ML Servicing Co. v. Coles

334 P.3d 745, 235 Ariz. 562, 695 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 25, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 180
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedSeptember 16, 2014
Docket1 CA-CV 13-0282
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 334 P.3d 745 (ML Servicing Co. v. Coles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
ML Servicing Co. v. Coles, 334 P.3d 745, 235 Ariz. 562, 695 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 25, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 180 (Ark. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

OROZCO, Judge.

¶ 1 Appellants ML Servicing Co., Inc. (ML Servicing) and ML Liquidating Trust (collectively Appellants) appeal from the trial court order dismissing its action pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes (AR.S.) section 20-1131 (2010), a statute that prevents creditors of a deceased insured from claiming life insurance proceeds to repay the decedent’s debts, and from the trial court’s award of attorney fees to Appellee Ashley Coles (Ashley). 1 We find Appellants are creditors of the decedent pursuant to AR.S. § 20-1131. Accordingly, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2 Mortgages, Ltd. was one of Arizona’s largest and oldest private mortgage lenders. It eventually became insolvent and unable to pay its investors and the substantial loans it had committed to fund. In 2008, various Mortgages, Ltd. creditors initiated an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy on behalf of Mortgages, Ltd., which was converted into a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That same year, Mortgages, Ltd.’s CEO, Scott Coles (Scott), died suddenly. Before Mortgages, Ltd.’s bankruptcy, the company was solely owned by Scott’s revocable trust (the SMC Trust).

¶ 3 As part of the bankruptcy, Mortgages, Ltd. was reorganized and renamed ML Servicing Co., Inc. ML Servicing’s purpose is to pursue and collect assets on behalf of the bankruptcy estate. Aso as part of the bankruptcy, ML Liquidating Trust was created in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court-approved reorganization plan. ML Liquidating Trust is a liquidating trust organized under Arizona law, and the owner of ML Servicing.

¶ 4 Scott owned multiple life insurance policies (the Policies), insuring his life. Following his death, some of the insurance proceeds, believed to be in excess of $60 million, were paid to Ashley, 2 Scott’s widow. Appellants sued Ashley and alleged the Policies’ premiums (supposedly in excess of $130,000 annually) were paid with funds Scott misappropriated from Mortgages, Ltd., and on that basis Appellants sought to recover the insur- *566 anee proceeds under a constructive trust theory.

¶ 5 Appellants also asserted Scott paid the premiums on the Policies by transferring funds from Mortgages, Ltd. to the SMC Trust at a time when Mortgages, Ltd. was “insolvent or soon to be insolvent.” Appellants also alleged that Scott owed a fiduciary duty to Mortgages, Ltd., which he breached by transferring money to the SMC Trust while Mortgages, Ltd. was insolvent.

¶ 6 Ashley filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that ML Liquidating Trust was not entitled to the Policies’ proceeds because Arizona’s exemption statute, codified at A.R.S. § 20-1131, barred any creditor of a decedent from recovering life insurance proceeds from a beneficiary. The trial court granted Ashley’s motion and awarded her attorney fees, holding that Appellants’ claims arose out of contract. The trial court held the “statute evidences the Legislature’s plain intent to exempt life insurance proceeds paid to a beneficiary from the claims of creditors of the decedent’s estate.” The trial court also noted “A.R.S. § 20-1131.A ... is not ambiguous and [Appellants’] arguments do not make it so.” The trial court continued, “The crux of [Appellants’] claims is based on the allegation that Scott paid insurance premiums in fraud of creditors; it is the premiums, not the proceeds, which Scott allegedly misappropriated. As such, [Appellants’] remedy is a return of premiums ... a claim for which [Appellants] do not plead.”

¶ 7 Appellants timely appealed the trial court’s grant of the motion to dismiss and award of attorney fees. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article 6, Section 9, of the Arizona Constitution, A.R.S. §§ 12-120.21.A.1 (2003), and -2101.21 (Supp.2013). 3

DISCUSSION

¶8 We review the grant of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim de novo. Coleman v. City of Mesa, 230 Ariz. 352, 355, ¶ 7, 284 P.3d 863, 866 (2012). “The dismissal of a complaint is only appropriate when the ‘plaintiffs would not be entitled to relief under any interpretation of the facts susceptible of proof.’ ” Turley v. Ethington, 213 Ariz. 640, 643, ¶ 6, 146 P.3d 1282, 1285 (App.2006) (quoting Fid. Sec. Life Ins. Co. v. State, Dep’t of Ins., 191 Ariz. 222, ¶ 4, 954 P.2d 580, 582 (1998)). When ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the trial court may look only to the complaint itself and consider the wellpled factual allegations contained within the complaint. Cullen v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 218 Ariz. 417, 419, ¶ 7, 189 P.3d 344, 346 (2008). We assume the truth of all well-pled factual allegations and consider all reasonable inferences drawn from such facts. Id. Nonetheless, mere conclusory statements inserted as facts are insufficient. to state a claim upon which the trial court may grant relief. Id. Mere legal conclusions do not suffice because they do “not satisfy Arizona’s notice pleading standard under Rule 8” of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure. Id.

I. Arizona’s Exemption Statute: A.R.S. § 20-1131

¶ 9 We review issues of statutory interpretation de novo. DeVries v. State, 221 Ariz. 201, 204, ¶ 6, 211 P.3d 1185, 1188 (App. 2009). The primary goal in statutory interpretation is to give effect to the Legislature’s intent in enacting the statute. Id. Under § 20-1131.A, “[l]ife insurance proceeds paid to a decedent’s beneficiary are exempt from claims of creditors of the decedent’s estate.” In re Estate of King (King), 228 Ariz. 565, 568, ¶ 10, 269 P.3d 1189, 1192 (App.2012). Section 20-1131.A provides:

If a policy of life insurance is effected by any person on the person’s own life ... in favor of another person having an insurable interest in the policy, or made payable by assignment, change of beneficiary or other means to a third person, the lawful beneficiary or such third person, other than the person effecting the insurance or the person’s legal representatives, is entitled to its proceeds against the creditors and representatives of the person effecting the insurance.

*567

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Bluebook (online)
334 P.3d 745, 235 Ariz. 562, 695 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 25, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ml-servicing-co-v-coles-arizctapp-2014.