Stokes v. Jackson County Mem'l Park


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Docket Number: 2009-CA-00016-COA
Oral Argument: 01-21-2010
 

 

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Court of Appeals: Opinion Link
Opinion Date: 06-29-2010
Opinion Author: Irving, J.
Holding: Reversed, rendered and remanded

Additional Case Information: Topic: Receivership - Priority status - Real party in interest
Judge(s) Concurring: King, C.J., Lee and Myers, P.JJ., Griffis, Barnes, Roberts and Maxwell, JJ.
Non Participating Judge(s): Ishee, J.
Dissenting Author : Carlton, J., dissents without separate written opinion.
Procedural History: Bench Trial
Nature of the Case: CIVIL - OTHER

Trial Court: Date of Trial Judgment: 11-21-2008
Appealed from: Jackson County Chancery Court
Judge: D. Neil Harris
Disposition: CLAIM AGAINST RECEIVERSHIP DENIED
Case Number: 14,716

  Party Name: Attorney Name:   Brief(s) Available:
Appellant: Angela Stokes




SHANNON ADELE LADNER, RUSSELL S. GILL



 
  • Appellant #1 Brief

  • Appellee: County Memorial Park, Jamie R. Dent and Jackson County Memorial Park Perpetual Care Trust Fund HENRY P. PATE III, JAMES H. HEIDELBERG, JOSEPH Q. WHITE JR.  
    Appellee #2:  

    Synopsis provided by:

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    Topic: Receivership - Priority status - Real party in interest

    Summary of the Facts: Following a motor vehicle accident with Bonny Wilson, Angela Stokes obtained a default judgment in the amount of $525,000 against Wilson and against Nell Morgan d/b/a Jackson County Memorial Gardens Cemetery. This judgment was promptly enrolled among the land records of Jackson County. A little over a year after Stokes enrolled the judgment against Morgan, a cemetery owned by Morgan became insolvent and went into receivership. Stokes filed a claim in the receivership action, contending that as a result of her having enrolled her judgment against Morgan, a lien had attached to all property owned by Morgan. Stokes further argued that any of Morgan’s property that was seized or otherwise acquired in the receivership was acquired or seized subject to her judgment lien. A little over three months after the cemetery went into receivership, Morgan quitclaimed unto the Chancery Clerk of Jackson County “for purposes of that interpleader action [the receivership] filed in Jackson County Chancery Court” all of her interest in the cemetery as well as her interest in the unplatted portion of the tract of land out of which the cemetery had been platted. The entire tract, including the platted and unplatted parts, is comprised of 22.7 acres. The chancellor denied Stokes’s claim. Stokes appeals.

    Summary of Opinion Analysis: The chancellor erred in refusing to accord priority status to the claim filed by Stokes in the receivership action. Neither Memorial Park nor Memorial Gardens is a corporation. Therefore, neither was, or could be, a real party in interest, as neither owned, or could own, any interest in the real property that Morgan quitclaimed in conjunction with the interpleader or receivership action. According to the parties, there are platted but unsold burial plots in Memorial Park. The existence of these plots, however, does not make the cemetery a real party in interest, because, as stated, an unincorporated cemetery cannot own real property or, for that matter, anything else. Unsold burial plots in a cemetery are owned by the person or entity that owns and administers the operation of the cemetery. In this case, that person was Morgan. Therefore, in the judgment rendered by the circuit court, the doing-business-as Memorial Gardens language that follows Morgan’s name does not transform the judgment into a judgment against Memorial Gardens to the exclusion of Morgan. The judgment is against Morgan, and after it was properly enrolled, it, by operation of law, effectuated a lien against all unexempt real property that Morgan owned.


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