Blackstone Financial Group Business Trust v. Myler (In re Myler)

477 B.R. 227
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Utah
DecidedAugust 31, 2012
DocketBankruptcy No. 10-31427 JTM; Adversary No. 12-2231
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 477 B.R. 227 (Blackstone Financial Group Business Trust v. Myler (In re Myler)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackstone Financial Group Business Trust v. Myler (In re Myler), 477 B.R. 227 (Utah 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

JOEL T. MARKER, Bankruptcy Judge.

This proceeding concerns a creditor’s right to maintain revocation of discharge and nondischargeability claims filed out of time. Under the Bankruptcy Code, a creditor may request revocation of a chapter 7 debtor’s discharge within one year after the discharge was granted if the discharge was obtained through fraud and the creditor did not know of the fraud until after the discharge was granted.1 Similarly, a creditor may request revocation of a debtor’s discharge within the later of one year after the discharge was granted and the date the case was closed if the debtor acquired property of the estate and failed to report the acquisition of the property or deliver the property to the trustee.2 And under the Bankruptcy Rules governing chapter 7 cases, a creditor has 60 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors to file a complaint to determine the dischargeability of certain debts, including those incurred through fraud.3 In the matter at hand, a creditor filed an untimely complaint seeking to revoke the debtors’ discharge, or alternatively to ob[231]*231tain a determination that its particular claim was not subject to discharge. The debtors promptly moved to dismiss the complaint as impermissibly late, and the creditor asserted that its claims remained viable under the doctrine of equitable tolling because it did not discover the facts alleged in the complaint until well after the debtors received their discharge.

The Court holds that the deadline to file a complaint to revoke the debtors’ discharge under § 727(d)(1) and (2)4 is an essential prerequisite to the proceeding and is not subject to the doctrine of equitable tolling. The Court further finds that the creditor in this proceeding has failed to meet its burden to establish entitlement to the equitable tolling doctrine to excuse the tardy filing of its complaint outside the limitations period afforded by Rule 4007(c).

JURISDICTION

The Court has jurisdiction over this matter under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334(a) and (b) and 157(a) and (b). This is a core proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I) and (J), because it involves a determination of the dischargeability of a particular debt and an objection to discharge in the form of a request for revocation of discharge.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Blackstone Financial Group Business Trust (“Blackstone”) is the lender of record in a $62 million loan to Midtown Joint Venture, LC (“MJV”). The loan was for the development of a mixed-use commercial and residential real estate project known as “Midtown Village.” Lawrence Myler was a principal of MJV and personally guaranteed the loan (“MJV Loan”). The project ultimately failed and MJV defaulted on its obligations to Blackstone’s predecessors-in-interest, BankFirst and Marshall Investments Corporation.

Lawrence Myler and his wife, Jill, (the “Mylers”) filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on August 20, 2010, and they received their discharge on November 23, 2010. The case was closed on June 21, 2011. On May 30, 2012, Blackstone filed a complaint seeking a determination that its claim against Lawrence Myler was nondis-chargeable and requesting revocation of the Mylers’ discharge. The complaint alleges that Lawrence Myler fraudulently obtained and used MJV Loan proceeds for his personal benefit, that the Mylers failed to disclose assets and transfers, and that they obtained property of the estate that they failed to report or deliver to the bankruptcy trustee. The Mylers filed a motion to dismiss on June 28, 2012.

DISCUSSION

The Mylers ask the Court to dismiss the adversary proceeding under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), made applicable to this proceeding by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7012. To support their positions, the Mylers have attached affidavits and other documents to their pleadings. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted must be treated as a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment if matters outside of the pleadings are presented to and not excluded by the Court.5 In some instances, however, a court’s review of affidavits and other documents in the context of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) [232]*232does not convert the motion into a motion for summary judgment.6 The Court finds sufficient information in the pleadings of this case to make its decision without examination of the outside materials. The motion, therefore, will not be converted to a motion for summary judgment and will remain as a motion to dismiss.

A. Standard for Motion to Dismiss

“In reviewing a motion to dismiss, the court must ‘look for plausibility in the complaint.’ ”7 It is true that courts “must accept ‘all well-pleaded allegations of the complaint as true and must construe them in a light most favorable to the plaintiff 8 however, a complaint must include sufficient facts to “state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.”9 Courts look to the “specific allegations in the complaint to determine whether they plausibly support a legal claim for relief.”10 For the reasons stated below, the Court finds that Blackstone has not met this standard, and dismissal of the complaint is appropriate.

B. The Section 727 Claim

Blackstone requests revocation of the Mylers’ discharge pursuant to § 727(d)(1) and (2). Under § 727(d)(1), a court shall revoke a debtor’s discharge granted under § 727(a) if the discharge “was obtained through the fraud of the debtor, and the requesting party did not know of such fraud until after the granting of such discharge.”11 Revocation of a discharge is appropriate under § 727(d)(2) when a debtor has “acquired property that is property of the estate ... and knowingly and fraudulently failed to report the acquisition of ... such property to the trustee.” 12

The deadlines for requesting revocation of a discharge under § 727(d)(1) and (2) are set forth in § 727(e). Section 727(e)(1) allows a creditor to seek a revocation of a debtor’s discharge under § 727(d)(1) “within one year after such discharge is granted.”13 The Mylers received their discharge on November 23, 2010; therefore, the deadline imposed under § 727(e)(1) was November 23, 2011. Blackstone did not request revocation of the Mylers’ discharge until May 30, 2012.

Blackstone also failed to meet the deadline provided in § 727(e)(2), which allows a creditor to seek revocation of a discharge under § 727(d)(2) “before the later of (A) one year after the granting of such discharge; and (B) the date the case is closed.”14 The deadline for Blackstone to file its request for revocation under § 727(d)(2), therefore, was also November 23, 2011.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
477 B.R. 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackstone-financial-group-business-trust-v-myler-in-re-myler-utb-2012.