Securities and Exchange Commission v. Champion-Cain

District Court, S.D. California·Decided May 12, 2020·No. 3:19-cv-01628·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Case No.: 3:19-cv-1628-LAB-AHG COMMISSION, 12 ORDER GRANTING RECEIVER’S Plaintiff, 13 MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF v. SALE OF REAL PROPERTY 14 LOCATED AT 724 ZANZIBAR GINA CHAMPION-CAIN AND ANI 15 COURT DEVELOPMENT, LLC,

16 Defendants, and 17 [ECF No. 282]

18 AMERICAN NATIONAL 19 INVESTMENTS, INC., 20 Relief Defendant. 21 22 I. BACKGROUND 23 As described in prior orders, see, e.g., ECF Nos. 54, 162, 163, this is an action 24 brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against Defendants ANI 25 Development, LLC (“ANI Development”) and Gina Champion-Cain and Relief Defendant 26 American National Investments, Inc. (“ANI Inc.”), alleging violations of federal securities 27 laws based on a purportedly fraudulent liquor license loan scheme. ECF No. 1. 28 1 On September 3, 2019, the Court established an equitable receivership and appointed 2 Krista L. Freitag (“Receiver”) as a permanent receiver of ANI Development and ANI Inc., 3 authorizing her to take control over all funds and assets owned, managed, or in the 4 possession or control of the receivership entities. See ECF No. 6 at 14-16. In that role, the 5 Receiver acts under the control and direction of the Court to facilitate the “orderly and 6 efficient administration of the estate . . . for the benefit of creditors.” SEC v. Hardy, 803 7 F.2d 1034, 1038 (9th Cir. 1986). See also Atl. Tr. Co. v. Chapman, 208 U.S. 360, 370 8 (1908) (explaining that a motion to appoint a receiver to take charge of property is “to the 9 end that the property might be cared for and preserved for all who had or might have an 10 interest in the proceeds of its sale. . . . Immediately upon such appointment and after the 11 qualification of the receiver, the property passed into the custody of the law, and 12 thenceforward its administration was wholly under the control of the court by its officer [], 13 the receiver.”). On December 11, 2019, the presiding judge in this action, Chief Judge 14 Burns, granted the parties’ Joint Motion (ECF No. 156) to give limited consent to the 15 undersigned to hear and directly decide all motions filed in this action to approve sales of 16 receivership assets. ECF No. 160. See also 28 U.S.C. § 636(c); CivLR 72.1(g). All property 17 sale motions are set before the undersigned pursuant to that grant of consent. 18 On March 19, 2020, the Receiver filed the present Motion for Approval of Sale of 19 Real Property Located at 724 Zanzibar Court (the “Zanzibar Court Motion”). ECF No. 282. 20 The motion concerns one of the residential real properties within the receivership estate, a 21 single-family residence located at 724 Zanzibar Court, San Diego, California (the 22 “Zanzibar Court Property”). See ECF No. 282; ECF No. 76-2 at 3 (listing the Zanzibar 23 Court Property in the Preliminary Real Estate and Liquor License Asset Schedule filed on 24 October 3, 2019). 25 On March 20, 2020 the Court entered an order setting a briefing schedule and an 26 April 27, 2020 hearing on the Zanzibar Court Motion. ECF No. 285. The Court set a 27 deadline of April 3, 2020 for responses in opposition to the motion, and noted that “[i]f no 28 opposition is filed by the deadline, and the overbid submission deadline has passed with 1 no overbids, the Court may take the motion under submission without oral argument.” Id. 2 at 2. No opposition was filed. Further, bid qualifications from prospective bidders seeking 3 to submit overbids pursuant to the notice and auction process set forth in 28 U.S.C. §§ 2001 4 and 2002 (described in more detail below) were due by April 14, 2020. See ECF No. 5 282-1 at 11; ECF No. 301 at 2. The Receiver filed a Notice of Non-Receipt of Qualified 6 Overbids regarding the Zanzibar Court Motion on April 15, 2020. ECF No. 301. 7 Accordingly, the Court vacated the April 27, 2020 hearing and took the motion under 8 submission on the papers on April 23, 2020. ECF No. 315. 9 For the reasons explained more fully below, the Court GRANTS the Zanzibar Court 10 Motion. 11 II. LEGAL STANDARD 12 “[I]t is a recognized principle of law that the district court has broad powers and 13 wide discretion to determine the appropriate relief in an equity receivership.” SEC v. 14 Lincoln Thrift Ass’n, 577 F.2d 600, 606 (9th Cir. 1978). Where a district court sits in equity, 15 “[u]nless a statute in so many words, or by a necessary and inescapable inference, restricts 16 the court’s jurisdiction in equity, the full scope of that jurisdiction is to be recognized and 17 applied. ‘The great principles of equity, securing complete justice, should not be yielded 18 to light inferences, or doubtful construction.’” Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 19 395, 398 (1946). 20 “[A] district court’s power to supervise an equity receivership and to determine the 21 appropriate action to be taken in the administration of the receivership is extremely broad.” 22 Hardy, 803 F.2d at 1037. As part of this broad discretion, the district court sitting in equity 23 and having custody and control of property “has power to order a sale of the same in its 24 discretion. The power of sale necessarily follows the power to take control of and to 25 preserve property[.]” SEC v. Am. Capital Investments, Inc., 98 F.3d 1133, 1144 (9th Cir. 26 1996), abrogated on other grounds by Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 27 93-94 (1998) (quoting 2 Ralph E. Clark, Treatise on Law & Practice of Receivers § 482 28 (3d ed. 1992)). If the court approves an equitable receiver’s proposed property sale, the 1 sale “does not . . . purport to convey ‘legal’ title, but rather ‘good,’ equitable title enforced 2 by an injunction against suit.” Id. (citing 2 Clark, Treatise on Law & Practice of Receivers, 3 §§ 342, 344, 482(a), 487, 489, 491). 4 Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2001(a), realty in the possession of an appointed receiver is 5 subject to a public sale process, “upon such terms and conditions as the court directs.” 6 28 U.S.C. § 2002 further requires that notice be published once a week for at least four 7 weeks prior to the sale in at least one newspaper regularly issued and of general circulation 8 in the county, state, or judicial district where the realty is located.1 These safeguards of 9 notice and opportunity to submit overbids help to ensure that the sale is able to fetch the 10 best price possible, which is consistent with the principle that “a primary purpose of equity 11 receiverships is to promote orderly and efficient administration of the estate by the district 12 court for the benefit of creditors.” Hardy, 803 F.2d at 1038. See also United States v. 13 Grable, 25 F.3d 298, 303 (6th Cir. 1994) (noting that “the intent of” the requirement in 28 14 U.S.C. § 2001 that property be sold in the county in which the land is situated is “to bring 15 a better price at the sale”). 16 III. DISCUSSION 17 A.

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