Appeal
from Madison Circuit Court (CV-17-900921)
Page 275
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Page 276
Bill
D. Bensinger of Christian & Small LLP, Birmingham, for
appellant.
Benjamin L. McArthur and Michael W. Rich of Maynard Cooper
& Gale, P.C., Huntsville, for appellee.
STEWART,
Justice.
Magic
City Capital, LLC ("Magic City"), appeals from a
summary judgment entered by the Madison Circuit Court
("the trial court") in favor of Twickenham Place
Partners, LLC ("Twickenham"). Because events that
occurred during the trial-court proceedings rendered the
action moot and the trial court, therefore, was divested of
subject-matter jurisdiction, we dismiss the appeal.
Facts
and Procedural History
The
following facts are undisputed. On August 15, 2014,
Twickenham executed a lease agreement with Huntsville Asian
Rim, LLC ("HAR"), in which HAR agreed to lease
certain property from Twickenham for the purpose of opening a
restaurant in Huntsville. Section 5.4 of the lease provided,
among other things:
"OWNERSHIP OF IMPROVEMENTS. All trade fixtures,
equipment and other property placed on the Premises by and
any alterations or replacements thereof, including, but not
limited to, all bars, booths, decorative light fixtures,
stoves, ovens and other restaurant equipment, shall remain
the property of, and may be removed by, [HAR]. Upon the
expiration or earlier termination of this Lease, any such
property belonging to [HAR] which [HAR] has failed to
remove from the Premises within thirty (30) days of said
expiration or termination shall become the property of
[Twickenham]. [Twickenham] may thereafter elect to remove
and dispose of such property at [HAR'S] reasonable cost
and expense. Should [HAR] remove any such fixture, or any
alteration or replacement thereof, affixed to the Premises
that was placed on the Premises by [HAR], [HAR], at its
sole cost and expense shall repair any damage to the
Premises caused by such removal."
The
lease also provided in § 14.3:
"[Twickenham] hereby expressly subordinates any and
all claim, right, lien (including, without limitation, any
common law or statutory landlord's lien), title and
security interest in and to all furniture, goods, equipment
and personal property of the security interest of
[HAR'S] lender, if any, either existing as of the
execution date of this Lease or hereafter."
On
November 17, 2014, HAR executed a security agreement in favor
of Magic City in exchange for a $250,000 loan. Pursuant to
the security agreement, Magic City was granted a security
interest in HAR's personal property used in operating the
restaurant. In September 2015, HAR defaulted on its lease
obligations to Twickenham, and, thereafter, HAR removed some
of, but not all of, its personal property from the
restaurant. On October 5, 2015, ...