BRENTWOOD INVESTMENTS LLC v. STANLEY

Filing 53

ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT - denying 27 Motion for Summary Judgment; denying 32 Motion for Summary Judgment. By JUDGE D. BROCK HORNBY. (mnw)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MAINE
BRENTWOOD INVESTMENTS, LLC,
PLAINTIFF
V.

JAMES G. STANLEY, JR.,
DEFENDANT

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CIVIL NO. 2:14-CV-151-DBH

ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
The cross-motions for summary judgment are DENIED.

Holder-in-due-

course status is not the crux of this dispute between James Stanley, the original
maker, and Brentwood Investments, LLC, the original payee on the Note which
Brentwood seeks to collect in this lawsuit.

Nor is conventional res judicata

arising out of the confirmed arbitration proceeding between Stanley and Michael
Liberty/the Liberty Companies the determining factor:

at the arbitration,

Stanley successfully procured dismissal of Brentwood’s claim, and the arbitrator
as a result did not include the Brentwood claim in his decision.
Instead, the crucial issue (and the only defense on the Note) is whether
Liberty and the Liberty Companies waived―or asserted and lost―a claim to
collect the same Note in the arbitration proceedings and, if they did, whether
that outcome should preclude Brentwood from collecting, on the basis that
Liberty and Brentwood are one-and-the-same (a corporate veil-piercing issue).

That dispute is best resolved by either submission on a stipulated record or a
short bench trial.
The parties shall notify the court by July 3, 2015, whether and when they
will submit the case on a stipulated record, failing which, the Clerk’s Office shall
schedule the case for a bench trial.
SO ORDERED.
DATED THIS 2ND DAY OF JUNE, 2015
/S/D. BROCK HORNBY
D. BROCK HORNBY
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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