IAG Federal Credit Union v. Burne

12 Mass. L. Rptr. 432
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedNovember 23, 2000
DocketNo. CA972456
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 432 (IAG Federal Credit Union v. Burne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
IAG Federal Credit Union v. Burne, 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 432 (Mass. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Lopez, J.

This case comes before the court on a motion for an assessment of damages filed by the plaintiff. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the defendants defaulted on the terms of the reorganization plan requiring them to make certain payments to the plaintiff, a secured creditor. The plaintiff commenced foreclosure proceedings and filed for an assessment of damages, including a deficiency. Pursuant to the terms of the original note, the plaintiff also included in its calculation of damages an award of attorneys fees related to foreclosure, an inclusion contested at oral argument by the defendants. Thereafter, the parties were ordered to brief the issue. After careful consideration, the court ALLOWS plaintiffs motion for an assessment of damages including the attorneys fees related to foreclosure.

BACKGROUND

On January 11, 1989, the defendants, Philip and Janice Burnes (“the Burnes”) executed a promissory note in the principal sum of $950,000 between Philip J. Burne d/b/a Hanson Bog Company, Philip J. Burne, Trustee of Anderbume Realty Trust, Philip J. Burne, Individually, and Janice A Burne, individually, in favor of Myles Standish Federal Credit Union. In pertinent part, that note reads:

DEFAULT:... If there is a default, the Credit Union may demand all sums due under this Note . . . The sums which must be paid are the unpaid balance of this Note together with unpaid interest plus all costs of collection of this Note for the foreclosure of any Security Agreement [mortgage] securing this Note . . . These costs include reasonable attorneys fees not to exceed the amount allowed by law.

On that same day, the Burnes secured the note by a mortgage on property located in Hanson, MA (“the property”). The mortgage states in relevant part:

This Security Agreement [mortgage] secures to Lender: (a) the repayment of the debt evidenced by the Note, with interest, and all renewals, extensions and modifications: and (b) the performance of Borrower’s covenants and agreements under this Security Agreement [mortgage] and the Note.
BY SIGNING BELOW, the borrower accepts and agrees to the terms and covenants contained in this Security Agreement [mortgage] and in any rider(s) executed by Borrower and recorded with it.

On September 13, 1989, the Burnes executed a second note in the amount of $50,000 in favor of Myles Standish Credit Union, similarly secured by the mortgage on the property.

The Burnes filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court on February 16, 1993. As a result, the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”), then holder of the Burnes’ notes, filed a proof of claim in the amount of $1,055,637.16, the balance owed on both notes.1 On September 20, 1994, the Bankruptcy Court confirmed the Burnes’ Fourth Amended Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan (“the Plan”). Under the terms of the Plan, NCUA’s claims under the notes were bifurcated into a secured claim of $1,000,000.00 and an unsecured claim of $55,637.00. The Plan dictated that the Burnes pay the $1,000,000.00 secured claim as follows: (1) a cash payment of $360,000 on the effective date of the Plan; (2) execute two promissory notes totaling $550,000; the first note of $250,000 payable monthly at 7% interest amortized over a 25-year period; the second note of $300,000 payable over a seven-year period at 8% interest, with annual balloon payments of $30,000, and a final balloon payment at the end of the seven years;2 and (3) the remaining $90,000 of the secured claim was to be paid by way of a $60,000 cash payment in the first quarter of 1995, and a $20,000 cash payment in the last quarter of 1995, at a 7% annual interest. Finally, the Plan provided that “NCUA shall retain the security interest in the collateral that it held on the petition date, to the extent of its allowed secured claim,” thus leaving in place the mortgage on the property as security for the secured claim of $1,000,000.

The Burnes did not make any of the payments called for under the Plan, and did not execute either of the two promissory notes required by the Plan. On February 27, 1995, IAG filed a motion to convert or dismiss the Chapter 11 case, or alternatively, for relief from stay to allow foreclosure. The Court granted IAG relief from stay on March 28, 1995, and entered a final [434]*434decree in the bankruptcy proceedings on May 16, 1995.

The foreclosure sale was held on August 17, 1995, and IAG, the only bidder, acquired the property for the bid price of $500,000. On August 30, 1995, the Burnes filed a complaint for declaratory judgment to set aside the foreclosure in the Land Court alleging various defects in the foreclosure proceeding and that IAG had improperly cited the original promissory notes, instead of the Plan, as the source of the debt.

On October 18, 1996, the Land Court allowed IAG’S motion for summary judgment, finding, among other things, that any reference to the original note caused no harm to the Burnes. Additionally, in dictum, the Land Court stated that “by virtue of the Chapter 11 proceeding, the Burnes were immune from a deficiency judgment.”3

IAG, nonetheless, filed a motion to collect deficiency on May 12, 1997, calculating the deficiency amount based on the amounts and terms set forth in the Plan, not the amounts and terms set forth in the original notes. In response to IAG’s motion for summary judgment in this action, the Burnes unsuccessfully argued that the Land Court’s single reference to the deficiency estopped IAG from collecting it. The Court (Sosman, J.) found that neither the Plan nor the Bankruptcy Code supported the Burnes’ opposition to IAG’s deficiency action, stating in pertinent part that:

All the Bankruptcy Code provides byway of protection for the Burnes is that, notwithstanding their gross breach of every single term of their Plan, they are still entitled to all of the benefits of the Plan. IAG is still precluded from enforcing the terms of the original notes, as those notes have been discharged . . . However, IAG may enforce the Plan itself, and nothing in the Plan limits IAG’s remedy to foreclosure on the collateral. It may collect on the deficiency following foreclosure, calculated according to the amounts owed under the Plan.
Therefore, the only issues on assessment of damages will be whether IAG has included in the calculation some term or item that is not provided for in the Plan (or in the mortgage that the Plan incorporated by reference) or whether there are any arithmetic or computational errors in IAG’s calculation.

Shortly thereafter IAG filed the present motion seeking an assessment of damages totaling $872,214.93.4 The record contains an affidavit signed by Charles D. Vickery, Manager of Mortgage Lending USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union, detailing the arithmetic formula IAG used to calculate damages. IAG’s calculations under the Plan are:

(1) Cash for $360,000 at 7% interest: $22,852.24
(2) $250,000 Note at 7% interest: $287,027.60
(3)$300,000 Note at 8% interest: $443,861.00
(4) $90,000 Note at 7% interest: $5,713.06
(5) Unsecured claim $55,637 at 20% interest: $11,127.40

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Bluebook (online)
12 Mass. L. Rptr. 432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/iag-federal-credit-union-v-burne-masssuperct-2000.