Treadwell v. Glenstone Lodge, Inc. (In Re Treadwell)

411 B.R. 636, 2009 Bankr. LEXIS 1507, 2009 WL 1706010
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 16, 2009
Docket19-40230
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 411 B.R. 636 (Treadwell v. Glenstone Lodge, Inc. (In Re Treadwell)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Treadwell v. Glenstone Lodge, Inc. (In Re Treadwell), 411 B.R. 636, 2009 Bankr. LEXIS 1507, 2009 WL 1706010 (Mo. 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ARTHUR B. FEDERMAN, Bankruptcy Judge.

Debtors Larry and Carole Treadwell filed this adversary proceeding to avoid Defendant Glenstone Lodge, Inc.’s judicial lien on their home. Glenstone Lodge filed a Counterclaim against the Debtors, seeking a determination that the Debtors’ debt to it is nondischargeable under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2), (a)(4), and (a)(6). This is a core proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I) over which the Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334(b), 157(a), and 157(b)(1). For the reasons that follow, judgment will be entered in favor of the Debtors as to both the lien avoidance and the nondischargeability action.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Larry and Carole Treadwell are equal owners in a travel agency business known as Memory Travel. As part of that business, Carole Treadwell organizes trips for groups of people, such as one-day bus excursions to area casinos and occasional cruises for small groups of people. In April 2005, Carole began organizing a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which she referred to as the “Tennessee Redhatters 2006 Spring Event,” which was to occur in April of the following year. The Red Hat Society, Inc. (the “Red Hat Society”) is a corporation with social chapters, primarily for women over age fifty, which organizes events and gatherings for its members around the country. Although Carole advertised the trip to members of the Red Hat Society, and she used the corporation’s logos on her advertisements and correspondence, the trip was not officially *641 sanctioned by the Red Hat Society. 1

As she began to put the trip together, Carole contacted the Gatlinburg Department of Tourism in April 2005 to assist her in finding appropriate lodging and meeting space for the event. The Department of Tourism sent out a Sales Lead to hotels with facilities capable of accommodating the group, including Glenstone Lodge. After receiving the Sales Lead, Glenstone Lodge’s Director of Sales at the time, Claudette Geoffrion, contacted Carole with a proposal for accommodations. Carole and Claudette communicated for the following several months as to the number of sleeping rooms and in making arrangements for various activities to occur during the weekend event.

On June 24, 2005, Claudette and Carole each signed an initial Rooms Contract for a total of 150 rooms over the course of April 20 to April 23, 2006. The Rooms Contract required Carole to pay a $250 deposit when the Contract was signed, which she paid. The Contract further required that the first night’s room and tax deposit be paid when Carole submitted the rooming list (a list of rooms, with the names of the ladies staying in each room), which was due by March 31, 2006, and that the balance be paid at check-in. The trip included lodging, organized breakfasts with entertainment, a Hawaiian luau, and a 50’s-style sock hop dinner banquet, all at the lodge. It also included day trips and an off-site group lunch in Gatlinburg. Carole made all of the arrangements for the lodging, food, and entertainment. The ladies purchased the trips from Carole, selecting the type of room they wanted and the events they wished to attend. Carole stated on more than one occasion to Glenstone Lodge during the organizational process that the ladies were to book and pay for the trip through her, rather than booking and paying for their rooms individually. Carole would then pay Glen-stone Lodge. The advertised trip proved to be very popular with the Red Hat ladies such that, by the time of the trip, Carole had booked approximately 429 room nights at the Lodge over the course of the long weekend of April 20 to 23.

By all accounts, the event was highly successful. The Treadwells stated at the time, and still state, that they were extremely satisfied with Glenstone Lodge’s services. The Treadwells approved all charges for lodging and services at the Lodge.

Although the contract had required the Treadwells to pay a deposit for the first night’s rooms three weeks prior to the event, and to pay the balance at check-in, they did not do so. In fact, the Treadwells left the Glenstone Lodge on either Sunday, April 23, or Monday, April 24, 2006, without checking out at the front desk or notifying anyone of their departure, and without paying for any of the charges, except for the initial $250 deposit. The charges totaled over $60,000.

On Monday, April 24, upon discovering that the Treadwells had left without paying the tab, Glenstone Lodge’s employees immediately began attempts to contact them for payment. Carole finally responded to an e-mail on about April 26, at which time Carole stated that she had turned over the bill to her bookkeeper, indicating that she would pay it after some minor adjustments were made to the bill. Glen-stone Lodge was extremely anxious for payment because it could not make its *642 payroll that Friday without it. On April 26, 2006, as partial payment, Carole Tread-well issued a check from the Treadwell Family Revocable Living Trust’s bank account 2 to Glenstone Lodge, in the amount of $20,000, and overnighted it to the Lodge. However, Glenstone Lodge did not receive the check the following day. As a result, on or about April 27, Carole arranged for her bank to wire $15,000 to the Lodge, with the promise of a $5,000 check to immediately follow. After Glen-stone Lodge did not receive the promised $5,000 check, it attempted to cash the $20,000 check, but Carole had issued a stop payment on it when she wired the $15,000.

Carole testified at trial that she did not have the money to pay the bill at Glen-stone Lodge. She had collected some prepayments and deposits from the ladies in the months prior to the event, but she had used all of that money by end of the event to pay for the entertainers, the lunch in Gatlinburg, and other costs associated with the event. She also candidly admitted that she had used $9,850 of the deposits and prepayments for her mother’s burial expenses in January 2006. She had hoped to collect enough money at the actual event, from the ladies who had not pre-paid, to pay Glenstone Lodge’s bill. However, as discussed more fully below, Carole knew long before the event that she had underestimated the costs associated with the trip, such that the price she charged the ladies for their individual bookings would not be enough to cover her costs. Consequently, in addition to collecting payment from the ladies for this event, Carole testified that she was counting on revenues coming in from people at the Lodge booking possible future events. As it turned out, Carole collected only about $20,000 during the actual 2006 Spring Event, which she deposited into the Treadwell Family Trust account when she returned home from Gatlinburg. Ultimately, only about $15,000 of those deposits cleared. Those deposits were the source of the $15,000 wire to Glenstone Lodge.

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411 B.R. 636, 2009 Bankr. LEXIS 1507, 2009 WL 1706010, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/treadwell-v-glenstone-lodge-inc-in-re-treadwell-mowb-2009.