City of Chicago v. Michigan Beach Housing Cooperative

609 N.E.2d 877, 242 Ill. App. 3d 636, 182 Ill. Dec. 343, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 786, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 70
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 26, 1993
Docket1-92-1496, 1-92-1734 cons.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 609 N.E.2d 877 (City of Chicago v. Michigan Beach Housing Cooperative) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Chicago v. Michigan Beach Housing Cooperative, 609 N.E.2d 877, 242 Ill. App. 3d 636, 182 Ill. Dec. 343, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 786, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 70 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE SCARIANO

delivered the opinion of the court:

The Michigan Beach Apartments (the building) is comprised of 240 units, all of which were rented to low-income families after the building was erected in 1967. It was financed by a federally insured mortgage upon which the building was in default from 1971 until 1984, when the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), its sole creditor, finally foreclosed on the obligation. The owner thereupon declared bankruptcy.

In 1986, defendant Jayson Investments, Inc. (Jayson), whose only two shareholders are Jay Canel and Scott Canel (the developers), presented to the bankruptcy court a plan of reorganization which promised to restructure the building as a cooperative, and to which HUD agreed.

Pursuant to the reorganization plan, the developers created defendant Michigan Beach Housing Cooperative (Cooperative), a not-for-profit corporation without assets, which served as the entity through which the developers obtained title to the building from HUD, and through which the residents of the building would manage it. The plan further obligated the developers to hire defendant IGF Development Corporation (IGF) to sell the cooperative units, and the bankruptcy court required that 50% to 70% of them be sold before the plan was to take effect.

In addition to the developers’ sponsorship, the Cooperative obtained two loans. The first was a HUD co-insured $6.4 million first mortgage loan from defendant Cincinnati Mortgage Company (CMC). CMC eventually defaulted on its obligations under the co-insurance program and turned over its portfolio of loans, including the Cooperative loan, to defendant GNMA, which became the senior mortgagee. GNMA later hired defendant Huntoon Paige Associates, Ltd. (Huntoon), to service the Cooperative loan.

The second loan acquired by the Cooperative was from plaintiff, City of Chicago (the city), in an amount of approximately $3.3 million; in exchange, the Cooperative granted it a security interest in the building and other related assets. The city’s mortgage explicitly stated that it was junior to CMC’s and that all payments due under the note secured by the city’s mortgage were to be made only from “surplus cash” as defined in the senior mortgage. The city’s mortgage also provided that if the Cooperative failed to make its payments on the note, the city could not institute foreclosure proceedings against the building without the consent of the senior mortgagee. The city recorded its mortgage and filed a financing statement with the Illinois Secretary of State.

In April 1989 the developers learned that despite ICF’s assurances to the contrary, less than 20% of the building’s units had been sold prior to closing and that, consequently, the Cooperative was not optimistic about its ability to make future loan payments. The developers thus proposed to the city and to HUD a new plan, one that would involve the Cooperative’s transferring the building to a new limited partnership which would operate the building as a rental complex as opposed to a cooperative. The developers also requested that the city, as well as the State of Illinois, grant the yet-to-be-formed limited partnership low-income housing tax credits so that the interests in the limited partnership could be sold to a syndicator who would in turn sell interests in the partnership to investors. 1

Throughout 1989 and 1990, the developers negotiated with the city and HUD. The city committed $300,000 worth of income tax credits to the building in June of 1989; subsequently, the developers also obtained $480,000 worth of tax credits from the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

In early 1991, the developers and HUD agreed to a plan that would restructure the ownership of the building as a limited partnership. The city, in a letter dated February 14, 1991, informed the developers and HUD that it rejected the new plan; apparently, the city wanted to maintain the building as a cooperative instead of an apartment complex. Nevertheless, the restructuring plan was completed and executed at a closing, which the city did not attend, on June 12, 1991. The developers, who had earlier repurchased the building from the Cooperative, 2 transferred it and its related assets to a newly created entity, defendant Michigan Beach Limited Partnership (the limited partnership). The limited partnership’s general partners consisted of defendant Michigan Beach Development Corporation (of which the developers were the sole shareholders) and National Tax Credit Inc. II. The major limited partner was the syndicator, defendant National Tax Credit Investors II, a limited partnership with National Tax Credit Inc. II as its general partner (NTC defendants). The NTC defendants, which had given the limited partnership a promissory note for $3,975,000 in January 1991, paid it $2,925,129 toward the balance thereon at the closing, and the limited partnership, pursuant to its agreement with HUD, paid $1,065,600 on the mortgage held by GNMA. In exchange, HUD agreed: (1) not to consent to any attempt by the city to institute foreclosure proceedings; and (2) to allow the limited partnership to remit the remaining syndication funds to creditors as it wished. Accordingly, the limited partnership used the remainder of the syndication funds to pay off accrued debts to certain unsecured creditors (recipient defendants).

On June 19, 1991, the city, unaware that the closing had already taken place, filed a complaint in the circuit court of Cook County against the Cooperative, the limited partnership and CMC, asserting its rights under its mortgage. The city also sought a temporary restraining order to prevent disbursement of syndication funds to the recipient defendants. After the city learned that the syndication had occurred and the funds had been disbursed, it filed a motion for emergency discovery. GNMA, which was not yet a party to the action, but without anyone objecting to the propriety thereof, removed the suit to Federal court, which granted the city’s renewed motion for emergency discovery.

On July 15, 1991, the city filed its first amended complaint against the Cooperative, the limited partnership, CMC, the recipient defendants, the NTC defendants and GNMA. Count I alleges that the city is entitled to recover, under article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (111. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 26, par. 9 — 101 et seq.) (Article 9), its collateral, namely, the note and the cash already and yet to be paid to the recipient defendants (syndication funds). Count II is a conversion action in which the city seeks to recover the note given by the NTC defendants to the limited partnership on the theory that it is the city’s collateral. Count III is a replevin action against the recipient defendants and alleges that the city is entitled to replevy its collateral, the cash paid on the note, from them. Count IV alleges that the city is entitled to accelerate repayment of its loan because its mortgage is in default.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Abramson v. Abramson
2023 IL App (1st) 220994-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2023)
KINGFISHER WIND v. WEHMULLER
2022 OK 83 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2022)
Duggan v. Symphony Crestwood, LLC
2020 IL App (1st) 191578-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)
In re Woodside
538 B.R. 518 (C.D. Illinois, 2015)
In re Creekside Senior Apartments, LP
477 B.R. 40 (Sixth Circuit, 2012)
STATE BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL v. Duncan
76 Cal. Rptr. 3d 507 (California Court of Appeal, 2008)
In Re Tewell
355 B.R. 674 (N.D. Illinois, 2006)
Rainbow Apartments v. Property Tax Appeal Board
762 N.E.2d 534 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2001)
In re Estate of Ferguson
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2000
City of Chicago v. Michigan Beach Housing Cooperative
696 N.E.2d 804 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1998)
Rivers v. State
490 S.E.2d 261 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1997)
Horbach v. Kaczmarek
915 F. Supp. 18 (N.D. Illinois, 1996)
In Re Keene Corp.
188 B.R. 881 (S.D. New York, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
609 N.E.2d 877, 242 Ill. App. 3d 636, 182 Ill. Dec. 343, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 786, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-chicago-v-michigan-beach-housing-cooperative-illappct-1993.