Lewis Leads Shift in Banks’ Strategy
by January 22, 2012 3:49 pm 77 views
When a local attorney refers to something as a “most bizarre piece of litigation,” that gets our attention.
In this instance, Fayetteville attorney Robert Ginnaven was alerting us to the recent purchase by First State Bank of a lawsuit his client Tom Terminella had pending in Washington County Circuit Court.
Apparently lawsuits can legally be considered assets and auctioned off to the highest bidder.
In a Washington County sheriff’s sale Nov. 18, FSB attorney Josh Wisley paid $2,500 for Terminella’s rights and interests in Tom and Monica Terminella’s 2011 lawsuit against FSB and David Estes, as well as Tom Terminella and Grand Valley Ridge LLC’s 2007 lawsuit against Metropolitan State Bank and others.
The purchase also included all stock, securities and shares owned by Terminella including shares of his real estate company, Terminella & Associates Inc.
Ginnaven filed a motion to set aside the sale, which Washington County Circuit Judge Kim Smith denied on Dec. 28.
Smith’s order states Terminella dissolved Terminella and Associates after he was served with the writ of execution on the sale. Smith granted FSB’s motion for contempt and ordered Terminella to reinstate the company with the Arkansas Secretary of State within 10 days of the ruling.
A Benton County Circuit Court judgment in July 2009 had ordered Terminella and his company Primetime Play LLC to pay FSB $491,802. Fellow Conner & Winters partner Todd Lewis worked with Wisley in devising the strategy, which essentially means if there’s ever a monetary settlement against FSB and/or MNB, that money would go to — get this — FSB and/or MNB.
The maneuvering by Lewis and Wisley was enough to make us think of those old Guinness beer commercials — Brilliant!