unwilling to advance further funds to the joint venture without first obtaining their personal guarantees that Diamond T’s share of the then-existing and projected losses would be paid. Those losses were expected to approach $425,000. Pursuant to an oral agreement, the three shareholders of Diamond T, Coniglio, Locke and Hallauer, executed individual promissory notes evidencing Diamond T’s portion of the losses.

*1017 On September 12, 1974, only four days prior to executing his promissory note to Mesa, Locke and his wife, Jay Nell Locke, conveyed the four tracts of real property at issue to Coniglio and his wife, Mary Joan Coniglio. Shortly thereafter, by mortgage dated September 17, 1974, Coniglio and his wife encumbered all four tracts of real property to the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, South Carolina, as security for a loan to Coniglio in the amount of $500,000.

In its opinion and judgment of October 13, 1978, the Court, following a discussion of the relevant law not pertinent to the instant matter, awarded Mesa the amount of $159,290.67 against each of the defendants Locke and Coniglio, together with costs and interest from the date of judgment. The Court also found that the conveyance of the four tracts of land from Locke and his wife to Coniglio and his wife was fraudulent. To support this finding, the Court relied upon the absence of any sales contract evidencing the transaction, the lack of any real consideration for the transfer, the absence of a real estate broker’s involvement in the transaction, the close personal relationship between the transferors and the transferees, the immediate events surrounding the oral agreement and the promissory notes between Mesa and the defendants Locke and Conig-lio, and the real possibility of ultimate litigation by Mesa against Locke and Coniglio. In sum, the Court found that the transfer, along with the encumbrance of the property by Coniglio and his wife as security for the loan from the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, South Carolina, were made with the specific intent of defrauding and hindering Mesa from collecting on the promissory note from Locke.

Consequently, the Court, in its judgment of October 13,1978, indicated that it would, in a separate order, set aside the fraudulent conveyance of the four tracts of land from Locke and his wife to Coniglio and his wife. Subsequent to entry of the Court’s judgment, Coniglio and his wife dissolved their marriage. Under Florida law, this changed their ownership status from tenants by the entirety to tenants in common. Florida Statutes § 689.15 (1981). On December 26, 1978, the Court entered its order awarding attorneys’ fees to Mesa and imposing a constructive trust on the four tracts of land found to have been fraudulently conveyed, naming Coniglio as trustee. 4 Mesa’s interest in the land was to be subordinate only to the security interest of the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, South Carolina.

On August 31, 1979, Locke filed a voluntary petition for relief in bankruptcy. In his petition, Locke listed his debts to Mesa on Schedule A-3, captioned “Creditors Having Unsecured Claims Without Priority.” Nowhere on his bankruptcy petition did Locke list Tracts No. 2, 3, or 4 as property of the debtor. He did, however, claim an interest in Tract No. 1.

On October 28, 1974, shortly after Locke and his wife conveyed the four tracts of property to Coniglio and his wife, Tract No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 B.R. 1015, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mesa-petroleum-co-v-coniglio-flmd-1982.