History OF THE DUUUVAL HOUSE

Duuuval House

After the Auction

After the auction, we went to the house. No one appeared to live there, but there were clear signs of use. We knew it was used during football season. We knocked on the next door landscape company’s door. They were disappointed they hadn’t shown up at the auction.

According to the Internal Revenue Code, Section 6337, the following individuals had the right to redeem the property at any time within 180 days after the date the successful bid is accepted by the IRS:

• The owners, the heirs, executors, or administrators of the owners,
• Any person having any interest in the property,
• Any person having a lien interest in the property,
• Any person on behalf of those listed above.

In other words, we had no real legal rights to the house for about 6 months. We were going to earn interest, but at any point we could lose the Duuuval House for our investment plus interest. The problem is- the tax debt would come back to the redeeming party. We understand they were trying to figure it out.

In 2015, there was an inner-family exchange from one holding corp to another- Christopher’s Joy, Inc.,  to Eagles Nest Grill, LLC.  Eagles Nest Grill, LLC was the deed holder. This family / business ultimately lost the house to the IRS twice. It was auctioned off once, and they bought it back, but as the tax debt was not cleared, it was auctioned again. The primary owner had also sadly passed away. It was a house without a true owner.

The history of the property put us in a strong position to obtain full legal title to the property in 6 months even though the owners had redeemed it after an auction previously. For six months, there was a lot of legal wrangling and research going on behind the scenes.

A federal tax lien of $1,457,853.49 was recoded on October 2, 2015 in Duval Circuit Court in the name of “Eagles Nest Grill, LLC, Nominee of Samuel T. Christopher.” That lien then exceeded $2 million dollars.

Further research revealed that Eagles Nest Grill, LLC was established in December of 2014. Norma Christopher, Samuel Christopher and Kirk Caupain were listed as officers/managers. More importantly, it was administratively dissolved on September 23, 2016. Samuel Christopher was the primary owner and he sadly passed away in 2017. As such, the ownership… and ability to redeem it and clear the tax debt… were in doubt. The IRS agreed.

To make matters more favorable, we acquired the rights to “Eagles Nest Grill, LLC” from the State of Florida in 2018 by incorporating same, as they had abandoned it. It was a cheap insurance policy. We blocked simple reincorporation.

We felt strongly we could legally oppose redemption. Case law clearly supported our ability to refuse an offer of redemption, necessitating suit be filed if anyone sought to redeem the property. They didn’t. We had a federal complaint ready based on DiFoggio v. U.S., 484 F.Supp. 233 (United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division 1979).

It was ours.