Bohm v. Titus (In Re Titus)

467 B.R. 592, 2012 WL 695604
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 29, 2012
Docket19-20413
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 467 B.R. 592 (Bohm v. Titus (In Re Titus)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bohm v. Titus (In Re Titus), 467 B.R. 592, 2012 WL 695604 (Pa. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Related to Doc. Nos. 41, 45, 67, 108

BERNARD MARKOVITZ, Bankruptcy Judge.

The opinion that follows is the second in a line of decisions rendered by the Court to deal with fraudulent transfer actions and related matters that have been brought against several preeminent members of the now-disbanded law firm of Titus & McConomy. The first such decision was handed down in In re Arbogast, 466 B.R. 287 (Bankr.W.D.Pa.2012). Much of the analysis contained in the following opinion mirrors that set forth in Arbogast, but, as one can see, there are significant differences between the two opinions.

INTRODUCTION

Robert Shearer, the Chapter 7 Trustee (hereafter “the Trustee”) for Paul Titus, the instant debtor (hereafter “the Debt- or”), prosecutes the instant adversary proceeding (Adversary No. 10-2338-BM) so as to pursue a fraudulent transfer action against the Debtor and Bonnie Titus, his non-debtor spouse (hereafter “Mrs. Titus”). The fraudulent transfer action includes three counts and is pursued pursuant to Pennsylvania state fraudulent transfer law via 11 U.S.C. § 544(b)(1).

The Trustee and TRZ Holdings II, Inc. (hereafter “TRZ”), who is a pre-petition creditor of the Debtor, also object to many of the bankruptcy exemptions that the Debtor has taken. Such objections to exemptions are filed at Document No’s. 41 and 45 in the main case docket (i.e., Bankruptcy No. 10-23668-TPA).

Shearer replaced Carlota Bohm as the Trustee after the instant adversary proceeding and the exemption objection filed at Doc. No. 41 were filed. Subsequent to such replacement, the captions for such *601 adversary proceeding and exemption objection were never amended. Consequently, Bohm is still listed in such captions as the Trustee, notwithstanding that Shearer is now the Trustee.

The instant opinion and accompanying order also dispose of objections that have been made by the Debtor and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP (hereafter “the Schnader Law Firm”) to TRZ’s claim against the Debtor (Doc. No’s. 67 and 108 in the main case docket respectively). The Schnader Law Firm is a pre-petition creditor of the Debtor.

For the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant judgment in favor of the Trustee, and against the Debtor and Mrs. Titus jointly and severally, on the Trustee’s fraudulent transfer action in the amount of $281,006.18. The Court will also sustain, in part, and overrule, in part, the exemption objections that have been made by the Trustee and TRZ. Finally, the Court will overrule the objections to TRZ’s claim that have been made by the Debtor and the Schnader Law Firm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The Debtor is an attorney who at one time was a partner at Titus and McCono-my (hereafter “T & M”), a now-disbanded law partnership. In July 2000 Trizechahn Gateway, LLC (hereafter “Trizec”), who was the owner of the building in which T & M had rented space, filed a lawsuit against T & M in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas for Allegheny County (hereafter “the Common Pleas Court”). Trizec filed such lawsuit on the basis that T & M had breached its lease agreement with Trizec (hereafter “the Lease Litigation”). Trizec named as defendants in the Lease Litigation approximately 20 individual partners of T & M including the Debtor.

On June 7, 2006, the Common Pleas Court entered judgment in the Lease Litigation in favor of Trizec, which judgment was jointly and severally entered against, inter alia, the Debtor. The amount of such judgment was for roughly $2.7 million, which amount is alleged to have subsequently grown to more than $3 million by virtue of interest and legal fees. The Lease Litigation judgment was subsequently appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which affirmed the Common Pleas Court’s decision on July 3, 2007, as to most of the named defendants, including the Debtor.

In an attempt to collect on such judgment from the Debtor, Trizec commenced a fraudulent transfer action on April 23, 2007, against the Debtor and Mrs. Titus in the Common Pleas Court (hereafter “the Titus Fraudulent Transfer Action”). On May 20, 2010, the instant bankruptcy case was commenced by the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition. An order for relief was then entered in the instant bankruptcy case on May 28, 2010.

On June 3, 2010, the Debtor removed the Titus Fraudulent Transfer Action to this Court. Such removal served to initiate the instant adversary proceeding. On January 13, 2011, this Court entered an order that substituted the Trustee for Trizec as the plaintiff in the instant adversary proceeding, thereby placing such action in its present context.

TRZ, rather than Trizec, has filed an original and an amended proof of claim in the instant bankruptcy case, naming itself as the creditor to whom the Debtor owes the joint and several Lease Litigation judgment. TRZ claims that it is the entity to whom the Debtor owes such judgment on the basis that it is the successor in interest to Trizec. The basis for the objections to TRZ’s claim by the Debtor and the Schnader Law Firm is that TRZ is not a successor in interest to Trizec and, thus, is *602 not the proper entity to whom the Debtor owes the joint and several Lease Litigation judgment. Until the Court addresses the two claim objections at the end of the instant opinion, the Court will (a) treat TRZ as being the proper creditor to whom the Debtor owes the joint and several Lease Litigation judgment, and (b) refer to TRZ and Trizec interchangeably (i.e., as being the same entity).

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The complaint that sets forth the Titus Fraudulent Transfer Action contains three counts. The first count pleads an actual fraudulent transfer action under Pennsylvania’s version of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (i.e., 12 Pa.C.S.A. § 5104(a)(1)), and the latter two counts plead constructive fraudulent transfer actions under such statute (i.e., 12 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 5104(a)(2)(h) and 5105).

12 Pa.C.S.A. § 5104(a)(1) & (2)(ii) provides, in pertinent part, that:

A transfer made or obligation incurred by a debtor is fraudulent as to a creditor, whether the creditor’s claim arose before or after the transfer was made or the obligation was incurred, if the debtor made the transfer or incurred the obligation:
(1) with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud any creditor of the debtor; or
(2) without receiving a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfer or obligation, and the debtor:
(ii) intended to incur, or believed or reasonably should have believed that the debtor would incur, debts beyond the debtor’s ability to pay as they became due.

12 Pa.C.S.A. § 5104(a)(1) & (2)(ii) (Pur-don’s 2011). 12 Pa.C.S.A. § 5105 provides that:

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Related

Shearer v. Titus (In Re Titus)
916 F.3d 293 (Third Circuit, 2019)
Shearer v. Titus (In re Titus)
566 B.R. 755 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2017)
Sikirica v. Cohen (In re Cohen)
509 B.R. 1 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2014)
Titus v. Shearer
498 B.R. 508 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2013)
Luellen v. Luellen
972 F. Supp. 2d 722 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2013)
Shearer v. Oberdick (In re Oberdick)
490 B.R. 687 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2013)
Sikirica v. Wettach (In re Wettach)
489 B.R. 496 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2013)
Cohen v. Sikirica
487 B.R. 615 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
467 B.R. 592, 2012 WL 695604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bohm-v-titus-in-re-titus-pawb-2012.