Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. R & G Produce Company

443 S.W.3d 250, 2014 WL 1266118, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 27, 2014
Docket13-12-00365-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 443 S.W.3d 250 (Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. R & G Produce Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. R & G Produce Company, 443 S.W.3d 250, 2014 WL 1266118, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3369 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by Chief Justice VALDEZ.

By one issue, appellant, Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc., appeals the trial court’s order requiring it to turn over all non-exempt property, including a cause of action that the trial court determined Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. had asserted in federal court in South Carolina. Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. argues that the trial court abused its discretion because appellee, R & G Produce Company (R & G), did not present “competent and admissible evidence” that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. was the owner of the cause of action subject to the order. We affirm.

I. Background

On May 28, 2008, R & G filed a cause of action against Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. for its failure to pay on a purchase of tomatoes. 1 After several amend *253 ments, R & G asserted causes of action for breach of contract, violations of the Theft Liability Act, joint enterprise, and negligence. Following a trial, the jury found in favor of R & G and determined that it incurred $2,332,596.44 in damages. The trial court ordered Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. to pay R & G the amount of damages found by the jury plus prejudgment interest and attorney’s fees.

On March 19, 2012, following the judgment, the trial court issued an order enjoining Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. “from dissipating or transferring assets to avoid satisfaction of the judgment.” Subsequently, Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. filed an affidavit claiming it had negative net worth. In response, on April 10, 2012, R & G filed a contest to William’s Farms Produce Sales, Inc.’s net worth affidavit. The trial court held a hearing on the affidavit and contest. After the hearing, the trial court issued an “Order Sustaining R & G Produce Company’s Contest to Judgment Debtor’s Net Worth Affidavit” in which it determined that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc.’s net worth was $2 million and ordered it to post a bond.

On April 18, 2012, R & G filed an application for turnover relief, asserting that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. had a net worth that was less than the judgment, failed to post a bond, deposit or security in compliance with the trial court’s order, and owned a cause of action in federal court in South Carolina seeking money damages from the United States government. The application requested that the cause of action be turned over if Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. failed to post a bond in compliance with the court’s order.

Subsequently, on April 26, 2012, R & G filed a “Motion for Contempt for Deliberate Violation of Court Order Prohibiting Dissipation or Transfer of Assets.” The motion alleged that the day after R & G informed Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. of its intent to file a turnover order regarding the cause of action in federal court in South Carolina, the attorney for the plaintiff in the federal case “hastily filed an amended complaint in that action (without leave of court and contrary to federal rule) in which he changed the name of the Plaintiff from WILLIAMS FARMS PRODUCE SALES, INC. to “WILLIAMS FARMS LLC.’ ” The motion claimed that when Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. amended the pleadings in the federal cause of action, it “transferred an asset (a cause of action) to avoid satisfaction of the judgment, in violation of [the trial court’s] orders and injunctions.” R & G attached eleven exhibits to its motion including, inter alia:

(1) a printout of the complaint in the federal case Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. United States of America and the United State Food And Drag Administration, No. 2: ll-cv-01399-cv, dated June 8, 2011, in which Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc., a South Carolina grower and seller of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, claimed money damages for negligence, defamation, slander of title, product/commercial disparagement, unconstitutional taking, and unfair trade practices;
(2) a printout from the website of the South Carolina Secretary of State indicating that Williams Farms of South Carolina, LLC filed as a domestic LLC on April 10, 2012. The *254 page, in the address bar, displays the URL, http://www.soc.sc.gov;
(3) an email sent from Mark Ball, attorney for the plaintiff in the federal cause of action, to R & G’s trial attorney in which Ball stated that the cause of action in question was the property of Williams Farms, LLC and that “any actions by R & G that affect this litigation orin [sic] any way adversely affect Williams Farms, LLC interest may result in liability to R & G”;
(4) a copy of the civil docket for “Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. United States of America et al” stating that it was printed from https://ecf.scd.uscourts.gov on April 26, 2012; the docket sheet indicated that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. filed its complaint in the federal case on June 8, 2012 and that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. subsequently filed a motion to modify the complaint on April 23, 2012; and,
(5) a printout of an amended complaint styled Williams Farms LLC v. United States of America and the United States Food and Drug Administration dated April 23, 2012.

On April 30, 2012, Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. filed its response to R & G’s application for turnover relief stating that it informed R & G “that in the case styled Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. v. United States of America and the United States Food And Drug Administration, ... that Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. was incorrectly named as the Plaintiff in said lawsuit. That suit has been amended.” Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. argued that, therefore, the federal case could not be “turned over because the causes of action set forth in that suit are not owned by Defendant Williams Farms.” Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc. attached a copy of the amended complaint in the federal case to its response. The amended complaint lists Williams Farms, LLC as the plaintiff and is dated April 23, 2012.

On May 1, 2012, the trial court held a hearing on R & G’s motion for contempt and application for turnover relief. At the hearing, R & G admitted into evidence the 11 exhibits that were attached to its motion for contempt as exhibits 1 through 11, along with three additional exhibits, marked 3A, 11 A, and 12. Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc.’s trial attorney objected, stating, “All of these exhibits are hearsay. None of them are authenticated. None of them are properly admissible into evidence. I’m going to object to every single one.” He further stated, “These are evidentiary hearings that must be supported by competent and admissible evidence. I still feel that the evidence that the court admitted is not admissible.” The trial court overruled the objections.

On May 4, 2012, the trial court issued an order finding that the federal cause of action was owned by appellant Williams Farms Produce Sales, Inc.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
443 S.W.3d 250, 2014 WL 1266118, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-farms-produce-sales-inc-v-r-g-produce-company-texapp-2014.