Tables Turned

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 Lonoke of lawsuits that his client, developer Tom Terminella, had pending in Washington County Circuit Court.

That’s right: The bank has bought lawsuits that someone else filed.

We didn’t even know that was a legal option, but it is. Lawsuits can be considered assets and auctioned off to the highest bidder.

That’s what happened to Terminella’s lawsuits. He owes a Benton County Circuit Court judgment of $491,802 to First State Bank, so the bank used existing law to force a sheriff’s sale of various Terminella assets, including the lawsuits.

That sale was conducted by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 18.

At it, Josh Wisley, an attorney for First State, paid $2,500 for Terminella’s rights and interest in a lawsuit that Terminella and his wife had filed last year against First State Bank and its CEO, David Estes. Let that one sink in.

What’s more, the $2,500 price included Terminella’s interest in his nigh-eternal, $50 million complaint against Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock. The appeal of that case, which Terminella lost at the circuit court level, is scheduled for oral arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court on March 1.

That’s the one that has Ginnaven really worried because, theoretically at least, First State Bank could move to dismiss the appeal just when Terminella was about to get his last chance to convince the Supreme Court of his complaint.

“I know they are entitled to their money,” Ginnaven told Whispers, “but they aren’t entitled to prevent Tom from getting his day in court.”

And as a bonus, First State Bank bought all stock, securities and shares owned by Terminella, including the shares of his own defunct real estate company, Terminella & Associates Inc.

Ginnaven filed a motion to set aside the sale of the assets, but Washington County Circuit Judge Kim Smith denied that motion on Dec. 28. And he held Terminella in contempt for dissolving Terminella & Associates after being notified that it was it was sold to First State Bank and ordered him to reinstate the company with the Arkansas Secretary of State.

Ginnaven has now filed notice that he plans to appeal Smith’s denial of his motion to set aside the sale.

Wisley worked with Todd Lewis of the Conner & Winters law firm in Fayetteville in devising the strategy, which, we have to admit, is very clever.

Especially if it works.