Segner v. Ruthven Oil & Gas, LLC (In re Provident Royalties, LLC)

581 B.R. 185
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedJune 3, 2017
DocketCase No. 09-33886 (Jointly Administered); Adversary No. 11-03385-HDH
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 581 B.R. 185 (Segner v. Ruthven Oil & Gas, LLC (In re Provident Royalties, LLC)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Segner v. Ruthven Oil & Gas, LLC (In re Provident Royalties, LLC), 581 B.R. 185 (Tex. 2017).

Opinion

REDACTED VERSION OF AMENDED RULING REGARDING THE APPLICATION OF BANKRUPTCY CODE SECTION 550(d) TO CLAIMS AGAINST CIANNA RESOURCES. INC.1

Harlin DeWayne Hale, United States Bankruptcy Jhdge

This ruling addresses the proper application of the feingle satisfaction rule found [189]*189in 11 U.S.C. § 550(d) in a fraudulent transfer action where most of the defendants have settled and the only remaining defendant was a subsequent transferee in connection with some, but not all, of the initial transfers that the trustee avoided in the lawsuit.

The plaintiff in this action (the “Trustee”) sued Ruthven Oil & Gas, LLC (“Ruthven”), Wendell Holland (“Holland”), the Wendell and Kari Holland Trust (the “Holland Trust” and together with Ruth-ven and Holland, the “Ruthven Defendants”), and Cianna Resources, Inc. (“Cianna”) to avoid fraudulent transfers. The debtors in the underlying jointly-administered bankruptcy cases (the “Debtors”) were in the business of acquiring mineral interests, and in acquiring such interests, the Debtors made use of the brokerage services of the Ruthven Defendants, who in turn made use of the services of certain sub-brokers, including Cianna. There were many transactions in which the Debtors acquired mineral interests, and in connection with those transactions, Ruthven was the initial transferee of $48,812,882.24. Cianna only acted as a sub-broker in transactions involving initial transfers of $28,358,668.09 though, and in connection with those transactions, Cianna was a subsequent transferee of $21,722,518.98.

Several years into the case, the Trustee obtained a partial summary judgment finding that the transfers of $48,812,882.24 from the Debtors to Ruthven were fraudulent transfers avoidable under Bankruptcy Code section 548(a)(1)(A), but also finding that genuine issues of material fact remained as to Ruthven’s “value and good faith” defense under section 548(c). Ultimately, the Trustee settled with the Ruth-ven Defendants [in exchange for certain assets and consideration, which cannot be enumerated here because of a confidentiality provision in the settlement agreement] (the “Settlement Consideration”), [redacted] Cianna took the position before the District Court that pursuant to section 550(d), at least some portion of the Settlement Consideration must be allocated to reduce the Trustee’s claims against Cian-na.

On June 28, 2016, the Honorable Jane Boyle, United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas entered an Order of Reference2 referring'three matters to this Court for determination so that the parties could be ready for trial. Specifically, this Court was asked to determine (1) whether there is truly an issue of single satisfaction/double recovery under 11 U. S.C. § 550(d), and if so, (2) the value of [the remaining unvalued portion of] the Settlement Consideration, and (3) how much of the total Settlement Consideration should be allocated as recovery from the Ruthven Defendants. To address these issues, the Court first accepted briefing from the parties and held a hearing to address the legal issue of whether section 550(d) is applicable under these circumstances, and if so, what evidence would be required to determine the impact of the Settlement Consideration on the amount potentially recoverable from Cianna. On August 9, 2016, the Court issued an oral ruling finding that section 550(d) is implicated and specifying what evidence the Court would need from the parties to determine the proper application of section [190]*190550(d).3 After receiving briefing on the remaining evidentiary issues, holding a hearing on October 24 and 25, 2016, and receiving post-trial briefing from the parties, the Court took this matter under advisement and now issues its ruling making the remaining determinations that have been requested by the District Court.

I. JURISDICTION

This Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334(b). The defendants obtained withdrawal of the reference, but the determinations in this ruling were specifically referred to this Court by District Court Judge Boyle. Because the determinations made in this ruling will not result in a judgment or a final order, this Court believes it may enter a ruling as opposed to proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(c)(1). See, e.g., West v. Peterson (In re Noram Res., Inc.), No. 11-3598, 2012 WL 2571154, at *1, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 2991, at *3-4 (Bankr. S.D. Tex. July 2, 2012) (“This Court may not issue a final order or judgment in matters that are within the exclusive authority of Article III courts. The Court may, however, issue interlocutory orders, even in proceedings in which the Court does not have authority to issue a final judgment. A partial summary judgment is an interlocutory motion, and the constitutional limitations on the Court’s authority to enter final judgments are not implicated.”) (citations omitted); see also Ball v. Soundview Composite Ltd. (In re Soundview Elite Ltd.), 543 B.R. 78, 98-99 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2016) (same).4

II. LEGAL RULING

The legal question before the Court is whether there is an issue of single satisfaction under Bankruptcy Code section 550(d) in this adversary proceeding given the Trustee’s settlement with the Ruthven Defendants. Stated slightly differently, the Court must determine what impact, if any, the Trustee’s receipt of the Settlement Consideration has on the remaining claims against Cianna.

Section 550(a) gives a trustee broad recovery powers once a transfer has been avoided, allowing him to recover the property transferred or the value of such property from either an initial transferee or a subsequent transferee. For example, if a debtor transfers $100 to A, and A transfers $50 of that $100 to B, the trustee would have a claim for $100 against A as an initial transferee and a claim for $50 against B as a subsequent transferee. This obviously presents the danger of a trustee recovering more than a debtor transferred, which brings us to the “single satisfaction rule.”

Section 550(d) of the Bankruptcy Code states: “The trustee is entitled to only a single satisfaction under subsection (a) of this section.” The purpose of this rule is to prevent the trustee from recovering more than he should, but the trustee is still entitled to a full satisfaction. See Kapila v. Suntrust Mortg. (In re Pearlman), 515 B.R. 887, 896 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2014) (“This ‘single satisfaction rule’ seeks to limit the trustee to a single recovery for his or her fraudulent transfer claim to ensure the bankruptcy estate is put back in its pre-transfer position but receives no windfall through the avoidance provisions.”). This statutory language sounds [191]*191relatively straightforward, but the case currently before the Court. presents two distinct challenges to application of the single satisfaction rule.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
581 B.R. 185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/segner-v-ruthven-oil-gas-llc-in-re-provident-royalties-llc-txnb-2017.