Securities and Exchange Commission v. Nadel et al

Filing 1328

ORDER ATTACHED denying without prejudice 1310 Motion to Enforce Constructive Trust and other relief and cancelling hearing. Signed by Judge Richard A. Lazzara on 11/1/2017. (CCB)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
TAMPA DIVISION
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION,
Plaintiff,
v.

CASE NO: 8:09-cv-87-T-26TBM

ARTHUR NADEL; SCOOP CAPITAL, LLC;
and SCOOP MANAGEMENT, INC.,
Defendants,
SCOOP REAL ESTATE, L.P.;
VALHALLA INVESTMENT PARTNERS, L.P.;
VALHALLA MANAGEMENT, INC.;
VICTORY IRA FUND, LTD.; VICTORY FUND, LTD.;
VIKING IRA FUND, LLC; VIKING FUND, LLC;
and VIKING MANAGEMENT, LLC,
Relief Defendants.
/
ORDER
PENDING BEFORE THE COURT for resolution is the Receiver’s Motion to
Enforce Constructive Trust through Turnover of Real Property, or in the Alternative,
through Foreclosure of the Receiver’s Equitable Lien to which the owners of the property,
Vernon Lee and Manon Sommers-Lee, proceeding pro se, have responded. The Court
has scheduled a hearing on the motion for Friday, November 3, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. After

reflection, the Court is of the opinion that the Receiver has sought relief in the wrong
judicial forum.
The record indisputably reflects that the Receiver’s efforts to enforce the
constructive trust and to foreclose the equitable lien on the subject property located at
4018 Via Miranda, Sarasota, Florida, relate to a judgment rendered against Mr. Lee and
his trust in Wiand v. Lee, et al., case number 8:10-cv-210-T-17MAP, a judgment which
was subsequently affirmed in Wiand v. Lee, 753 F. 3d 1194 (11th Cir. 2014).
Consequently, the Court concludes that this effort to collect on that judgment by
ultimately selling the property and applying the proceeds of the sale to the amount owed
on the judgment should have been initiated in the underling civil case. Indeed, an
examination of the docket in that case reflects that the Receiver filed at docket 286 a
motion requesting the Court to grant the Receiver possession and title to the same
property which is the subject of this motion. And, although proceedings in that case were
stayed during the pendency of the Lees’ bankruptcy case, that stay is obviously no longer
an impediment to the Court in the underlying case revisiting the issues raised in that
earlier motion or the issues raised in the instant motion in light of the bankruptcy court’s
order granting the Receiver a constructive trust and equitable lien with respect to the
property at issue, and that order has not been the subject of a stay pending appeal.
ACCORDINGLY, it is ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the Receiver’s
Motion to Enforce Constructive Trust through Turnover of Real Property, or in the

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Alternative, through Foreclosure of the Receiver’s Equitable Lien (Dkt. 1310) is denied
without prejudice to seeking the same relief in the underlying case, case number 8:10cv-210-T-17MAP. The hearing scheduled for Friday, November 3, 2017, at 10:00 a.m.,
is cancelled.
DONE AND ORDERED at Tampa, Florida, on November 1, 2017.

s/Richard A. Lazzara
RICHARD A. LAZZARA
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
COPIES FURNISHED TO:

Counsel of Record
Vernon Lee, pro se
Manon Sommers-Lee, pro se

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