First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, N.A. v. ParkerFirst Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, N.A. v. Parker
delivered the opinion of the court:
First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, N.A. (Mid-Illinois Bank), brought this action against the defendants, Patrick A. Parker and Steven F. Gardner, to enforce guaranties
BACKGROUND
Mid-Illinois Bank
On December 13, 2007, Mid-Illinois Bank filed its complaint against Parker and Gardner to collect on guaranties of promissory notes executed by Prime Development, Inc., Pinehurst Development, LLC, and GSP Enterprises, Inc. On January 8, 2008, Mid-Illinois Bank filed a motion for a prejudgment attachment pursuant to section 4 — 101 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (
On April 18, 2008, the circuit court entered a summary judgment in favor of Mid-Illinois Bank and against Gardner and Parker on the issue of liability. On May 2, 2008, the circuit court determined damages and entered a judgment in favor of Mid-Illinois Bank for $3,524,987.36. Thereafter, the circuit court entered citation notices and citations to discover assets.
On June 6, 2008, on Mid-Illinois Bank’s application, the court entered a charging order pursuant to the Limited Liability Company Act (
On July 9, 2008, Mid-Illinois Bank filed a motion to enforce the charging order. In this motion, Mid-Illinois Bank argued that the judgment against Parker and Gardner remained unsatisfied and requested a judicial sale of the distributional interests in Four S, pursuant to the charging order entered on June 6, 2008. Mid-Illinois Bank also requested that the circuit court order Four S to identify third parties which might claim a lien in Gardner’s and Parker’s distributional interests and to require any third party so identified by Four S to appear and maintain its claim.
On August 8, 2008, the circuit court entered a supplemental order, noting that
On August 15, 2008, Four S filed a memorandum in compliance with the court’s August 8, 2008, order, identifying First Bank (First Bank v. Southcrest Development, Inc., Gardner, & Parker, No. 06— CH — 1287 (December 7, 2006)), along with MDB and Regal (MDB Electric, Inc. & Regal Sales, Inc. v. Prime Development, Inc., Gardner, & Parker, No. 06 — L—1041 (February 25, 2008)), as parties that had asserted a written claim of a lien, attachment, or garnishment on Parker’s and Gardner’s distributional interests in Four S.
First Bank
On September 19, 2008, First Bank entered its appearance and filed a statement of claim pursuant to the August 8, 2008, order. In its claim, First Bank asserted and attached exhibits showing the following.
On December 7, 2006, First Bank filed its complaint seeking a judgment against multiple defendants, including Parker and Gardner, pursuant to guaranty agreements executed on August 13, 2004. On the same date, Parker and Gardner confessed a judgment under the complaint and agreed that a judgment be entered against each of them individually for $2,050,787.77. First Bank v. Southcrest Development, Inc., Gardner, & Parker, No. 06 — CH—1287 (December 7, 2006). On February 5, 2007, the clerk of the court for Madison County issued a third-party citation to discover assets, which was served on Four S on March 29, 2007. On April 4, 2007, at a hearing on the citation (along with other citations and third-party citations), the court ordered that all previously issued citations were to remain in full force and effect.
First Bank argued that its continuing lien on the property from Four S attached on March 29, 2007, when the citation was served and thus was in priority of distribution to Mid-Illinois Bank’s lien.
MDB Electric, Inc., and Regal Sales, Inc.
On November 14, 2008, MDB and Regal filed their entries of appearance and statement of claim pursuant to the August 8, 2008, order. In their statement, MDB and Regal asserted the following.
MDB and Regal filed a lawsuit against Gardner and Parker, and on January 15, 2008, the circuit court entered a judgment, modified by a supplemental judgment on February 25, 2008, in favor of MDB and Regal and against Gardner and Parker, awarding MDB $82,272.48 and awarding Regal $18,804. MDB Electric, Inc. & Regal Sales, Inc. v. Prime Development, Inc., Gardner, & Parker, No. 06 — L—1041 (February 25, 2008). On May 23, 2008, the circuit court entered an order granting MDB’s and Regal’s motion for a charging order. The court reserved the issue of the priority of the claims of MDB, Regal, and First Bank, which had entered its appearance in the action.
Mid-Illinois Bank’s Motion for a Summary Judgment
On October 20, 2008, before MDB and Regal filed their entries of appearance and statement of claim, Mid-Illinois Bank filed a motion for a summary judgment. In this motion, Mid-Illinois Bank argued, inter alia, that a charging order entered pursuant
On January 20, 2009, MDB and Regal filed a brief in support of their statement of claim and in response to Mid-Illinois Bank’s motion for a summary judgment. In their brief, MDB and Regal also argued that
On June 1, 2009, the circuit court entered an order prioritizing the claims of Mid-Illinois Bank, First Bank, MDB, and Regal against the distributional interests of Parker and Gardner in Four S. The circuit court concluded that Mid-Illinois Bank, MDB, and Regal, having obtained charging orders, had, pursuant to statute, obtained liens against Parker’s and Gardner’s distributional interests in Four S and that First Bank, having failed to obtain a charging order, obtained no lien. The circuit court further concluded that because the Limited Liability Company Act provided that the charging order, as opposed to an attachment or enforcement procedure, constituted a lien against a member’s distributional interests, Mid-Illinois Bank’s lien was not effective as of the date of its prejudgment attachment order. Instead, the court concluded, as corrected in a June 29, 2009, order, that the priority of the liens on Parker’s and Gardner’s distributional interests in Four S was as follows: “first, MDB *** and Regal *** with equal priority, and second, *** Mid-Illinois Bank.” The court expressly found no just reason to delay the enforcement or appeal of its order (see 210 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)).
On July 28, 2009, Mid-Illinois Bank filed its notice of appeal. On July 28, 2009, First Bank also filed its notice of appeal; however, on March 3, 2010, First Bank notified this court that it did not intend to file an appellate brief in this case.
ANALYSIS
Mid-Illinois Bank claims that the circuit court improperly entered a summary judgment favoring MDB and Regal because its charging order/lien had priority over MDB’s and Regal’s charging order/lien because it related back to the prejudgment attachment order entered on January 8, 2008. MDB and Regal argue that the Limited Liability Company Act (
A summary judgment is properly granted if the pleadings, depositions, admissions, and affidavits on file show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.
“The fundamental rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and give effect to the legislature’s intent.” Burger v. Lutheran General Hospital,
“A court presumes that the legislature intended that two or more statutes which relate to the same subject are to be read harmoniously so that no provisions are rendered inoperative.” Knolls Condominium Ass’n v. Harms,
The sheriff shall summon persons mentioned in the order for the attachment as garnishees and all other persons whom the creditor shall designate as having property in their possession or power, belonging to the defendant, the same as if their names had been inserted in the order for the attachment.
“The Illinois Limited Liability Company Act ***, enacted in 1994 and codified at
“(a) On application by a judgment creditor of a member of a limited liability company or of a member’s transferee, a court having jurisdiction may charge the distributional interest of the judgment debtor to satisfy the judgment. The court may appoint a receiver of the share of the distributions due or to become due to the judgment debtor and make all other orders, directions, accounts, and inquiries the judgment debtor might have made or which the circumstances may require to give effect to the charging order.
(b) A charging order constitutes a lien on the judgment debtor’s distributional interest. The court may order a foreclosure of a lien on a distributional interest subject to the charging order at any time. A purchaser at the foreclosure sale has the rights of a transferee.
(c) [A]t any time before foreclosure, a distributional interest in a limited liability company that is charged may be redeemed:
(1) by the judgment debtor;
(2) with property other than the company’s property, by one or more of the other members; or
(3) with the company’s property, but only if permitted by the operating agreement.
(d) This Act does not affect a member’s right under exemption laws with respect to the member’s distributional interest in a limited liability company.
(e) This Section provides the exclusive remedy by which a judgment creditor of a member or a transferee may satisfy a judgment out of the judgment debtor’s distributional interest in a limited liability company.”805 ILCS 180/30 — 20 (West 2006).
“
Accordingly, a judgment creditor may not obtain a lien on the distributional interests of a limited liability company by serving the judgment debtor with a citation. In re LaHood, No. 07—81727, slip op. at 24 (Bankr. C.D. Ill. March 19, 2009); Bloink v. Olson,
Thus, the charging order, not a citation to discover assets, is the postjudgment remedy specifically tailored to obtain and enforce a lien on the economic value that flows from membership in a limited liability company. See In re LaHood, No. 07—81727, slip op. at 28-29 (Bankr. C.D. Ill. March 19, 2009). In the present case, we are asked to determine whether
With regard to the priority to be given to multiple judgment creditors, section 4 — 142 of the Code, providing for a pro rata division in the proceeds of the property attached, does not apply here because that division is limited to “judgments for the payment of money in actions for attachment against the same defendant, returnable on the same day, and all judgments in other civil cases or orders for attachment against such defendant, recovered within 30 days from the day when the judgment in the first attachment upon which judgment is recovered is entered.”
Pursuant to the plain language of
An attachment is a legal remedy by which a debtor’s property is secured and held to satisfy a debt that the alleged creditor hopes to prove in the creditor’s principal suit.
Because a prejudgment attachment is a measure instituted before a judgment and seeks to preserve the property, as opposed to satisfying a judgment with the property,
MDB and Regal argue that because
Accordingly, we hold that the prejudgment attachment procedures in the Code are available to a potential judgment creditor to preserve a debtor-member’s distributional interests in a limited liability company, and once a judgment is entered and a charging order is obtained, the charging order relates back to the date of
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the order of the circuit court of Madison County is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.
Reversed; cause remanded.
CHAPMAN and SPOMER, JJ, concur.