Hiller v. Hiller (In re Hiller)

482 B.R. 462, 2012 WL 5498028, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 5290
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedNovember 13, 2012
DocketBankruptcy No. 11-12756-FJB; Adversary No. 11-1208
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 482 B.R. 462 (Hiller v. Hiller (In re Hiller)) 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
Hiller v. Hiller (In re Hiller), 482 B.R. 462, 2012 WL 5498028, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 5290 (Mass. 2012).

Opinion

[464]*464 MEMORANDUM OF DECISION ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

FRANK J. BAILEY, Bankruptcy Judge.

Procedural History

Judith Hiller, daughter of 91-year old Phyllis Hiller, sued Phyllis in state court in 2006 because Phyllis, by exercise of a special power of appointment, appointed a remainder interest in her home to Andrew Hiller. Andrew is Judith’s bother and Phyllis’s son. Judith believes the remainder interest is owed to her and her alone; she also contends that she is in any event entitled to recompense from Phyllis for monies she invested to improve the house. Her three-count complaint was dismissed; on appeal, the order of dismissal was affirmed as to two counts, for breach of contract and promissory estoppel, but vacated as to the third, for unjust enrichment, and remanded for further proceedings. Phyllis then filed a petition for relief under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. Judith, on the strength of her still-unadju-dicated claim, is her only possible creditor; Phyllis listed no other creditor in her schedules. Judith then filed the present adversary complaint against Phyllis,1 also in three counts. Count I seeks dismissal of the bankruptcy case under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(1) as a bad faith filing. Count II is an objection to discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(2)(A), the factual basis of which is unclear. And Count III is an objection to discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(5) for failure to explain satisfactorily a loss of assets, specifically, of the funds that Phyllis used to pay for her and Andrew’s defense of the state court action. The adversary proceeding is now before the Court on a motion by Phyllis and Andrew under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss each of the three counts for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Judith opposes the motion.

Standard of Review

When presented with a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the Court must “accept as true all well-pleaded facts set forth in the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom in the pleader’s favor.” Artuso v. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 637 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2011). Subject to certain exceptions, a complaint need only contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Id, citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2).

Although there is no need for “detailed factual allegations,” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), the complaint must “contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal [556 U.S. 662], 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Accordingly, a complaint must include more than a rote recital of the elements of a cause of action; it must include “factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id “If the factual allegations in the complaint are too meager, vague, or conclusory to remove the possibility of relief from the realm of mere conjecture, the complaint is open to dismissal.” [S.E.C. v.] Tambone, 597 F.3d [436] at 442 [ (1st Cir.2010) ] (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

Artuso, 637 F.3d at 5. The First Circuit’s approach to the plausibility standard has been usefully distilled as follows:

[465]*465[T]o determine whether the factual allegations in the complaint are sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss, the Court “employ[s] a two-pronged approach.” “The first prong is to identify the factual allegation and to identify statements in the complaint that merely offer legal conclusions couched as facts or are threadbare or conclusory“A plaintiff is not entitled to ‘proceed perforce’ by virtue of allegations that merely parrot the elements of the cause of action.” The second prong is to assess whether the factual allegations “allow [ ] the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” If they do, “the claim has facial plausibility.” “The make-or-break standard ... is that the combined allegations, taken as true, must state a plausible, not a merely conceivable, case for relief.”

Juarez v. U.S. Bank Nat Ass’n, Trustee, 2011 WL 5330465, *2 (D.Mass.2011) (internal citations omitted).

Facts

The complaint alleges as follows.

Judith Hiller is the daughter of the defendant and debtor, Phyllis Hiller. Phyllis resides at 211 School Street, Westford, Massachusetts (“the Property”). In late 2000 and early 2001, Phyllis and Judith retained the services of an attorney to prepare certain estate planning documents. One of these, which they executed, was an irrevocable trust (“the Trust”) of which Judith was trustee and Judith and Andrew were equal beneficiaries. At that time, Phyllis transferred the School Street Property to the Trust but retained for herself a life estate.2 She also retained a power to appoint the Property to a limited class of persons, including Judith and Andrew but not herself. She also retained the right to pay for all repairs and maintenance of the Property or to have the trustee, Judith, do so on her behalf.

In the years immediately after the Property was transferred to the Trust, Judith spent approximately $150,000 of her own money and countless hours of her time on substantial renovations to the Property. Judith’s expectation and understanding at the time was that the Property had been transferred to her — that is, she believed herself to be the only beneficiary of the Trust — in exchange for the time and money she was spending renovating the Property. Judith did not understand at the time that, under the terms of the Trust, her brother was an equal beneficiary of the trust, even though he was contributing neither time nor money to the renovation. Judith also did not understand that the Trust gave Phyllis the power to “appoint” the property of the Trust to someone other than Judith: that is, to Andrew.

The relationship between Judith and Phyllis deteriorated in 2004, and in 2006 Judith moved out of the Property.3 In 2006, Judith commenced the state court action against both Phyllis and Andrew, seeking to enforce what Judith contended was her agreement with Phyllis that the Property would be conveyed to Judith, subject to Phyllis’s life estate, in exchange for (among other things) Judith’s remaining in the property with Phyllis and super[466]*466vising and paying for the renovation of the Property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
482 B.R. 462, 2012 WL 5498028, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 5290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hiller-v-hiller-in-re-hiller-mab-2012.