Olsan v. Comora

In July 1972, Barbara Olsan (plaintiff), obtained a money judgment for $382,886 plus costs against Emanuel Comora (defendant) and Cybertronics-Nevada, Inc. Olsan was only able to collect $36,540 from Comora as that amount had been placed in escrow. Olsan assigned the judgment to Metropolitan Adjustment Bureau (Metropolitan) which instituted a receivership action against Comora. In support of its request for a receiver, Metropolitan submitted two declarations. In the first, Metropolitan’s president stated that Comora had refused to pay the judgment upon Olsan’s demand therefor, that Olsan had been unable to reach Comora’s earnings from his dental practice, and that a receivership was the only means by which the judgment could be collected. In the second declaration, the attorney for Olsan who had litigated her case against Comora related the extent to which Olsan had sought to enforce the judgment—including by bringing a separate, unsuccessful proceeding to reach certain assets. The attorney further stated that Comora had personally informed him that the judgment would be difficult to collect because of the way that Comora’s accounts receivable were set up and because Olsan would be hard pressed to locate assets of Comora that could be levied upon. In February 1976, the court issued an order appointing a receiver to collect all amounts received by Comora through his dental practice. Comora appealed.