Sherron Associates Loan Fund XXI (Lacey) L.L.C. v. Thomas (In re Parks)

503 B.R. 820, 2013 WL 6670546, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 5290
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedDecember 18, 2013
DocketBankruptcy No. 12-44011; Adversary No. 13-04026
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 503 B.R. 820 (Sherron Associates Loan Fund XXI (Lacey) L.L.C. v. Thomas (In re Parks)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sherron Associates Loan Fund XXI (Lacey) L.L.C. v. Thomas (In re Parks), 503 B.R. 820, 2013 WL 6670546, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 5290 (Wash. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

PAUL B. SNYDER, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter came before the Court on October 24, 2013, on cross motions for summary judgment filed by plaintiff Sher-ron Associates Loan Fund XXI (Lacey) L.L.C. (Sherron Associates) and defendant Margaret Thomas (Thomas). At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court took the matter under advisement. Based on the arguments and pleadings presented, the order of the Court is as follows:

The basic facts are not in dispute. Barrett Parks (Debtor) and Michael Weinand (Weinand) were members of South Sound Property Development, L.L.C., (South [823]*823Sound Property), which was engaged in the construction and development of an office building on Woodland Square Loop located in Lacey, Washington. Weinand held 67% of the interests in South Sound Property. The Debtor held 33% of the interests.1

In 2007, to commence its office building project, South Sound Property initially obtained financing in two ways: a $693,000 loan from Sherron Associates, and a loan from Cascade Bank for over $12 million. As part of the collateral for the Cascade Bank loan, Weinand convinced his sister Margaret Thomas to pledge a one million dollar investment account that she had with Weinand (who was also a financial advisor).

The project initially ran into cost overruns and other problems. South Sound Property defaulted on the loan from Cascade Bank. After pressure from Cascade Bank to secure alternate financing, Weinand withdrew $609,144 of the funds in Thomas’s investment account that had been pledged as collateral for use on the project and deposited them in South Sound Property’s account at Cascade Bank. South Sound Property was also in default on its loan from Sherron Associates. After Cascade Bank commenced foreclosure and receivership proceedings in state court, South Sound Property filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 21, 2009. See In re South Sound Property Development, L.L.C., Case No. 09-43633 (Bankr.W.D. Wash, filed May 21, 2009).

South Sound Property’s bankruptcy schedules listed both Thomas and Sherron Associates as creditors, with Sherron Associates owed a secured debt of $693,000 and Thomas owed an unsecured debt of $609,644. From the beginning of the bankruptcy, South Sound Property faced strong opposition from Cascade Bank. Several motions were filed in opposition to the reorganization, starting with the initial request to use cash collateral (Thomas’s pledged funds were in the Cascade bank account), and Cascade Bank filed an early motion to dismiss the bankruptcy on the grounds South Sound Property would be unable to reorganize. An order granting Cascade Bank relief from stay was eventually entered in South Sound Property’s bankruptcy in June 2010 after South Sound Property had been unable to obtain alternative financing. In September 2010, Cascade Bank, South Sound Property and Thomas reached an agreement as to the disposition of the remaining funds held in South Sound Property’s bank account at Cascade, specifically, the funds that had come from Thomas’s pledged investment account. The Court had already authorized South Sound Property to use a portion of the funds for expenses during the bankruptcy; of the approximately $421,000 remaining, a portion was allowed to pay attorney fees, $100,000 was refunded to Thomas, and Cascade Bank was allowed to realize upon the rest. Under the settlement, Thomas was released from any further liability by Cascade Bank, freeing her from her pledge to provide up to one million dollars in collateral. As part of the settlement, South Sound Property also agreed to dismiss its bankruptcy and allow a receivership to go forward. After the bankruptcy was dismissed on September 30, 2010, a receiver was appointed in state court that eventually wound down South Sound Property’s business. The underlying property was subsequently sold by [824]*824Cascade Bank in a Trustee’s sale held in January 2011, and the state court action was closed after the receiver filed a final report in April 2011.

In the interim, apparently recognizing that recovery from South Sound Property was unlikely given the pending bankruptcy, Sherron Associates commenced a lawsuit against South Sound Property’s principals and the guarantors of their loan— Weinand, the Debtor, and their respective spouses — in state court in September 2009. The record does not contain detailed information as to this lawsuit, other than a judgment was entered in Sherron Associates’ favor2 against Weinand and his spouse and the Debtor and his spouse in February 2010 in the total amount of $798,919.50.3 According to Sherron Associates’ proof of claim filed in the Debtor’s case, Sherron Associates has received payments from the Debtor towards the judgment (last one in May 2012) of $117,155.01, all applied to interest, and the total judgment due as of October 2012 was $887,290.

After the Sherron Associates’ judgment was entered (and within a week of the foreclosure and sale of the South Sound Property office building), Weinand and his wife filed their personal chapter 7 bankruptcy on January 11, 2011. See In re Michael and Veronica Weinand, Case No. 11-40190 (Bankr.W.D.Wash.). Weinand scheduled Thomas and Sherron Associates as unsecured creditors, owing Thomas over $1.2 million and Sherron Associates $798,000 based on the judgment. Weinand scheduled his membership interest in South Sound Property; no action was taken as to the interests during the bankruptcy, and the interests were abandoned back to Weinand in February 2011 when the chapter 7 trustee filed his final report. Neither Thomas nor Sherron Associates appeared or participated in Weinand’s bankruptcy, and the Weinands received a discharge on April 20, 2011.

With South Sound Property not available for recovery and Weinand discharged on the debt, Thomas commenced a state court action in May 2011 against the Debt- or based on his personal guarantee to Thomas. Thomas’s husband, Jeff Thomas, appears to have managed the state court litigation, and the Thomases calculated that they were owed over $1.4 million on the funds she had pledged to South Sound Property, based on 5% interest being applied to the entire $1 million pledged from the date of their September 2007 agreement to pledge the funds, and 20% interest applied to the $609,460 in funds that were actually withdrawn.4 The Thomases’ calculation of damages notes only one payment on the debt of $100,000 in October 2010.

The settlement of the Thomas v. Parks lawsuit that is the subject of this action was executed in October 2011, and the overall resolution was that the Debtor settled with Thomas for $600,000 to resolve the claims in Thomas’s lawsuit (Settlement Agreement). The Debtor was to pay Thomas $155,000 upon the execution of the Settlement Agreement, with monthly payments of $5,000 per month thereafter for the first 36 months and then equal month[825]*825ly installment payments of the remaining balance over the next 36 months. Further, to secure payment of the Settlement Agreement, the Debtor’s obligations were secured by his stock of Penser North America, Inc. (Penser), in which he was the majority owner. As part of the agreement, several of the Debtor’s shares were sold to co-owner Phillip Valdens (Valdens) so that the Debtor now holds 49 shares and Valdens holds 51 shares, with two of Valdens’s shares securing the Debtor’s settlement payments to Thomas.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
503 B.R. 820, 2013 WL 6670546, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 5290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sherron-associates-loan-fund-xxi-lacey-llc-v-thomas-in-re-parks-wawb-2013.