Lurie v. Blackwell

• Decision Date: 18 July 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-212.,01-212.
• Citation: 2002 WY 110,51 P.3d 846
• Parties: Nancy LURIE, Appellant (Intervenor/Third Party Claimant), v. Robert J. BLACKWELL, in his capacity as Liquidating Trustee of the Popkin & Stern Liquidating Trust, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

51 P.3d 846

2002 WY 110

Nancy LURIE, Appellant (Intervenor/Third Party Claimant), v. Robert J. BLACKWELL, in his capacity as Liquidating Trustee of the Popkin & Stern Liquidating Trust, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 01-212.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

July 18, 2002.

Stephen L. Simonton of Simonton and Simonton, Cody, WY, Representing Appellant.

Colin M. Simpson of Simpson, Kepler & Edwards, LLC, the Cody, Wyoming Division of Burg, Simpson, Eldredge, Hersch and Jardine, P.C., Cody, WY, Representing Appellee.

Before HILL, C.J., and GOLDEN, LEHMAN,¹ KITE, and VOIGT, JJ.

VOIGT, Justice.

[¶ 1] In 1978, Ronald U. Lurie and Nancy Lurie, husband and wife, of St. Louis, Missouri, purchased a bronze sculpture from a Missouri art dealer. At some point, the Luries sent the sculpture to a Cody, Wyoming, studio "to be sold," and the Luries later moved to Montana. In 2001, Robert Blackwell, a Missouri bankruptcy trustee, sought to execute his Missouri bankruptcy judgment against the sculpture in Wyoming, the judgment having been entered only against Ronald U. Lurie. Nancy Lurie sought to quash the execution, claiming that title to the sculpture was held as a tenancy by the entirety and therefore exempt from execution to satisfy a judgment entered solely against her husband. The district court ruled in favor of Robert Blackwell. We reverse.

ISSUES

[¶ 2] Nancy Lurie, as appellant, phrases the issues as follows:

1. Does Wyoming prohibit tenancies-by-the-entirety for the kinds of tangible personal property which may be owned without recorded documents of title?

2. If there is a conflict between Wyoming and Missouri law on the recognition of tenancies by the entirety, should not Wyoming continue to follow the principle that the owners' interest is determined by the law of the state of the owner's domicile at the time the property was acquired, absent contrary dealings in the property in this state by the owners?

3. If not, does the third party non-debtor owner have standing to object to improper issuance of a writ of execution?

Robert Blackwell, as appellee, essentially frames his arguments in the context of the issues raised by Nancy Lurie.

FACTS

[¶ 3] Ronald U. Lurie and Nancy Lurie are husband and wife, and were so in 1978. In September 1978, a St. Louis, Missouri, art dealer sold the Luries "Lack of Slack," a bronze sculpture by Harry Jackson, for $6,500.00. The seller's affidavit states that he sold the sculpture to "Ron and Nancy Lurie," and an accompanying bill of sale refers to the buyers as "Mr. & Mrs. Ron Lurie" with a St. Louis, Missouri, address. There is some indication from the information and addresses contained in the record that the Luries later moved to Montana, where they presently reside. In 1994, the Luries sent the sculpture to the Harry Jackson Studio in Cody, Wyoming, "to have it sold," and the record does not indicate any intent by the Luries for the sculpture to remain in Wyoming on a more permanent basis. Nancy Lurie states that she has not "conveyed, waived or otherwise conceded her ownership interest in the [sculpture], nor has there been any agreement conveying, waiving or terminating the ownership in tenancy by the entirety."

[¶ 4] In April 1995, a judgment was recorded in the Fifth Judicial District Court of Park County, Wyoming. The judgment, arising from a Missouri bankruptcy proceeding, had been entered in favor of Robert Blackwell, the bankruptcy trustee, against Ronald U. Lurie for $1,121,743.00, plus interest. On March 22, 2001, a Writ of Execution issued from the Wyoming district court, and the Park County Sheriff's office subsequently seized the "Lack of Slack" sculpture at the Harry Jackson Studio in Cody. As of May 14, 2001, the referenced judgment remained unsatisfied in the amount of $745,275.78, which judgment continues to accrue interest.

[¶ 5] Nancy Lurie petitioned to intervene as a third-party claimant and quash the Writ of Execution, essentially arguing that Robert Blackwell could not execute the judgment against the sculpture in Wyoming because Nancy Lurie and Ronald U. Lurie held title to the sculpture as tenants by the entirety. She also attacked the finality of the recorded judgment. Robert Blackwell countered that Nancy Lurie had no standing to attack the sufficiency of the recorded judgment, that the Luries were now residents of Montana, which does not recognize tenancies by the entirety, and that in the alternative, the record is insufficient to overcome Wyoming law's presumption against tenancies by the entirety. Neither party asserts that the conveyance at issue in this case implicates the Uniform Commercial Code.

[¶ 6] After a hearing on Nancy Lurie's petition, the district court found that (1) Nancy Lurie did not have standing to question the sufficiency of the recorded judgment; (2) Montana does not recognize tenancies by the entirety; (3) had the original transaction occurred in Wyoming, the Luries "would not be able to qualify their purchase of this property as a tenancy by the entireties;" and (4) pursuant to the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 259, the interests of a third-party creditor in marital personal property are determined using the law of the state where the personal property was located "when the interest is claimed to have been acquired," and Wyoming law applies because the sculpture was in Wyoming at the time the judgment was obtained and when the instant action was commenced. The district court concluded:

To grant [Nancy Lurie's] petition would be to give greater protection than Wyoming residents enjoy to a non-resident who bought property in another state and who cannot obtain this protection under the laws of the state where she now resides. I am not persuaded that such a result would be in the interests of the State of Wyoming.

Nancy Lurie requested that the district court reconsider its ruling in light of further information regarding the referenced Restatement section. The district court denied this request, and Nancy Lurie filed a timely appeal from the order denying her verified petition to quash the Writ of Execution.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 7] The facts contained in the record are essentially undisputed; this appeal presents an issue of law which we review de novo, without affording deference to the district court's decision. Worcester v. State, 2001 WY 82, ¶ 13, 30 P.3d 47, 52 (Wyo.2001); Board of County Com'rs of County of Platte v. State ex rel. Yeadon, 971 P.2d 129, 131 (Wyo.1998).

DISCUSSION

[¶ 8] Given the particular circumstances of this case, wherein it is undisputed that the sale of the "Lack of Slack" sculpture occurred in Missouri (the record does not indicate that the sculpture was located anywhere but Missouri at the time the Luries acquired an interest in it) and that the Luries were domiciled in Missouri at the time they purchased the sculpture, we look to Missouri law to determine the effect of the conveyance of an interest in the sculpture to the Luries. Succinctly stated, the "nature of interests conveyed" in personal property is frequently "determined by the law of the state where the chattel is situated at the time of the conveyance," and "title to personal property acquired under the law of one state where the chattel is situated will be recognized in another state into which the chattel is taken." 16 Am.Jur.2d Conflict of Laws §§ 55, 56 (1998). See, e.g., Pruitt Truck & Implement Co. v. Ferguson, 216 Ark. 848, 227 S.W.2d 944, 945 (1950)

.

[¶ 9] Although we need not expressly adopt the applicable Restatement sections, we note that this approach appears to be consistent with the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws §§ 244, 247 (1971), which sections provide:

§ 244. Validity and Effect of Conveyance of Interest in Chattel

(1) The validity and effect of a conveyance of an interest in a chattel as between the parties to the conveyance are determined by the local law of the state which, with respect to the particular issue, has the most significant relationship to the parties, the chattel and the conveyance under the principles stated in § 6.²

(2) In the absence of an effective choice of law by the parties, greater weight will usually be given to the location of the chattel, or group of chattels, at the time of the conveyance than to any other contact in determining the state of the applicable law.

§ 247. Moving Chattel into Another State: Effect on Title

Interests in a chattel are not affected by the mere removal of the chattel to another state. Such interests, however, may be affected by dealings with the chattel in the other state.

(Emphasis added.) Indeed, Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, supra, § 247 cmt. a states:

a. Rationale. Commercial convenience and the needs of international and interstate relations alike require that interests in a chattel should not be affected simply by its removal from one state to another. An interest having once been acquired by the local law of the state where the chattel was at the time the interest was acquired will be recognized by a state into which the chattel is subsequently taken. This is so even though no such interest would have been acquired in the latter state if the chattel had been there at the time of the conveyance or other transaction. Conversely, no interest is acquired in a chattel upon its removal to a second state merely because such an interest would have arisen under the local law of the second state if a particular transaction which occurred prior to the chattel's removal to the state had taken place after the chattel had been removed there.

Illustration:

1. A conveys to B a chattel which is at the time in state X. A and B are both domiciled in X and X is the state of the applicable law under the rule of § 244. By the local law of X, B became absolute owner of the chattel. B subsequently takes the chattel to state Y under whose local law the conveyance would have given B only a security interest in the chattel. The mere removal

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