MOUNT VERNON - St. Clair County Associate Judge Leah Captain held a jury trial she had no business holding and left a necessary party out of it, according to an April 15 decision of Fifth District appellate judges.
They vacated her judgment on a verdict for plaintiff Virginia Larson rescinding a lease with Dupo Oilfield Development.
Justice Randy Moore wrote that although Lawson was successor trustee and beneficiary of a trust that held the lease, she didn’t possess authority to represent its interests individually.
He wrote that the court was perplexed as to how a jury determined an action seeking the equitable remedy of rescission.
He quoted a Second District opinion that there is no constitutional right to a jury trial in proceedings seeking equitable relief.
He quoted a Third District opinion that a jury in equity cases is discretionary and if a judge allows a jury the verdict is advisory.
He found Captain did not impanel the jury on that basis and did not enter an order finding an advisory jury trial necessary.
Justices Judy Cates and Mark Boie concurred.
Larson and husband Charles Larson signed a lease agreement with Dupo Oilfield president Raymond Cole in 2008.
In 2014, Charles assigned his interest in his property to an individual trust.
He named Virginia as successor trustee upon his incapacity, election or death.
In 2018, they filed a complaint as individuals seeking to rescind the lease for breach of contract.
Charles died in 2019.
“A suggestion of death was never filed and no probate estate or special representative was ever substituted," Moore wrote.
Dupo Oilfield moved to dismiss the complaint, claiming the Larsons lacked standing where they had conveyed their interests under the lease to the trust.
Moore found the parties never addressed the motion.
Virginia amended the complaint “in her own right and as trustee.”
“It is important to note that both parties’ original attorneys withdrew and that each obtained new counsel sometime before trial,” Moore wrote.
Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson assigned Captain after circuit judges appointed her in 2023 and she held trial that August.
Captain told the lawyers it seemed that if the trust was the proper plaintiff Virginia as trustee had authority to act on its behalf.
Dupo Oilfield counsel Thomas Maag of Wood River said, “In the capacity as a trustee, yes.”
“As an individual, no," he said.
Larson’s counsel Lorraine Cavataio said, “We examined her legal authority walking into this and she retains it whether she does it as trustee or not.”
Captain said, “If the trust is victorious in this action then she was the trustee of that trust.”
Cavataio said, “Wins absolutely.”
Maag said, “But there aren’t two plaintiffs.”
Captain said, “I don’t know that it makes much difference but it would be the trust that would be awarded any verdict.”
Later Maag moved to direct a verdict for lack of evidence that Larson was a party.
Cavataio said Larson and the trust were harmed.
“It doesn’t matter which one because it’s a big circle to get back to her anyway," she said.
Maag said, “One of the two has to go,” and Cavataio agreed.
Captain said, “It would seem to me the proper plaintiff then is in fact Virginia Maxine Larson.”
Jurors found Dupo Oilfield breached a contract and Larson was entitled to rescission.
Captain entered judgment and last year she denied a motion to reconsider.
She awarded $61,995.94 to Cavataio but the Fifth District vacated the fees.
“A party must elect a remedy based on the affirmance or disaffirmance of the contract but the election of one is the abandonment of the other," Moore wrote.
“Where a contract is rescinded the rights of the parties under the contract are vitiated or invalidated.
“Thus, plaintiffs attorney fees would not be recoverable under the lease if rescinded.”