Adler v. United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Service (In re Ulrich)

279 B.R. 187, 2002 Bankr. LEXIS 560, 89 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 2061
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedMarch 20, 2002
DocketBankruptcy No. 88-10415; Adversary No. 00-1023
StatusPublished

This text of 279 B.R. 187 (Adler v. United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Service (In re Ulrich)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adler v. United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Service (In re Ulrich), 279 B.R. 187, 2002 Bankr. LEXIS 560, 89 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 2061 (La. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

THOMAS M. BRAHNEY, III, Chief Judge.

This matter came before the Court on the Objection to Claim, Complaint and Request for Issuance of Writ of Sequestration and Attachment filed by the Chapter 7 Trustee, David Adler. Many of the issues of the Complaint have been addressed in previously entered Orders and Judgments of this Court resolving various Motions filed. A trial was held on the remaining issues at which time the Court heard the statements of counsel, the testimony of witnesses and received documentary evidence. Upon consideration of the statements made, the evidence presented, the memoranda filed, the record in the case and the applicable law, the Court enters the following Memorandum Opinion.1

The Objection and Complaint herein was filed by the Trustee seeking two items of relief. First, the Trustee objected to the claim filed by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) against the bankruptcy estate, or rather, objected to its payment by the estate. Second, the Trustee sought to have a 50% interest in two promissory notes, the “Dorvin Notes”, turned over to the estate because it has always been estate property or because a purported transfer by Debtor Albert Huddleston, was a simulation under state law. In a prior Opinion and Judgment, entered on June 6, 2001, the Court allowed the IRS Amended Proof of Claim against the estate, but deferred ruling on the amount of that claim, further finding that the individual Defendants herein, the “Huddleston Children” were not liable for the IRS claim. The Opinion also found that there were questions of fact as to the turnover allegations and deferred those issues to the recent trial on the merits. Here, the Court rules on those two deferred matters.

With regard to the amount of the IRS claim, the evidence offered at trial consisted of the testimony of Brenda Esser, an IRS Revenue Officer, and the Certificate of Assessments and Payments regarding the estate tax return filed by Albert Hud-dleston (“Debtor”), as administrator for his first wife, Madeline Huddleston. The facts relating to the estate tax claim, along with the fiduciary fraud liability imposed against the Debtor, were discussed in some detail in this Court’s prior Opinion and will not be recounted here. It will suffice to state that the original estate tax deficiency was in the amount of $345,147.00 and the fraud penalty was in the amount of $172,573.00. The Debtor and the Huddleston Children are jointly and severally liable under the Internal Revenue Code for both the original tax liability and the fraud penalty, the Debtor as a fiduciary and the Children as transferees.

However, as Esser testified to at the trial, the tax and fraud penalty were abated by seizures from and payments by the Huddleston Children. As is apparently its legal prerogative, the IRS chose to settle the Childrens’ transferee liabilities after collecting what it considered were the maximum amounts that could be collected at the time. Notably, however, the is no evidence of a settlement with the youngest child, Alicia, although there has apparently [190]*190been a Stipulated Judgment entered into with her. Consequently, the IRS is left with the option of collecting the balance from the Debtor and, accordingly, this bankruptcy estate.- This course of action is what the Court questioned in its previous Opinion, in view of the fact that further collection from most of the Children is time-barred under the Internal Revenue Code. However, after considering the testimony of Esser, and finding no contrary evidence, the Court must conclude that the IRS acted within the bounds of its discretion, though perhaps not as the Court would have preferred, in its collection efforts. Thus, the Court must find that, as presented in the exhibit offered at trial, the IRS holds an allowed claim against the estate in the amounts of $801,656.98 (priority), $116,774.05 (general unsecured) and $31,371.54 (administrative).

The majority of the testimony at trial dealt with the Trustee’s turnover claim. This claim relates to the Dorvin Notes, which are two promissory notes executed on March 15, 1979 by Dorvin Developments, Inc. and Edwin C. Dorvin (collectively, “Dorvin”) in favor of the Debtor during his marriage to the late Madeline Huddleston. The first note was in the original principal sum of $58,000.00 and the second note was in the principal sum of $296,000.00. These notes were a part of the community of acquets and gains of the Debtor and Madeline Huddleston. Until Madeline Huddleston’s death on January 17, 1981, the notes were payable through a collecting agent, Bank of New Orleans, which received all proceeds and paid them one-half to the Debtor and one-half to Madeline Huddleston.

After Madeline Huddleston’s death, the Debtor opened her succession and was named administrator of her estate. On July 2, 1981 and July 15, 1981, the Debtor wrote Dorvin to change the collecting agent to Continental Titles, Inc. (“CTI”), a Defendant in this action and a company owned at least 50% by the Debtor. Thereafter, CTI received the note proceeds and deposited them into an account at First National Bank of Jefferson (“Whitney Account”).2 No other funds of CTI were deposited into this account because CTI maintained a separate account at Merchants Bank & Trust for its other receipts.

On or about May 13, 1987, the Debtor allegedly endorsed the back of the two Dorvin Notes “Pay to the order of Continental Titles”. However, there is no credible evidence that there was any consideration given by CTI for the alleged transfer, although the Debtor maintains that the notes were a capital contribution to CTI. The books and records of CTI did not reflect such a contribution and, indeed, in a 1990 deposition given by the Debtor in an adversary proceeding brought by the Huddleston Children, the Debtor state that he did not know what consideration was given for the endorsement of the notes. Moreover, there is also no evidence that the Debtor ever relinquished possession of the notes. On January 29, 1988, Albert and Helene Hud-dleston (“Debtors”) filed a Joint Petition for Relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Most of the evidence at trial concerning the financial records of CTI and the Debtors came from Wayne Bienvenu, an examiner who prepared a Court-ordered report dated January 4, 1990 concerning the operations and finances of the Debtors and their related businesses, and from his report itself. CTI’s balance sheets for the fiscal years ending May 31, 1987, May 31, 1988 and May 31, 1989 do not reflect the Dorvin Notes as assets, nor do they reflect [191]*191any interest income paid on the notes as income to the company. Rather, all payments received on the notes were applied on the CTI books to reduce the Debtor’s outstanding shareholder loans to CTI. Bienvenu testified that the CTI cash receipts and disbursements records reveal that approximately $37,000.00 was deposited into and disbursed from the Whitney Account for the fiscal year June 1, 1988 through May 31, 1989. The primary source for these funds was the note payments. As in previous years, the payments were credited against the Debtor’s shareholder loans.

While the disbursements from the Whitney Account were charged to the Debtor’s shareholder loan account on CTI’s books, in fact the disbursements were made for the benefit of the Debtor or Ms family or for the Debtors’ residence on Chateau Magdelaine. The trial testimony of both of the Debtors supports this fact.

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Bluebook (online)
279 B.R. 187, 2002 Bankr. LEXIS 560, 89 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 2061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adler-v-united-states-ex-rel-internal-revenue-service-in-re-ulrich-laeb-2002.