Nathan R. Baker and Bryner Farms, LLC, a Nevada Limited Liability Company v. David Speaks and Elizabeth Speaks

2013 WY 24, 295 P.3d 847, 2013 WL 676707, 2013 Wyo. LEXIS 27
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 26, 2013
DocketS-12-0105
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 2013 WY 24 (Nathan R. Baker and Bryner Farms, LLC, a Nevada Limited Liability Company v. David Speaks and Elizabeth Speaks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nathan R. Baker and Bryner Farms, LLC, a Nevada Limited Liability Company v. David Speaks and Elizabeth Speaks, 2013 WY 24, 295 P.3d 847, 2013 WL 676707, 2013 Wyo. LEXIS 27 (Wyo. 2013).

Opinion

DAVIS, Justice.

[11] While a lawsuit by Appellees David and Elizabeth Speaks was pending against Rosemary and Byron Baker, the Bakers transferred two parcels of real property to their son Nathan. The original case resulted in a judgment against Byron, but a dismissal of the claims against Rosemary. Appellees' Judgment against Byron was upheld on appeal. After learning of the decision in that case, Nathan Baker transferred the properties to a limited lability company he and his family controlled.

[12] Appellees filed this case under the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act and its successor, the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act., While the case was pending, the limited liability company transferred the two pieces of property to trusts controlled by Rosemary Baker. Appellees moved for summary judgment.

[13] The district court found that all of the conveyances were fraudulent and granted a summary judgment permitting execution on the properties. We reverse and remand because although the district court correctly found the conveyances to be fraudulent, Ap-pellees failed to make the required prima facie showing that the properties were subject to execution on a judgment against Byron Baker alone.

ISSUES

[T4] 1. Did Appellees make the required prima facie showing that they were entitled to execute on the property in question under the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act?

2. Are Appellants judicially estopped from arguing that Rosemary Baker owned an *850 interest in the real property involved in this case?

FACTS

[15] This appeal involves a confusing and apparently obfuscatory series of real estate transfers calculated to prevent the property from being executed upon to satisfy a judgment. The facts are complex, and the procedural history of this case is tortuous at best.

Prior Litigation and Property Transfers

[16] During 1999, Rex Byron Baker (Byron) entered into an agreement to build a log cabin for Appellees David and Elizabeth Speaks (the Speaks) on land they owned in Lincoln County. 1 Baker v. Speaks, 2008 WY 20, ¶ 3, 177 P.3d 803, 805 (Wyo.2008) (Baker I). The work went badly, and the Speaks sued Byron and Rosemary Baker (Rosemary) for damages related to poor workmanship as well as failure to complete the construction and to pay subcontractors in 2003--the date suit was filed is not clear in this record or in the opinion in the above case. Id. at 1 8, 177 P.3d at 805-06.

[17] The Speaks claimed that Rosemary was a partner with Byron in his construction business, and that she was therefore responsible in damages for the allegedly faulty and incomplete work. Rosemary's relationship to Byron at the time the suit was filed is unclear, and remains so to this day. A recorded warranty deed to Lot 16 of the Corsi Ranchettes Subdivision dated in 1998 conveyed the property to R. Byron Baker and Rosemary K. Baker, husband and wife as tenants by the entireties. The deed was not recorded until 2001. The record contains no pre-2003 conveyance to the Bakers of a see-ond parcel involved in this case, Lot 5 of the Misty Meadows Subdivision, which adjoins the Corsi Ranchettes parcel.

[18] An affidavit executed by Rosemary and filed shortly after this action was commenced attests that at some unspecified point in time Rosemary and Byron owned the real property later conveyed, presumably referring to both lots, as tenants by the entire-ties. In an excerpt from Rosemary's deposition which was filed in this case, there is an oblique and incomplete reference to the possibility of a common law marriage in Utah. 2

[191 In its decision letter in Baker I, the trial court found that Rosemary and Byron were not married at the time the Speaks contract was negotiated or while the construction work was in progress. It did not specify whether the Bakers were ever married with proper formality or at common law in another state, whether they were married and then divorced, or whether they had been married, divorced, and then remarried at some point in time before the decision was rendered. The trial judge in Baker I did not need to make any of those findings.

[110] The record supporting the finding that Rosemary and Byron were not married at certain times is not before us. It is clear that Rosemary has gone by various names, including Rosemary Baker, Rosemary Ken-worthy, Rose Baker, and Rose Kenworthy. There is no doubt that these are all the same person, but the nature of Rosemary's relationship to Byron at critical times remains a mystery. 3 It is undisputed, however, that whatever their legal relationship may have been at certain times, Byron and Rosemary *851 are in fact the father and mother of Nathan Baker, who figures prominently in events about to be described.

[111] On May 16, 2003, the trial judge entered a scheduling order setting Baker I for trial on October 15, 2003. Unbeknownst to the Speaks, Rosemary and Byron transferred whatever interests they held in both lots to Nathan by quitclaim deeds dated October 1, 2008. The conveyances do not describe Rosemary and Byron as husband and wife.

[112] The trial did not take place on October 15, 2008, but was instead ultimately rescheduled to April 26-28, 2005. The trial judge granted the Speaks judgment against Byron for the sum of $289,859.87. Baker I, " 8, 177 P.3d at 805-06. It found that Rosemary was not a partner in Byron's construction business, and therefore dismissed the claims against her. Counterelaims by the Bakers were also dismissed. The net effect of this ruling was that Byron became a judgment debtor of the Speaks, while Rosemary did not.

[113] While the appeal in Baker I was being perfected, briefed, and then decided, Rosemary lived on one parcel of the conveyed property with the parties' daughters, while Nathan lived on the other. Byron occasionally lived with Rosemary. The Speaks evidently did not attempt to execute on the judgment while the appeal was pending.

[T14] Baker I affirmed the trial court's decision on February 22, 2008. Five days later, on February 27, 2008, Nathan transferred the Corsi Ranchettes and Misty Meadows lots to Bryner Farms, LL.C. Bryner Farms was a Nevada limited liability company. Its managing members were Rosemary and Nathan, as well as Byron and Rosemary's daughters. Nathan later testified in deposition that Bryner Farms was "destroyed by this lawsuit a month after its conception and dissolved shortly after." According to him, Bryner Farms never actually commenced doing business, but he transferred the two parcels described above to it with the intention of starting a "nursery business, garlic business, produce, furniture, the whole wide variety of things."

[115] In September of 2007, before the decision in Baker I, the Speaks obtained a title report which reflected the transfer of the Corsi Ranchettes lot to Nathan in October of 2008. They filed this action against Byron and Nathan on March 4, 2008, alleging that the conveyance was fraudulent as that term is defined by the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act. They sought an order permitting execution on the Corsi Ranchettes property to satisfy the judgment against Byron.

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2013 WY 24, 295 P.3d 847, 2013 WL 676707, 2013 Wyo. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nathan-r-baker-and-bryner-farms-llc-a-nevada-limited-liability-company-wyo-2013.