Corzin v. Digiammarino (In re Maglione)

559 B.R. 489
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 14, 2016
DocketCase No. 14-50685; Adversary Proceeding No. 14-05110
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 559 B.R. 489 (Corzin v. Digiammarino (In re Maglione)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Corzin v. Digiammarino (In re Maglione), 559 B.R. 489 (Ohio 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION FOL-LOWING TRIAL ON PLAINTIFF’S ACTIONS FOR AVOIDANCE OF FRAUDULENT TRANSFER AND STATE-LAW PREFERENCE

ALAN M. KOSCHIK, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

INTRODUCTION

Now before the Court are the claims asserted by Plaintiff Harold A. Corzin, the duly-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee (the “Plaintiff’ or “Trustee”) of the bankruptcy estate of debtor Anthony F. Maglione (the “Debtor”) in this adversary proceeding against Defendant Ruth B. DiGiammarino (the “Defendant”), the mother of the Debt- or.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

This Court has jurisdiction over this contested matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C, § 1334 and General Order No. 2012-7 en-tered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on April 4, 2012. This is a core matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(F) and (H). Venue is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1409(a).

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 25, 2014, the Plaintiff Trus-tee filed his complaint in this adversary proceeding seeking avoidance of the Debt- or’s transfer of $30,000 cash—literally cash, as in physical currency—to Debtor’s mother, the Defendant herein. After the Defendant’s answer and an opportunity for discovery, the parties filed their Stipula-tions of Fact on April 24, 2015 (Docket No. 19) (the “Stipulations”). Although the Stip-[492]*492illations include only a signature block for Defendant’s counsel and no actual signa-ture, the Defendant’s counsel confirmed at trial that the Stipulations were, in fact, agreed to by both parties. The Court con-ducted a trial on May 4, 2015. The Court received the testimony of the Debtor, the Defendant, • and the Debtor’s ex-wife, Louise M. Maglione. The Court took the Plaintiffs claims and the Defendant’s as-serted defenses under advisement.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Prior to May 2000, the Debtor and his now ex-wife; Louise M. Maglione (“Louise”), incurred debts on certain credit cards that were in the name of both Frank DiGiammarino, the Debtor’s father, and the Debtor’s mother, the Defendant here. Those accounts were with a variety of creditors, including Key Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and Montgomery Ward. As of May 2000, the amount of these debts totaled $22,724.43. Based on the trial testimony of Louise, these debts were incurred without the consent of the Debtor’s parents, and that when the Debtor’s father learned of these charges, he was “very upset.”

In mid-April 2000, the Defendant and her husband borrowed funds from National City Bank, mortgaging their residence at 4740 Bali Drive, Akron, Ohio, and used a portion of the loan proceeds to satisfy the balances on the credit cards that had been used by the Debtor and Louise. The parties stipulate that at this point, the parents and the Debtor, along with his ex-wife, Louise, agreed that the Debtor and Louise would repay the parents $22,724.43 in monthly installments. This agreement was not reduced to writing. No promissory note was prepared, executed, or delivered. The parties stipulate that the loan was to bear no interest.

The following month, on May 19, 2000, the Debtor and his wife, Louise, filed a joint, voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 13 of the United States Bankrupt-cy Code. This filing was made with the full knowledge of the Defendant. The Debtor’s petition in the Chapter 13 case, Case No. 00-51482, which. was also filed in the Northern District of Ohio at Akron, did not schedule the alleged debt to the Defen-dant or her husband.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Debt- or and his wife were then Chapter 13 debtors who were obligated to make plan payments to the Chapter 13 trustee on account of their creditors in an amount that exhausted their disposable income above and beyond their reasonable ex-penses, the Debtor and Louise nevertheless either began to make or continued to make monthly installment payments to the Defendant and her husband on account of the oral agreement to repay the original credit card debt. It is unclear to the Court whether the Chapter 13 Trustee was aware of these payments or the income or assets used to make them. The parties have stipulated to exhibits that include a series of handwritten receipts for each such monthly payment. While the installment payments were documented, the le-gal obligation to repay was not.

The Defendant, and perhaps the Debtor, were relatively fastidious with respect to keeping records of the monthly installment payments. The Debtor and Louise initially paid, over the course of eleven months, $600 per month. As a result of a refinanc-ing of their mortgage on April 28, 2001, the Debtor and her husband paid off Na-tional City Bank and replaced it with a mortgage loan from Bank One at a lower rate with lower payments. The Debtor and Louise continued to make payments there-after for the following twelve months at a reduced rate of $500 per month. On June 28, 2002, the Defendant and her husband again refinanced their mortgage debt. This [493]*493time they refinanced with the same lender, Bank One. Following this refinance, the Debtor and Louise reduced their payments to his parents to $466 per month and those payments were made for an additional eight months from August 6, 2002 until March 12, 2003. The evidence and stipula-tions suggest that the repayment terms between the Debtor and the Defendant and their respective spouses were de-signed to cover the payments the parents were obligated to make to their mortgage lender. Because the parties had agreed that the Debtor would repay the credit card expenditures without interest, it ap-pears that each payment simply was in-tended to be applied to principal.

During a couple of months in the Spring of 2C|03, several events happened in rapid succession. First, the Debtor and Louise were granted a discharge under Chapter 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on April 16, 2003. This was one month following the last payment they made to the Defendant' and her husband on account of the original credit card charges. Two months later, in June 2003, the Debtor became disabled and could no longer work, presumably limiting the Debtor’s income and ability to make payments. The pay-ments that were made over the course of approximately three years by the Debtor to the Defendant and her husband totaled $16,864. Simply using arithmetic, this would leave a mathematical balance due of $5,860.43. This mathematical result, how-ever, ignores the facts that the debt, to the extent that it was ever an enforceable debt rather than an unenforceable promise, pre-dated the Debtor and Louise’s Chapter 13 filing in May 2000, that the Defendant was aware of the filing, and that the Debtor and Louise obtained a discharge of all of their prepetition debts on April 16, 2003.

Shortly after the Debtor became dis-abled, on July 14, 2003, he transferred title to his 1973 Dodge Charger to the Defen-dant in exchange for no consideration. The Defendant testified at trial that this was the Debtor’s car ever since he was first married. While the title transferred to the Defendant, the testimony at trial makes clear that at all times the Debtor retained possession of the 1973 Dodge Charger.

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Bluebook (online)
559 B.R. 489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/corzin-v-digiammarino-in-re-maglione-ohnb-2016.