Dotson v. Cogswell (In re Cogswell)

462 B.R. 28
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJanuary 4, 2012
DocketBankruptcy No. 10-43436-MSH; Adversary No. 10-04113
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 462 B.R. 28 (Dotson v. Cogswell (In re Cogswell)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dotson v. Cogswell (In re Cogswell), 462 B.R. 28 (Mass. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

MELVIN S. HOFFMAN, Bankruptcy Judge.

The debtor, Robert E. Cogswell, and John Dotson, one of his creditors, have been battling for several years, first in state court and now in bankruptcy court, over what should have been a routine real estate transaction. Litigation began in 2004 in the Palmer District Court Department of the Massachusetts Trial Court and proceeded from there to the Massachusetts Appellate Division of the District Court Department.1 The relevant facts set forth below are gleaned to some extent from the pleadings and answers to interrogatories filed by the parties in this case but for the most part are derived from the rulings of the Massachusetts district court and its appellate division.

In December 2003 Mr. Dotson contracted with Mr. Cogswell and his associate, Lloyd E. Shelton, who were doing business as S.C. Construction, to purchase Lot 1, Jewett Road in Barre, Massachusetts. At the time of the purchase and sale agreement, a substantially completed house had been built on the lot and it was anticipated that completion would occur prior to closing. By the time of the closing, in January 2004, only the landscaping remained to be completed. At the closing, the parties entered into a holdback agreement in which the sellers agreed to complete the landscaping work by June 1, 2004 and, in order to indemnify Mr. Dotson for their failure to do so, to place $3,000 of Mr. Dotson’s purchase money in escrow to be applied toward the cost of completion of the work by a third party or toward legal fees incurred by him. The landscaping was not completed by June 1, 2004 and, for reasons which remain unclear, the $3,000 escrow fund was not applied toward completion.

In September 2004 Mr. Dotson filed suit in the Massachusetts district court against Mr. Cogswell, claiming breach of contract and violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A (“Chapter 93A”). Mr. Dotson later amended his complaint to add Mr. Shelton and S.C. Construction as defendants and to include a fraudulent conveyance claim. Before trial, the district court dismissed Mr. Dotson’s fraudulent conveyance claim.

In June 2007 the Massachusetts district court ruled in Mr. Dotson’s favor on the breach of contract claim but ruled in favor of the defendants on the Chapter 93A claim in light of Mr. Dotson’s failure to provide the defendants with a timely demand letter. The court found that Mr. Cogswell and his co-defendants had failed to properly complete the grading, raking, seeding, or haying of the property, which caused water to pool in Mr. Dotson’s backyard and accordingly entered judgment in favor of Mr. Dotson for $35,200 plus interest and costs.

On November 28, 2007, Mr. Cogswell sent Mr. Dotson a letter offering to settle the district court judgment for the original $3,000 escrow amount plus an additional $7,000 in cash, and informing Mr. Dotson that if he chose not to accept the offer Mr. Cogswell would use the funds to file for bankruptcy as his business partner Mr. Shelton had already done.

[31]*31On December 10, 2007, Mr. Cogswell appealed the Massachusetts district court judgment to the appellate division of the district court. The appellate division issued its ruling affirming the trial court judgment on February 4, 2010 and thereafter Mr. Dotson obtained a judgment lien against Mr. Cogswell’s residence at 972 West Street, Barre, Massachusetts. On July 7, 2010, five months after the appellate division ruling, Mr. Cogswell filed his bankruptcy petition under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. § 101 et seq.) commencing the main case.

Mr. Dotson, acting without an attorney, instituted this adversary proceeding on August 17, 2010 with a two-count complaint against Mr. Cogswell, Mr. Shelton, and S.C. Construction: count one seeking a determination that the debt owed by Mr. Cogswell to Mr. Dotson be excepted from Mr. Cogswell’s discharge and count two seeking a denial of Mr. Dotson’s discharge generally. Mr. Cogswell initially moved to dismiss the adversary proceeding for untimely service under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7004(e), which I denied. On December 7, 2010 Mr. Cogswell again moved to dismiss the adversary proceeding, this time for failure to state a claim and for the court’s lack of subject-matter jurisdiction over the non-debtor defendants, Mr. Shelton and S.C. Construction. On January 14, 2011 I granted Mr. Cogswell’s second motion to dismiss but delayed dismissal for two weeks to permit Mr. Dotson to file a new complaint.

Mr. Dotson filed an amended complaint on January 28, 2011, in which he named Mr. Cogswell as the sole defendant. Mr. Cogswell again moved to dismiss. Before the hearing on the motion to dismiss, Mr. Dotson moved to further amend the complaint to add a third count for bankruptcy fraud under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 152. On March 24, 2011 I granted Mr. Cogs-well’s motion to dismiss but only as to the count of Mr. Dotson’s complaint seeking to except his debt from discharge. I then granted Mr. Dotson’s motion to amend his complaint to include a bankruptcy fraud count, but issued an order limiting the surviving claims in the adversary proceeding exclusively to claims for the general denial of discharge under Bankruptcy Code § 727(a)(2), (a)(3), and (a)(4).2 On April 1, 2011 Mr. Cogswell filed an answer to the amended complaint and the parties undertook discovery. Mr. Cogswell filed a motion for summary judgment on July 18, 2011. His summary judgment motion is the subject of this memorandum and order.

Summary judgment is appropriate “if the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 65(c), made applicable by Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7065. A “genuine” issue is one supported by such evidence that “a reasonable jury, drawing favorable inferences,” could resolve in favor of the nonmoving party. Triangle Trading Co. v. Robroy Indus., Inc., 200 F.3d 1, 2 (1st Cir.1999) (quoting Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., Inc., 76 F.3d 413, 427 (1st Cir.1996)). A fact is “material” if it has “the potential to change [32]*32the outcome of the suit” under governing law if such fact is found in favor of the nonmovant. McCarthy v. Nw. Airlines, Inc., 56 F.3d 313, 314-15 (1st Cir.1995).

Mr. Cogswell bears the initial responsibility to inform the court of the basis for his motion and to identify “those portions of the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,” which he believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Anderson v.

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462 B.R. 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dotson-v-cogswell-in-re-cogswell-mab-2012.