First Assembly of God v. Ping (In re Ping)

506 B.R. 486
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedMarch 6, 2014
DocketBankruptcy No. 13-50387; Adversary No. 13-2119
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 506 B.R. 486 (First Assembly of God v. Ping (In re Ping)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Assembly of God v. Ping (In re Ping), 506 B.R. 486 (Ohio 2014).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER ON MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

C. KATHRYN PRESTON, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter came on for consideration of the Defendant’s [sic] Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Doc. #30) (hereinafter referred to as “Motion”), filed by the Defendants Michael and Juree Ping (hereinafter referred to collectively as “Debtors” and individually as “Mr. Ping” and “Ms. Ping”), and the Memorandum in Response thereto (Doc # 31) by Plaintiff First Assembly of God (hereinafter referred to as “Plaintiff’).

The Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1334 and General Order 05-02 entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, referring all bankruptcy matters to this Court. This is a core proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I).

I. Background

Debtors filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code on January 18, 2013. Plaintiff timely filed a complaint to determine the dischargeability of debt allegedly owed to Plaintiff by Debtors. Plaintiff ultimately followed with an Amended Complaint to Determine Dis-chargeability of Debt (hereinafter referred to as the “Complaint”), asserting that an alleged debt owed by Debtors is nondis-chargeable pursuant to § 523(a)(2)(A), (a)(4) and (a)(6) of the Bankruptcy Code. In short, the Complaint alleges that Mr. Ping served as pastor of Plaintiff from August 2002 until September 2010, and that during that period he and Ms. Ping misappropriated from Plaintiff funds in excess of $30,000. The Complaint further alleges that Debtors represented to Plaintiff that they were expending the funds for the benefit of Plaintiff, but they were, in fact, using the funds for their personal benefit and to pay personal expenses. Finally, the Complaint alleges that members of Plaintiff held a meeting at which Mr. Ping admitted that he had made improper expenditures and agreed to a repayment plan. Attached to the Complaint are several affidavits executed by various members of Plaintiff; the affidavits reiterate, verbatim, the allegations of the Complaint.

II. Standard of Review for Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings

Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c)1 provides that after the pleadings are closed, a party may move for judgment on the pleadings. A motion for judgment on the pleadings made pursuant to Rule 12(c) is considered under the same standard as a motion to dismiss a complaint2: the Court “construes the complaint in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, accepts all factual allegations as true, and determines whether the complaint states a plausible claim for relief.” HDC, LLC v. Ann Arbor, 675 F.3d 608, 611 (6th Cir.2012) (citations omitted). However, the court is not required to accept legal conclusions or unwarranted factual inferences as true. Id.; see also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868, 884 (2009). This is so even if the legal conclusions are “cast in the form of factual allegations if those [491]*491conclusions cannot reasonably be drawn from the facts alleged.” Clegg v. Cult Awareness Network, 18 F.3d 752, 754-55 (9th Cir.1994) (deciding a motion to dismiss).

A complaint can survive a motion for judgment on the pleadings only if it contains sufficient factual matter to state a claim to relief that is “plausible on its face”. This does not mean that the complaint must plead the elements of a cause of action. Swierkiewicz v. Sorema, N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 510-12, 122 S.Ct. 992, 152 L.Ed.2d 1 (2002) (deciding a motion to dismiss). On the other hand, it requires more than “an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949 (citation omitted). Construing Fed.R.Civ.P. 8,3 the Supreme Court in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) explained that “a plaintiffs obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.... Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level....” Id. at 1964-65 (internal citations omitted). A claim is plausible on its face if the complaint contains factual allegations sufficient to “allow[] the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is hable for the misconduct alleged.” HDC, 675 F.3d at 611; see also Twombly, 127 S.Ct. at 1964-65. “[T]he allegations in the complaint must permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, namely, that the pleader has show[n] entitlement to relief.” See, HDC, 675 F.3d at 612-13; Ctr. for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. v. Napolitano, 648 F.3d 365, 369 (6th Cir.2011) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

The Supreme Court further explained that recitation solely of facts that are indicative of misconduct are insufficient to state a facially plausible claim, if they are equally consistent with lawful behavior. Twombly, 127 S.Ct. at 1964, 1966. It logically follows, then, that allegations which may be sufficient to articulate a plausible claim for liability under the standards for one cause of action (i.e., misappropriation) may not be sufficient to articulate a plausible claim for a different cause of action (i.e., dischargeability). The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has observed that the term “plausibility” refers to the “scope of the allegations in a complaint: if they are so general that they encompass a wide swath of conduct, ... then the plaintiffs ‘have not nudged their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.’ ” Robbins v. Oklahoma, 519 F.3d 1242, 1247 (10th Cir.2008) (citations omitted). This is, of course, “a context-specific inquiry.” Napolitano, 648 F.3d at 369. As might be expected, more complex cases will require more fact pleading. Robbins, 519 F.3d at 1248; 2 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore’s Federal Praotioe ¶ 8.04[l][d] (3d ed. 2013).

III. Analysis and Discussion

Because the overarching purpose of the Bankruptcy Code is to provide a fresh start to those in need of relief from the efforts of creditors,4 exceptions to discharge are to be strictly construed against the complaining party. Rembert v. AT & [492]*492

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Bluebook (online)
506 B.R. 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-assembly-of-god-v-ping-in-re-ping-ohsb-2014.