JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri appellate court has vacated a Jefferson Circuit Court judgment that dramatically reduced a trust recovery award and ordered the lower court to reinstate its original ruling requiring $846,408 to be restored to a family trust.
In a June 16 decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District ruled that the Jefferson Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction to amend its original June 4, 2024, judgment in a dispute involving the Melvin and Romana Soppeland Joint Revocable Trust.
The appellate court concluded that the original judgment was final and fully resolved all claims in the case, leaving the circuit court without authority to later alter the award.
The case was brought by Robert L. Herron Sr., acting as successor trustee of the trust.
Herron alleged that Carol Soppeland, a beneficiary and trustee of the trust, improperly transferred trust assets for her own benefit in violation of the trust’s terms.
After a bench trial, the circuit court agreed, finding that Soppeland had engaged in self-dealing and ignored the trust’s directives.
The court determined that, with compound interest applied, $846,408 should be restored to the trust.
The appellate court noted that Soppeland’s parents established the trust in 1992. Following the deaths of her parents, Soppeland became beneficiary-trustee and was required under the trust provisions to appoint a second trustee or co-trustee to jointly administer the trust and oversee distributions.
According to the court record, she never appointed a second trustee.
The trust provided specific distributions to family members and directed that the remaining assets be distributed to surviving beneficiaries upon Soppeland’s death.
Court records showed that Soppeland opened a trust brokerage account with Morgan Stanley in 2003 and, over time, transferred substantial sums from trust accounts to her personal accounts.
The opinion states that from 2006 through 2016, she collectively transferred $463,058 from the trust brokerage account to various personal brokerage and bank accounts.
The trust account was eventually depleted and closed in 2016.
During roughly the same period, the value of Soppeland’s personal Morgan Stanley account grew from approximately $106,000 in 2011 to about $906,000 by 2022.
Soppeland later designated Denise Neely, a friend who had assisted her as her Multiple Sclerosis progressed, as beneficiary of several brokerage accounts and co-owner of multiple bank accounts.
Soppeland died in a house fire on May 2, 2022.
According to testimony cited in the opinion, Neely withdrew $27,000 from one of Soppeland’s bank accounts the following day and testified that Soppeland had instructed her to close accounts quickly because she did not want family members to receive her money.
Herron filed suit seeking recovery of assets allegedly transferred from the trust into Soppeland’s personal Morgan Stanley account and requested an injunction preventing any transfers from that account while the litigation was pending.
Before trial, the parties agreed to a preliminary injunction prohibiting withdrawals, transfers or liquidation of assets in the account until further court order.
Following the February 2024 bench trial, the circuit court entered its original judgment on June 4, 2024, finding that Soppeland had wrongly distributed trust assets and ordering restoration of $846,408 to the trust.
However, on Dec. 9, 2024, the court entered an amended judgment reducing the award to $50,501.
The amended ruling reasoned that only that amount could be traced to assets received by Neely that originated from the trust.
The court also concluded that Herron’s request for injunctive relief was not the proper avenue for recovery because other remedies were available through Soppeland’s estate.
The appellate court disagreed, holding that the original judgment had already resolved all claims in the lawsuit.
Judges found that the original ruling disposed of both the discovery-of-assets claim and the request for injunctive relief by ordering the transfer of funds and effectively ending the preliminary injunction.
The court further found that Morgan Stanley’s role as an interpleader had been resolved because the original judgment directed how the disputed funds were to be handled.
A key issue on appeal involved timing.
The appellate court noted that Neely did not file a motion for a new trial or a motion to amend the judgment within the required 30-day period after entry of the original judgment.
Because no timely post-trial motions were filed, the original judgment became final.
The appeals court concluded that the circuit court’s authority over the case expired before it attempted to enter the amended judgment months later.
Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge Thomas C. Clark II stated that while the original judgment lacked precision and consisted of only a brief paragraph, its substance and effect clearly resolved the parties’ dispute.
The court held that the original judgment served as the final judgment in the case and that the later amended judgment was void because the circuit court no longer had jurisdiction.
The Court of Appeals vacated the circuit court’s amended judgment and remanded the case with instructions to reenter the June 4, 2024, original judgment restoring $846,408 to the trust.
The court also denied Neely’s request for attorney’s fees on appeal.
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District case number: ED113254
