Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc. v. Allen (In Re Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc.)

490 F.3d 1325, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 16188, 48 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 124, 2007 WL 1965555
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 9, 2007
Docket06-12187
StatusPublished
Cited by68 cases

This text of 490 F.3d 1325 (Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc. v. Allen (In Re Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc. v. Allen (In Re Advanced Telecommunication Network, Inc.), 490 F.3d 1325, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 16188, 48 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 124, 2007 WL 1965555 (11th Cir. 2007).

Opinions

[1329]*1329BARKETT, Circuit Judge:

Advanced Telecommunications Network, Inc. (“ATN”), a chapter 11 bankrupt debt- or seeking to recover certain transfers made before the company declared bankruptcy, appeals from a district court order affirming a bankruptcy court judgment in favor of Daniel Allen (“Allen”) and his brother David, the recipients of the disputed transfers. ATN focuses its claim on a $6 million transfer ATN made to the Al-lens on June 1, 1999, alleging that the transfer was fraudulent under New Jersey law.

BACKGROUND

Daniel Allen and Gary Carpenter founded ATN in 1989 as a long-distance reseller of telecommunication services. The company purchased long distance telephone service in bulk from larger carriers, such as AT&T, and resold it to customers. Allen and Carpenter each held exactly half of ATN’s voting stock.1

By 1996, disputes between Allen and Carpenter had developed into a bitter battle for control of the company. In April 1996, Carpenter (who was then president of ATN) sent Allen a letter placing him on administrative leave. Although Allen continued to draw salary until August of that year, Carpenter refused to give him access to the company’s financial information. On August 14,1996, Carpenter wrote Allen another letter informing him that his employment with ATN was terminated and that his salary would end at the close of business that day.2

The Alien-Carpenter Litigation

As a result of Carpenter’s actions, Allen sued Carpenter and ATN in New Jersey state court in April 1996, seeking control of the company. Allen argued in that “ATN has been in a serious state of decline” under Carpenter’s management, and that “losses exceeded $2 million by November of 1997.” With the company frozen while its equal voting directors — Allen and Carpenter — fought for control, the court appointed a third director (Rutgers Law School Dean Milton Leontiades) to help the company remain afloat. The company was able to avoid bankruptcy, and the case proceeded to trial in December 1998. ATN actively participated at trial, and retained separate, independent counsel.

On December 23, 1998, in the midst of the evidentiary presentation for trial, attorneys for the Allens and Carpenter met and signed a short, handwritten settlement agreement which relieved Carpenter of any personal liability to the Allens. No lawyer for ATN was present or participated in this meeting. Nonetheless, the terms of the agreement provided that ATN would pay the Allens’ attorneys $1.25 million in fees by January 15, plus another $100,000 by January 31, 1999. ATN would then transfer an additional $6 million to the Allens themselves no later than June 1, 1999. ATN was also required to forgive the Allens’ debts to the company, which totaled approximately $1.6 million, and advance any funds needed by the Allens to pay for tax liabilities arising from their ownership of ATN. The handwritten agreement was signed by the lawyers for the Allens and Carpenter. No one signed the handwritten document on behalf of ATN.

The handwritten agreement was subsequently formalized in a 23-page typed doc[1330]*1330ument on January 12, 1999 (“Agreement”). This time, Carpenter signed on behalf of ATN in his capacity as president, as did Daniel Allen in his capacity as secretary. Carpenter and Allen also signed a separate Consent Action on behalf of ATN’s shareholders, approving the actions required under the Agreement. The two men also signed in their individual capacities. The Agreement provided additional detail as to terms, but did not differ in substance from the handwritten document signed by Carpenter and Allen weeks earlier.

The Disputed Transfer

Carpenter, Allen, and ATN all fulfilled their obligations under the Agreement. Just after the Agreement was signed, ATN paid $1,250,000 to Allens’ attorneys and, as agreed, paid them an additional $100,000 in three later installments. Also pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, ATN paid the Allens $250,000 on January 12, 1999, and an additional $6 million on June 1, 1999. This money went directly to the Allens from ATN’s coffers. It never passed through any individual account owned by Carpenter, even though the money was used to settle a lawsuit filed by Allen against Carpenter individually.

Sometime after June 1, these $6.25 million payments from ATN to Allen were recharacterized as loans to Carpenter, who signed two promissory notes — one back-dated to January 17, 1999, and one back-dated to June 1, 1999 — in the amounts of $250,000 and $6,000,000, respectively. The notes retroactively re-characterized the transfers as purchases by Carpenter’s purchase of the Allens’ stock from ATN, in exchange for Carpenter’s promise to pay ATN $6,250,000 and assume the Allens’ $1.6 million in shareholder loans.

The ATN-WATS Dispute

Beginning in 1995, ATN was also engaged in a contract dispute with WATS/ 800, Inc. (“WATS”3), a competitor. WATS4 filed a $39 million claim against ATN, which was still pending when ATN made the $6 million transfer to the Allens.

ATN and WATS settled their dispute on October 19, 2000, about a year and a half after Allen and Carpenter settled their dispute. The parties agreed that ATN would pay $10.5 million to WATS to settle the claims.5 As part of the settlement, Carpenter relinquished control of ATN to two companies controlled by WATS president Damian Freeman, thus placing Freeman in control of ATN, where he remains.

The Current Litigation

Following the June 1999 transfer of $6 million to the Allens,6 and the October [1331]*13312000 settlement between ATN and WATS (and accompanying management shuffle, as Freeman replaced Carpenter at the helm of ATN), ATN continued to operate as a going enterprise for nearly three years before filing for reorganization under Chapter 11. On January 12, 2003, ATN filed the petition initiating the present case, seeking to recover the money transferred to the Allens in 1999. ATN asserted 13 counts in its Amended Complaint: six fraudulent transfer claims and one count of improper distribution to shareholders, plus counts alleging actual fraud, conflict of interest, unjust enrichment, right to an accounting, equitable subordination, and turnover.

The bankruptcy court rejected ATN’s fraudulent transfer claims, finding them to be barred by New Jersey’s four-year statute of limitations period because the “obligation” giving rise to the transfer arose on December 28, 1998, when the handwritten agreement between Allen and Carpenter was signed — four years and two weeks prior to the filing of the lawsuit. Alternatively, the court found that ATN’s claims failed as a matter of law because ATN had failed to satisfy the two elements of fraudulent transfer under New Jersey law: (1) that ATN was insolvent at the time of the $6 million transfer, and (2) that ATN received less than reasonably equivalent value in return for the transfer. See N.J. Stat. Ann. § 25:2-27.a. ATN appealed the bankruptcy court’s decisions on Counts 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 — alleging constructive fraud (Counts 1, 2, 5, and 6) and improper shareholder distributions (Count 7) — to the district court,7 which affirmed the bankruptcy court in a brief opinion. ATN then timely appealed to this Court.

DISCUSSION

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Bluebook (online)
490 F.3d 1325, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 16188, 48 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 124, 2007 WL 1965555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/advanced-telecommunication-network-inc-v-allen-in-re-advanced-ca11-2007.