IN RE EST OF DUANE V BALDWIN
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
THOMAS M. SHOAFF,
UNPUBLISHED
July 1, 2008
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
ESTATE OF DUANE BALDWIN, DUANE V.
BALDWIN TRUST, THOMAS E. WOODS, as
Personal Representative of the Estate of Duane
Baldwin and as Trustee of the Duane V. Baldwin
Trust, GARY D. BALDWIN, as Former Personal
Representative of the Estate of Duane Baldwin,
MARY JO BALDWIN, as Former Trustee of the
Duane V. Baldwin Trust, JACOBS
MANAGEMENT, LLC, FFM CO, INC., DGM
CORPORATION, AGRICON, LLC,
STOCKBRIDGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #1,
STOCKBRIDGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #2,
STOCKBRIDGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #3,
STOCKBRIDGE PARTNERSHIP #4 and
STOCKBRIDGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #5,
No. 271296
Ingham Circuit Court
LC No. 99-090282-CZ
Defendants,
and
ALLAN FALK and ALLAN FALK, P.C.,
Appellants.
Before: Donofrio, P.J., and Sawyer and Murphy, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Appellants appeal by leave granted an order of the circuit court setting aside their lien for
attorney fees on certain real property that the circuit court had previously ordered transferred
from the “entity defendants” to plaintiff. We vacate the circuit court’s order setting aside the lien
for attorney fees.
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This dispute arises from litigation between plaintiff and the various defendants and is one
of three appeals that were submitted together to this Court. In the primary appeal in this case
(Docket No. 270693), we held that the circuit court had improperly ordered the property
transferred to plaintiff. That holding essentially renders the issue in this case moot, but
necessitates a reversal.
Attorney Falk had represented the so-called “entity defendants” (the defendants except
for the estate, its personal representatives, the trust, and its trustees) in the underlying litigation in
which plaintiff ultimately was successful in having certain conveyances of real property from the
decedent to the entity defendants set aside to make those assets available to satisfy plaintiff’s
claim under an indemnification agreement signed by the decedent relative to a failed business
venture with plaintiff.
In the primary appeal submitted with this case, we held that the effect of the prior
judgment in setting aside those conveyances was to return the property to the ownership of the
decedent and, therefore, the property became assets of the estate. Because the circuit court erred
in ordering the ownership of the property transferred to plaintiff in partial satisfaction of
plaintiff’s judgment, it necessarily follows that the trial court should never have entertained
plaintiff’s motion to invalidate defendants’ attorney charging lien applied against the property,
which resulted in the order being appealed here.
In other words, our decision in Docket No. 270693 renders the issue of the validity of
appellants’ lien moot. Accordingly, we vacate the circuit court’s order invalidating appellants’
lien. We offer no opinion on the question whether appellants’ lien is valid or enforceable against
the property previously owned by their clients. That is an issue to be resolved between
appellants and the estate’s personal representative and, if there is a dispute, to ultimately be
resolved in the appropriate proceeding between those parties.
The circuit court order of May 5, 2006, invalidating appellants’ lien is vacated.
Appellants may tax costs.
/s/ Pat M. Donofrio
/s/ David H. Sawyer
/s/ William B. Murphy
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