Consumers Time Credit, Inc. v. Remark Corp.

227 F. Supp. 263, 8 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 64, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7188
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 28, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 34331
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 227 F. Supp. 263 (Consumers Time Credit, Inc. v. Remark Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consumers Time Credit, Inc. v. Remark Corp., 227 F. Supp. 263, 8 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 64, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7188 (E.D. Pa. 1964).

Opinion

KRAFT, District Judge.

Consumer Time Credit, Inc. (Consumers) brought this action against six corporations and three individuals, asserting claims based, inter alia, upon an accounts receivable financing agreement between Consumers and Remark Corp. (Remark), one of the corporate defendants.

Plaintiff commenced its suit by writ of fraudulent debtor’s attachment, pursuant to the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, and attached bank accounts and other personal property of defendants Sara L. Bokser, Lewis Bokser and Lewis Bokser, Inc.

The case is before us on petitions to dissolve the attachments, which allege, in part, that the complaint fails to set forth ground for attachment.

Rule 1286 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, 12 P.S.Appendix, in relevant part, states:

“A fraudulent debtor’s attachment may be issued to attach personal property of the defendant within the Commonwealth and not exempt from execution, upon any cause of action at law or in equity in which the relief sought includes a judgment or decree for the payment of money, when the defendant with intent to defraud the plaintiff
“(1) has removed or is about to remove property from the jurisdiction of the court;
“(2) has concealed or is about to conceal property;
“(3) has transferred or is about to transfer property; * *

Count 1 of the complaint states a claim against Remark alone, and alleges that by reason of sundry defaults, breaches of warranty, misrepresentations and other breaches of the accounts receivable financing agreement, the entire indebtedness owing by that defendant to plaintiff [265]*265has matured and is now immediately due and payable.

Paragraph 5 of this Count avers:

“5. The defaults, breaches of warranty, misrepresentations and other violations of the terms and provisions of the aforesaid accounts receivable financing agreement, include, inter alia, the unlawful conversion and fraudulent diversion by defendant of merchandise and proceeds of at least 85 of the accounts receivable and/or chattel paper transactions assigned by defendant to plaintiff, constituting a conversion and diversion of approximately $45,-000.00 worth of the collateral assigned to plaintiff as security.”

Count 2 states a claim against all defendants, except Remark and Sara L. Bokser, based on an alleged agreement of suretyship in favor of plaintiff for performance by Remark of the accounts receivable financing agreement.

Count 3 states a claim against Sara L. Bokser alone based substantially on the alleged breach of a subordination agreement between her and plaintiff.

Count 4 is directed against all defendants except Remark. Paragraph 13 of this Count is as follows:

“13. The defaults, breaches, misrepresentations and other violations of the accounts receivable financing agreement by Remark Corp., were made or done with the intent to defraud the plaintiff and such conduct was participated in and joined in by defendant, Lewis Bokser, defendant, Maurice Kramer and the other corporate defendants, who as guarantors and sureties of Remark Corp., and who by reason of substantial identity of directorship and principal control, acted in concert with Remark Corp., and its principals to conceal property from the plaintiff and to transfer property so as to place the same out of reach of the plaintiff. The property concealed or transferred, included not only property owned by Remark Corp., and/or the other defendants, but also property or proceeds thereof in which the plaintiff has a security interest pursuant to the provisions of the Pennsylvania Uniform Commercial Code.”

In our view paragraphs 5 and 13, read together, sufficiently allege that Remark, at least, has concealed and transferred its property with intent to defraud the plaintiff. We agree with petitioners that the attachments can be sustained only if plaintiff has alleged that petitioners have concealed or transferred their property, or were about to, with the requisite intent. The Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure make no change, in this regard, from the requirements of the Pennsylvania Act of March 17, 1869, P.L. 8, § 1, 12 P.S. § 2711, which originally authorized fraudulent debtor's attachment in that Commonwealth. However, on the record before us, we believe plaintiff has met that burden.

In its affidavit contra the petitions to dissolve the attachments, plaintiff avers:

“1. All of the above named corporate defendants are the corporate alter egos of the defendants, Lewis Bokser and Sara L. Bokser, his wife, and said individuals are the sole shareholders and only controlling principals of the corporate defendants.
“2. All of the above named corporate defendants are completely controlled agencies and instrumen-talities of the defendants, Lewis Bokser and Sara L. Bokser, his wife.”

Petitioners not only failed to deny these allegations, but Lewis Bokser filed an affidavit in behalf of himself and Lewis Bokser, Inc., in which he states: “I and my wife Sara L. Bokser own ail the stock of the corporate defendants and we were in control of said corporations.”

In these circumstances, we think we must apply the familiar principle that the corporate fiction will be ignored and the corporation and the individuals composing it considered as identical in cases where justice or public policy require it. The situation here is not unlike that pre[266]*266sented in Pearl Assurance Company, Ltd. v. National Insurance Agency, Inc., 151 Pa.Super. 146, 30 A.2d 333 (1943), which was an action against a corporation and its sole stockholder and owner for conversion of fire insurance premiums. In holding the individual defendant liable, as well as the corporation, the Superior Court stated (151 Pa.Super. p. 158, 30 A.2d p. 338):

“With respect to the question of the defendant Rovno’s personal liability to the appellee company, it should be noted that he was not only the owner of all the stock of the corporate defendant, as well as its president and authorized agent, but he also personally did all the acts involved in the transactions complained of in this action. ‘The fiction of a corporation as an entity distinct from the aggregate of individuals comprising it was designed to serve convenience and justice. There is consequently an exception recognized wherever the rule is known, namely, that the fiction will be disregarded and the individuals and corporation considered as identical whenever justice or public policy demand it and when the rights of innocent parties are not prejudiced thereby nor the theoi-y of corporate entity made useless’. Tucker v. Binenstock, 310 Pa. 254, 263, 165 A. 247; Markovitz et al. v. Markovitz et al., 336 Pa. 122, 126, 8 A.2d 36; Great Oak B. & L. Ass’n et al. v. Ro-senheim, 341 Pa. 132, 19 A.2d 95; Miller v. South Hills L. & S. Co., 334 Pa. 293, 297, 6 A.2d 92; Cohen v. Maus, 297 Pa. 454, 457, 147 A. 103; Semple v. Morganstern, 97 Conn. 402, 116 A.

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Bluebook (online)
227 F. Supp. 263, 8 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 64, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consumers-time-credit-inc-v-remark-corp-paed-1964.