Case Summary:
A trial on the Petition of Robert F. Craig, as Joint Official Liquidator of the Estate of Alpine Assurance, Ltd., was held on December 9, 1999.  The court entered its Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law on December 29, 1999.  Petitioner moved for a new trial under Bankruptcy Rule 9023, which adopts Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59, alleging that the court's Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law constituted a mistake of fact or a manifest error of law.  The Seventh Circuit has held that for the court to grant a Rule 59 motion, the petition must "clearly establish either a manifest error of law or fact or must present newly discovered evidence."  See LB Credit Corp. Resolution Trust Corp., 49 F.3d 1263 (7th Cir. 1995).  Since the petitioner did not allege that there was any newly discovered evidence, the court determined only whether there had been a mistake of fact or a manifest error of law.  The court determined that it was not a manifest error of law for it to conclude that the officers of HIMI were not personally liable for HIMI's conversion of Alpine funds.  The court refused to extend Capen Wholesale, Inc. v. Probst, 180 Wis. 2d 354 (Wis. Ct. App. 1993) to the insurance context and found instead that Wis. Admin. Code § 42.03(3) governs the personal liability of insurance agents.  Second, the court found that its refusal to pierce the corporate veil was not a manifest error of law.  The evidence that the president of HIMI borrowed $5,000 from the Alpine Policyholders Trust Account, which was separately accounted for by the corporate bookkeeper, was insufficient to show that HIMI had no separate legal existence and was no more than an instrumentality of the president.  Finally, the court found that it was not a manifest error of law to rule that Alpine was not a customer of the Royal Bank of Hillsboro.  Alpine does not meet the Wisconsin Uniform Commercial Code definition of "customer"; therefore, the Bank had no duty to close the Alpine Policyholder Trust Accounts upon instructions from the Joint Official Liquidator.

Statute/Rule References:
Fed. R. Civ. P. 59 -- New Trials

Key Terms:
Motion for New Trial