Allied Business Brokers, Inc. v. Abed Amro, et al. - Memorandum Opinion

This is the second appearance of the dispute between these parties in this Court. This lawsuit has its genesis in a 1995 general sessions court action wherein Plaintiff/Appellee Allied Business Brokers, Inc. (“Allied’) sought damages for breach of contract. The facts and procedural history of the breach of contract action are recited in Allied Business Brokers, Inc. v. Abraham Musa, et al., No. W1999-00378-COA-R3-CV, 2000 WL 33191373 (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 22, 2000) (perm. app. denied May 14, 2001), and we find it unnecessary to repeat them here. In Allied Business, we held Defendant Abed Amro (Mr. Amro) was bound by the terms of a brokerage contract that he had signed on behalf of his friend, Defendant Abraham Musa. We remanded the matter to the trial court for entry of a judgment in favor of Allied. Id. at *4. In the meantime, in 1997 Mr. Amro conveyed certain real property to his wife, Nida Amro (Ms. Amro).
In August 2005, Allied filed a complaint styled “Complaint to set aside fraudulent conveyance and to impose a constructive trust” against Mr. Amro and Ms. Amro (“the Amros”) in the Chancery Court for Shelby County. In its complaint, Allied alleged that it was a judgment creditor and that the 1997 conveyance was fraudulent. Allied prayed that the conveyance be set aside and for the imposition of a constructive trust and/or equitable lien in the amount of $17,346.00, plus interest in the amount of $10,407.60. The Amros moved to dismiss the complaint as barred by the statute of limitations under Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-3-310. In October 2007, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Allied setting aside the conveyance as fraudulent. Following denial of the Amros’ motions to reconsider, the trial court entered its last judgment in the matter in January 2008.2 This appeal ensued.