Opinion ID: 195734
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Preliminary injunction against Elaine Elio

Text: 52 The district court enjoined the defendants and those acting in concert with them from selling, transferring, hypothecating, encumbering or otherwise alienating any assets or property, specifically allowing Carmen and Elaine Elio individually to pay their ordinary personal expenses up to $5,000 per month. The district court emphasized that he had found Elaine Elio to be acting in concert with Carmen Elio, that she would have been subject to the order even if not explicitly named, and that she was named in the order primarily to put her on notice and minimize the risk that someone would inadvertently do something that will make them the subject for a motion for civil contempt by the F.D.I.C. 53 Defendants argue that the district court abused its discretion in granting a preliminary injunction against Elaine Elio individually, because (1) there was no support for a finding that she was acting in concert with Carmen Elio, and (2) the amount of the injunction should have been limited to the amount of the allegedly fraudulent transfer that she received from Carmen Elio. 54 But the evidence of Elaine Elio's involvement, was not limited merely to her receipt of $218,867 from Carmen Elio in September 1991. Elaine Elio was the trustee of the Elio Family Trust, which was the recipient of substantial transfers from Carmen Elio on at least three occasions, and which subsequently made two transfers to Carmen Elio or on his behalf. She was also a trustee of the Seaview Realty Trust. Seaview was the recipient of Florida residential property from Carmen Elio, which the court reasonably inferred could continue to be used by Carmen Elio after the transfer. In addition, Elaine Elio refused at her deposition to answer any questions about her involvement, asserting her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. As this is a civil action, the district court was entitled to draw a negative inference from her refusal to testify. Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318, 96 S.Ct. 1551, 1557, 47 L.Ed.2d 810 (1976). We conclude there was reasonable support in the record for the district court's finding that Elaine Elio was acting in concert with Carmen Elio in his attempts to hinder, delay and defraud his creditors, and that a preliminary injunction was necessary to prevent further dissipation of Elio's assets. 9 See Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(d). 55 Nor was the scope of the injunction an abuse of discretion. Despite the district court's repeated invitation, Elaine Elio refused to provide information regarding the state and source of her assets, or to identify any assets which she had acquired independently from Carmen Elio. Defendants' assertion that Elaine Elio may very well have independent assets was unsupported by any evidence. The district court repeatedly offered to reconsider its order if such evidence were provided; none was. From her refusal to testify regarding the source of her assets, and from the other evidence of her acting in concert with Carmen Elio to defraud creditors, the court could have inferred a likelihood that there had been additional transfers in unknown amounts. Moreover, to enjoin her, in the abstract, from dissipating only those assets received from Carmen Elio would have been an ineffective directive subject to easy evasion, leaving the court with little ability to distinguish a valid expenditure from an invalid one. Given the failure of defendants to provide information on the basis of which the district court might have meaningfully modified its order, it was not an abuse of discretion to enjoin Elaine Elio from spending more than $5,000 per month. See F.D.I.C. v. Faulkner, 991 F.2d 262, 267 (5th Cir.1993); F.S.L.I.C. v. Dixon, 835 F.2d 554, 566 (5th Cir.1987).