Opinion ID: 2380792
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Conversion Action

Text: Plumbago commenced the conversion action in Superior Court Oxford County, on December 15, 1980, about one month after commencement of the FED action. Plaintiff moved on January 19, 1981, for approval of an attachment and trustee process against the property of defendants Sweatt and Austin in an amount of $1,500,000. Affidavits of Dean McCrillis, the President of Plumbago, and others were submitted to show that plaintiff had a reasonable likelihood of recovering judgment and that the judgment would probably exceed the limits of defendant's liability insurance, as required by M.R.Civ.P. 4A. On April 17, 1981, a Superior Court Justice ordered that an attachment including an attachment on trustee process, may be made against Dale Sweatt's property in the amount of $1,000,000. A writ of attachment was issued on April 24, and on April 27 at 9:10 a. m. a Cumberland County deputy sheriff attached a black footlocker and its contents [hereinafter referred to as the tourmalines] which were being held by Eagle Savings and Loan Association in an account in the names of the state troopers who had seized the tourmalines. The attaching deputy sheriff subsequently appointed Eagle Savings keeper of the gems. 14 M.R.S.A. § 4152 (1980). On April 29 the bank refused to give Sweatt the footlocker when he attempted to obtain possession pursuant to the April 27 order of the Superior Court in the criminal action. The State of Maine moved to dissolve the writ of attachment on May 1, 1981, on the grounds that the property was deposited into the account of the two state troopers who were ordered by a Superior Court Justice on April 27 to return the evidence to the Sweatts and were prevented from doing so by the attachment. Defendant Sweatt also moved to release the attachment. On May 15, 1981, a justice of the Superior Court, Oxford County, entered an order dissolving the attachment and requiring the State to return the gems to the defendants.