Wood v. Holiday Mobile Home Resorts, Inc.

625 P.2d 337, 128 Ariz. 274, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 702
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 26, 1980
Docket1 CA-CIV 4591
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 625 P.2d 337 (Wood v. Holiday Mobile Home Resorts, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wood v. Holiday Mobile Home Resorts, Inc., 625 P.2d 337, 128 Ariz. 274, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 702 (Ark. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

JACOBSON, Acting Presiding Judge.

The basic issue in this appeal is whether the trial court, upon an advisory jury’s findings, properly ordered the dissolution of a limited partnership, and an accounting.

The facts surrounding this litigation and the various assertions of the various parties are complex and involved. This action was commenced by plaintiffs-appellees, R. Dixon Wood and Don W. Heiple (hereinafter referred to as “limited partners”), against defendant-appellant, Holiday Mobile Homes Resorts, Inc. (Holiday Mobile) and Wilfred O. Dunkel (Dunkel), seeking a dissolution and an accounting of a limited partnership known as Holiday Isle Mobile Home Park (Holiday Isle) and an adjudication of the rights of the various parties to the assets of Holiday Isle.

The defendants, Holiday Mobile and Dunkel, filed counterclaims in that action, which were subsequently dismissed by way of summary judgment. The counterclaims were based upon allegations of intentional interference with contractual relationships.

After a timely request for findings of fact and conclusions of law, the matter was tried to the court with an advisory jury. The advisory jury returned a verdict in favor of the limited partners and declared that the partnership should be dissolved and that there should be an accounting. Following the jury’s verdict, the trial court ordered an accounting and took under advisement the jury’s verdict as to dissolution. The limited partners then made an application for attorneys’ fees, which was denied.

The limited partners, following the jury’s verdict, applied for the appointment of a special master to conduct the accounting and for the appointment of a receiver. While the trial court, by minute entry, granted those motions, no further action was taken by the trial court for the appointment of a receiver. The trial court did, however, appoint J. Frank Sergent, a C.P.A. recommended by the defendants, to conduct an accounting.

Subsequently, Mr. Sergent submitted an audit report which was the subject of an in-chambers hearing before the trial judge on September 5,1978. At that hearing, the limited partners submitted proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, a proposed judgment and objections to the Sergent audit report. The court took no action on these matters at that hearing, except that the trial judge did announce his intention to order the dissolution of the limited partnership as requested by the limited partners.

Subsequently, on September 6, 1978, the defendants lodged a proposed form of judgment with the trial court which was immediately signed, without hearing and without any findings of fact or conclusions of law being entered. Although the limited partners objected to portions of the Sergent audit report which they contended were beyond the scope of the audit, the trial court denied them a hearing on these objections. Nevertheless, in the September 6, 1978, judgment signed by the trial judge and submitted by the defendant, the Sergent report was “approved by the Court.”

The limited partners then filed objections to the defendant’s form of judgment, a motion to amend judgment, and a motion to make additional findings. Without hearing, the trial judge denied all the limited partners’ objections and motions.

The defendants then filed their notice of appeal and the limited partners their cross-appeal. While the trial court’s judgment has ordered dissolution of the limited partnership, no receiver has been appointed. This court is unaware of: how the trial court treated the Sergent audit report except that it was “approved”; whether various legal contentions of the parties have been ruled upon by the trial court; and whether the trial court’s judgment has disposed of all the legal issues presented by the parties. Apparently, the defendant has continued the active management of the limited partnership assets since the trial of this matter.

*277 Simply by way of preface, the judges of this court, in their appellate experience, have not seen a more complete abrogation of judicial responsibility than is presented by the trial judge’s inaction in this case. This matter was simply allowed to drift in spite of a trial and the fact finding efforts of the advisory jury.

The facts show that the Holiday Isle limited partnership was formed in 1964, with the corporation, Holiday Mobile, as the general partner and various individuals as limited partners. Holiday Isle was to own and manage a mobile home park in Tucson, Arizona. The mobile home park was financed by Western Savings & Loan Association, which took a mortgage on the limited partnership real property.

The general partner, Holiday Mobile, at this time also controlled two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Holiday Spa, Inc. and Holiday Village, Inc. These wholly-owned subsidiaries owned and operated mobile home parks in Maricopa County.

Under the articles of partnership, Holiday Mobile, as the general partner, was to be responsible for the overall management and supervision of the mobile home park “all without fee; provided, however, that the general partner shall be reimbursed for any actual costs or expenses incurred in performing these tasks,” such actual costs and expenses to be a partnership expense.

Moreover, the articles of partnership required the general partner to provide the limited partners with a detailed monthly accounting and to provide an annual audit prepared by a certified public accountant. These reports had not been provided for some 10 years prior to this litigation.

Almost immediately following the formation of the limited partnership, financial difficulties were encountered. The mortgage holder threatened foreclosure and in 1966 the limited partnership was placed in a state receivership. In 1971, a former stockholder of Holiday Mobile petitioned to place that corporation into federal bankruptcy proceedings under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act. Holiday Mobile consented to these proceedings and David Roberts was appointed as trustee of Holiday Mobile. As such trustee, Mr. Roberts undertook the management of Holiday Isle, the limited partnership.

At this point, the defendant Dunkel entered the scene. Dunkel is the chairman of the board, president, and owner of a majority of the stock in two corporations, Consolidated Security Corporation, a holding company, and National Mobile Development Company, a company which owns and manages several mobile home parks in Arizona and elsewhere.

Dunkel made a proposal to the trustee in bankruptcy whereby he would provide the trustee with a $1,200,000 letter of credit issued by First National Bank of Arizona, which was secured by a pledge of stock owned by Dunkel, and $50,000 cash to liquidate or bring current all of Holiday Mobile’s debts. In return, Consolidated Security Corporation was to receive 66% of all of the common stock of Holiday Mobile and was to acquire mortgages on all the real property owned by Holiday Mobile and “its subsidiaries.”

The Dunkel proposal was accepted by the trustee and subsequently approved by the referee in bankruptcy and the federal district court. As the result of this transaction, Dunkel not only received a mortgage from Holiday Mobile on the real property owned by it and its subsidiaries, Holiday Spa, Inc.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
625 P.2d 337, 128 Ariz. 274, 1980 Ariz. App. LEXIS 702, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wood-v-holiday-mobile-home-resorts-inc-arizctapp-1980.