Confederation Life Insurance v. Morrisville Properties, L.P.

715 A.2d 1147, 1998 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1164
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 9, 1998
DocketNo. 3611 Philadelphia 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 715 A.2d 1147 (Confederation Life Insurance v. Morrisville Properties, L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Confederation Life Insurance v. Morrisville Properties, L.P., 715 A.2d 1147, 1998 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1164 (Pa. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

CAVANAUGH, Judge:

Confederation Life Insurance Company (“Confederation Life”), a judgment creditor, purchased real property belonging to Morris-ville Properties, L.P. (“Morrisville”), at an execution sale. Confederation Life filed a petition to fix the property’s fair market value for determining its right to a deficiency judgment. Morrisville and Site Development, Inc. (“SDI”) filed a cross-petition to have the judgment marked satisfied based on Confederation Life’s delay in petitioning to establish its right to a deficiency judgment. The Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County denied Morrisville and SDI’s petition and [1149]*1149fixed the property’s value at $2,600,000. Morrisville and SDI now appeal.1

The relevant facts underlying this action are accurately and adequately set forth by the trial court as follows:

On April 15,1988, defendant, Morrisville Properties, borrowed $2,700,000 from plaintiff, Confederation Life Insurance Company (Confederation Life). In return, defendant executed a mortgage note to plaintiff for that amount. The note was secured by a mortgage on the property known as Morrisville Square Shopping Center. Defendant Site Development Inc. (SDI)[2] agreed to act as guarantor and surety for defendant Morrisville Properties, up to a maximum of $675,000. As evidence of that agreement, on April 15, 1988, SDI executed a limited surety agreement.
In December of 1991, defendant Mor-risville Properties defaulted under the mortgage note by failing to make its regular monthly payments. It also failed to pay county and township real estate taxes due. Plaintiff, Confederation Life, elected to accelerate the entire unpaid principal balance of the Note, as well as a prepayment premium. On February 10, 1992, plaintiff filed the instant lawsuit, seeking $2,905,958.50, plus costs and interest from defendant Morrisville Properties and $642,930.33 from SDI. On March 20, 1992, defendants Morrisville Properties and SDI filed a joint Answer and Counterclaim alleging plaintiffs imprudent management practices as mortgagee-in-possession, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of duty of good faith.
On November 21, 1994, a nonjury trial was held before the Honorable Edward G. Biester, Jr. He ruled in favor of the plaintiff and against defendant Morrisville Properties in the sum of $3,290,049.08. He also ruled in favor of the plaintiff and against defendant SDI in the sum of $642,-930.33. On defendants’ counterclaim, he ruled in favor of plaintiff.
Thereafter, on December 9, 1994, plaintiff filed its Praecipe for Judgment against defendant Morrisville Properties in the sum of $3,290,049.08 and defendant SDI in the sum of $642,930.33, and judgment was entered by the prothonotary.
On January 17, 1995, plaintiff filed its praecipe for a writ of execution for mortgage foreclosure on real estate.
On April 13, 1995, plaintiff purchased the shopping center at the sheriff’s sale for $1,100,000. On September 25, 1995, the Sheriff delivered the sheriff’s deed to the Recorder of Deeds. On December 1,1995, plaintiff filed its Petition to Fix Fair Value. .On the same date, defendants filed their Petition to Satisfy Judgment. By Order of September 23, 1996, after oral argument on the same date, [the trial] Court denied defendants’ Petition to Satisfy Judgment and granted Plaintiffs Petition to Fix Fair Value of Real Estate. On July 3, 1997, [the trial court] held a hearing to fix the fair market value of the real estate. By Decree of July 17, 1997, [the trial] Court fixed the fair market value at $2,600,000: Defendants now appeal both [the] September 23, 1996 Order and [the] July 17, 1997 Decree.

Trial Court Opinion at 1-3 (additional footnote omitted).3

Appellants raise the following issues for our review:

1. Did the lower Court commit an error of law in its interpretation of the Deficiency Judgment Act when it denied SDI’s and Morrisville’s Petition to Satisfy Deficiency Judgment?
2. Did the lower Court commit an error of law by not releasing defendant SDI from further obligation to Confederation [1150]*1150when the Court interpreted the language of the Limited Surety Agreement?
3. Did the lower Court abuse its discretion when it set the shopping center’s fair market value by neglecting to consider the required factors for valuation, and by relying on incompetent evidence?

Appellants’ Brief at 22.4

Appellants’ first contention is that the trial court committed an error of law in its interpretation of the Deficiency Judgment Act (the “Act”) wfien it denied SDI’s and Morrisville’s Petition to Satisfy Deficiency Judgment. Appellants argue that, because the fair market value of the property ($2,600,000) exceeded the amount of SDI’s guaranty ($675,000), the Act precludes any further recovery from SDI. To support this argument, defendants rely on the case of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. v. Arrott Associates, Ltd., 60 F.3d 1037 (3d Cir. 1995).

Initially, we note that defendants are correct in asserting that if we were to follow the holding in Arrott, SDI would be discharged in this matter. However, as this court has previously stated, we are not bound by decisions of federal courts inferior to the United States Supreme Court. Dorn v. Stanhope Steel, Inc. 368 Pa.Super. 557, 574-576, 534 A.2d 798, 807 (1987). After .thorough review of Arrott, we have concluded that the court misconstrued 42 Pa.C.S. § 8103(c) and we adopt a different interpretation of the governing statute.

Arrott was factually similar to the case at bar. In Arrott, the lender had obtained a mortgage foreclosure judgment against a limited partnership for $2,494,991 and a personal judgment against the general partners for $223,288. Like the case sub judice, the ' loan was largely non-recourse. After the foreclosure sale, the lender filed a timely petition under the Act to fix the fair market value of the property for deficiency judgment purposes. The district court set the fair market value at $1,000,000 and found that the general partners were personally liable for the deficiency up to the amount of the judgment against them. On appeal, the Third Circuit reversed the district court and held that, because appellants were only partially liable for the debt and because the established fair market value of the property substantially exceeded the amount for which the partners were liable, “the plain language of subsection (c) requires the appellants’ release and discharge from the liability under the personal judgment,” Id. at 1040.

We disagree with the Arrott court’s interpretation that the Act requires the release of all partial guarantors from their entire liability for a debt whenever their portion of the liability is less than the fair market value of the property. Unlike the Third Circuit, we do not find that the language of the statute to be so clear as to forestall inquiry into the other tenets of statutory construction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
715 A.2d 1147, 1998 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/confederation-life-insurance-v-morrisville-properties-lp-pasuperct-1998.