Judge: Randall J. Sherman, Case: 2021-01201461, Date: 2022-12-09 Tentative Ruling

The tentative ruling on Court Appointed Receiver Douglas Wilson’s Motion for Instructions Regarding the Repayment of Deeds of Trust Benefitting: (1) Sherman Management Services, Inc.; (2) Finance and Insurance Services, LLC; (3) Rapid Document Processing, Inc.; and (4) Sheras Real Estate Group, LLC is that the sales proceeds from the Brea and Redlands real property sales will continue to be held by the Receiver pending Trial, which is currently set for October 2, 2023, and that no payments will be made at this time to any of the four so-called “Disputed Beneficiaries”, three of whom are guarantors of Synrgo debt and defendants in the related action, and are entities owned by individual defendant-guarantors, and the fourth of whom, Finance and Insurance Services, LLC, shares an address with another Disputed Beneficiary and apparently is owned by the father of one of the individual defendant-guarantors.

The Receiver questions the validity of the subject deeds of trust, and requested at the time of the real property sale that the liens in question attach to the sales proceeds for the subject properties and be held by the Receiver until a later date, when a final determination could be made regarding the validity and repayment amount for each lien.  The court approved this request.  The proper later date, however, when a final determination should be made regarding the validity and repayment amount for each lien, is the time of trial in these two related actions, not by a pre-trial motion being heard before the facts involved in the two UMB Bank complaints and Synrgo’s cross-complaint can be fully heard and considered by the court.  This ruling, which preserves the status quo pending trial, is consistent with the stipulated Order appointing the Receiver, which allows disbursements only in the ordinary course of business, and precludes the payment of creditors of the insolvent Synrgo without court approval.

(The court notes that the document filed by the County of Los Angeles on November 28, 2022, ROA 593, only came through as a one-page document saying “Test Petition” and thus was not considered.  The County should refile this document.)

The Receiver is ordered to give notice of the ruling.