Bentley v. Bentley

385 So.3d 26

Richard W. BENTLEY

v.James Randall BENTLEY

Richard W. Bentley

v.Leslie Bentley

SC-2022-0522 and SC-2022-0526

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 21, 2023

John A. Daugherty, Vestavia Hills, for appellant.

Trent Lowry of Griffith, Lowry & Meherg, LLC, Cullman, for appellee James Randall Bentley.

Jonathan E. Lyerly, Birmingham, for appellee Leslie Bentley.

COOK, Justice.

These consolidated appeals arise from a dispute between Richard W. Bentley and his brother, James Randall Bentley ("Ran- dy"), and from a dispute between Richard and his ex-wife, Leslie-Bentley.

In case no. CV-19-7, an action concerning the administration of the estate of Richard and Randy’s father, Dedrick William Bentley ("the estate action"), Richard, as coexecutor of Dedrick’s estate, asserted cross-claims against Randy, as the other coexecutor of the estate. Richard sought, among other things, the return of certain real property previously owned by their parents to Dedrick’s estate and sought to eject Randy from that property. Randy filed a motion for a summary judgment on those cross-claims, which was granted by the circuit court. Although the circuit court certified its partial summary judgment as final pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., that certification was improper, and therefore Richard's appeal from the partial summary judgment (appeal no. SC-2022-0522) is due to be dismissed.

In case no. CV-20-900058 ("the fraudulent-transfer action"), Leslie sued Richard in the circuit court, seeking to set aside, pursuant to the Alabama Fraudulent Transfer Act ("the AFTA"), § 8-9A-1 et seq., Ala. Code 1975, the allegedly fraudulent transfer of. assets that Richard had obtained or inherited from Dedrick’s estate to a trust that Richard had created. Leslie filed a motion for a summary judgment, which was granted by the circuit court, and Richard appealed (appeal no. SC-2022-0526). For the reasons stated below, we affirm the circuit court’s judgment in that case.

Facts and Procedural History

Richard and Randy are the sons of Dedrick and his wife, Betty Chatham Bentley. On June 22, 1998, Dedrick and Betty executed a warranty deed transferring ownership of the real property on which their residence was located ("the Bentley property") to Randy. Dedrick and Betty retained a life estate in the Bentley property. Richard alleges that Dedrick and Betty deeded the Bentley property to Randy because they were concerned about losing the property if it became necessary for Betty to be admitted to a nursing home but that Betty died without ever being admitted to a nursing home. According to Richard, Randy had made an agreement with Dedrick to transfer the Bentley property back to Dedrick if Betty predeceased him. Randy denies the allegation that he had agreed to return the Bentley property, and he contends that there is no evidence of a written agreement to that effect.

On February 1, 2017, Dedrick executed a will that contained the following pertinent provision:

"My wife, Betty Chatham Bentley, who is currently deceased, conveyed to our son, James Randall Bentley, our home located at:

"[address and description of the Bentley property]

"My wife and I retained a life estate in the above conveyance which was executed on June 22, 1998 and recorded on June 22, 1998 in the Cullman County Probate Office at Book 469 Page 61. This conveyance was made with the understanding that my son, James Randall Bentley, would convey back to me the said real property in the event his mother, Betty Chatham Bentley, should pass away.

"In the event my son, James Randall Bentley, conveys the above described real property back to me by an unencumbered general warranty deed, then upon my death I devise and bequeath all my property, whether it be personal, real or mixed equally to each of my two (2) sons, James Randal [sic] Bentley and Richard William Bentley.

"In the event my son, James Randall Bentley, refuses or fails to convey theabove, real property to me as set out above, all of my remaining property, whether it be real, personal or mixed will be devised and bequeathed to my son, Richard William Bentley."

On April 30, 2018, Dedrick executed a power of attorney in favor of Randy. Richard alleges that Randy took advantage of Dedrick’s alleged failing mental health to have his own lawyer prepare the power of attorney for Dedrick. Dedrick executed the document in the lawyer’s office in the presence of both Randy and Richard. Richard alleges that Randy then used the power of attorney to gain control over Dedrick’s bank accounts and to transfer the funds in those accounts to himself.

On May 9, 2018, Randy transferred $130,031.15 from Dedrick’s bank account to Randy’s account at a different bank. Richard alleges that this transfer was fraudulent, but Randy denies the allegation. Randy points out that the funds were in a "payable on death" account with Randy as Dedrick’s beneficiary. He contends that he transferred the funds out of the account in Dedrick’s name in an effort to assist Dedrick in qualifying for certain veteran’s benefits.

On May 21, 2018, pursuant to the power of attorney, Randy conveyed to Richard a 2003 Corvette automobile owned by Dedrick. The bill of sale reflected that Richard paid nothing for the Corvette and stated that the Corvette was a "gift from D.W. Bentley."

On May 22, 2018, Richard executed a document titled the "Richard W. Bentley Trust of 2018," pursuant to which he purported to transfer the Corvette, as well as any assets he might inherit from Dedrick’s estate, into that trust. Richard named a friend, Richard Edward Morgan, Jr., as trustee.

Dedrick died on June 7, 2018. A few days later, Randy filed in the Cullman Probate Court a petition to probate a will purportedly executed by Dedrick on September 9, 1994. On October 1, 2018, Richard objected to Randy’s petition and submitted to the probate court the will that Dedrick had executed in 2017. He later petitioned the court to probate that will.

On March 15, 2019, the probate court entered an order admitting Dedrick’s 2017 will for probate and appointing both Randy and Richard as coexecutors of Dedrick’s estate over Randy’s objection. Shortly thereafter, Randy and Richard each filed a petition to remove the estate proceedings to the Cullman Circuit Court; that court granted those petitions.

On August 17, 2019, Richard filed a cross-claim against Randy in the estate action. He later amended that cross-claim and alleged, among others, claims seeking to have the Bentley property placed into a "constructive trust" or a "resulting trust" for the benefit of Dedrick’s estate and seeking to eject Randy from the Bentley property.

Leslie and Richard were divorced in 1995. Thereafter, Leslie commenced an action against Richard for past-due child support ("the child-support action") and, in 1998, 1999, and 2004, obtained several judgments against him for past-due child support. On August 29, 2018, three months after Richard established his trust and purported to transfer assets into it, the trial court in that action entered a judgment against Richard for $78,802.99, which included the total amount of child support he owed as well as attorney fees.

When Richard failed to make any payments toward the judgment entered in the child-support action, Leslie had a writ of garnishment issued against Dedrick’s estate. Leslie stated that she had learned about Richard’s trust after receiving a copy of the trust document from Randy in response to the writ of garnishment. As a result, on February 27, 2020, Leslie commenced the fraudulent-transfer action against Richard and Morgan, the trustee of Richard’s trust, in which she sought to set aside what she alleged was the fraudulent transfer of assets from Dedrick’s estate to Richard’s trust by Richard in violation of the provisions of the AFTA.

On April 24, 2020, Leslie moved to consolidate the fraudulent-transfer action with the estate action. The circuit court granted Leslie’s motion and entered an order consolidating the two actions.

Six months later, Randy filed a motion for a judgment on the pleadings or, in the alternative, for a summary judgment as to Richard’s cross-claims in the estate action seeking to have the Bentley property placed into a "constructive trust" or a "resulting trust" and seeking to eject Randy from the Bentley property. In his motion, Randy argued that he owned the Bentley property, that Dedrick had lived on the Bentley property pursuant to his life estate until his death, that he and Dedrick had both performed their obligations under the warranty deed transferring title of the Bentley property to Randy, and that Dedrick’s will anticipated that Randy would keep all of his interest in the Bentley property.

A couple of months after Randy filed his summary-judgment motion, Leslie filed her own summary-judgment motion in the fraudulent-transfer action, in which she argued that Richard had maintained possession of the Corvette that was supposedly transferred to Richard’s trust, that Richard had concealed the purported transfer of the Corvette to the trust, that Leslie had commenced the child-support action against Richard before he had purported to transfer the Corvette to the trust, and that the Corvette composed substantially all of Richard’s assets. She further argued that the purported transfer had occurred shortly before she had obtained a substantial judgment against Richard in the child-support action, that the purported transfer was made without Richard’s receiving a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfer, and that Richard was insolvent at the time of, or as a result of, the purported transfer. Leslie therefore contended that she was entitled to relief under the AFTA.

The circuit court held a hearing on both summary-judgment motions on December 7, 2021. That same day, the circuit court entered a partial summary judgment in favor of Randy on Richard’s cross-claims seeking to have the Bentley property placed into a "constructive...