You’re in the wrong court, judge tells bank from Texas

A federal judge in Bangor said Monday that he would deny a request from a Texas bank to stop the transfer of Maine property, including a $12 million yacht, owned by a former Texas real estate developer who owes about $32 million to the bank.

U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby told attorneys representing NCNB Texas National Bank of Dallas that they were in the wrong court and should pursue the issue through the Florida state court where the matter already was pending.

The attorneys sought to prevent the transfer of an Islesboro estate and a 141-foot yacht owned by a trust and a trust company under the control of Alice C. Rogers.

“This is probably the inappropriate forum in which to seek relief,” said Hornby during a preliminary-injunction hearing.

Hornby said he would delay his decision for 48 hours pending the presentation by the defendant’s attorney that the defendant would accept the Florida court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

Alice Rogers’ husband, John B. “Jack” Rogers, formerly of Dallas, owes the bank for two loans used to support real estate deals in Texas, according to a court document.

NCNB Texas maintained that Rogers fraudulently transferred his assets to the Maine-based Evensong Trust and The Evensong Co. Ltd., an Isle of Jersey-based company, when his real estate deals fell through. He continued to manage the trust and trust company, according to the bank.

Rogers and his wife make their residence aboard the yacht the Mikado, now located in Antibes, France, said one of the bank’s attorneys. The couple are spending their summer at their Islesboro estate, said attorney Thomas Kurth.

During the hearing, attorney P. Benjamin Zuckerman of Portland said Rogers’ action was “a relatively simple transaction.” He described how Rogers acquired the loans, starting in June 1984, and made the transfer of $22 million in assets to his wife in August 1986, leaving himself with “substantially reduced general assets.”

Other transfers were made to the Maine trust, a Florida trust, and the Jersey company, said Zuckerman, adding that Rogers “had actually intended to hinder and delay, if not defraud” the bank.

Under questioning by Hornby, Zuckerman acknowledged that the Florida court had stated its intention to issue a summary judgment in favor of the defendants in a companion case, when the bank chose to pursue the issue in Maine.

It also was revealed that the bank had pursued the matter in courts in Great Britain, where the yacht is registered, and on the Isle of Jersey.

The defendant’s attorney, Harold J. Friedman of Portland, told Hornby the bank’s behavior was “a classic case of forum shopping,” and “the bank should be stopped in its tracks.”

He said the case “smacked of connivance” on the part of the bank after it lost in Florida.