In Re Belmont Realty Corporation, Debtor, Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank v. Elizabeth v. Bogosian

11 F.3d 1092, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 30998, 1993 WL 481537
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedNovember 29, 1993
Docket92-2405, 93-1075
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 11 F.3d 1092 (In Re Belmont Realty Corporation, Debtor, Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank v. Elizabeth v. Bogosian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Belmont Realty Corporation, Debtor, Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank v. Elizabeth v. Bogosian, 11 F.3d 1092, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 30998, 1993 WL 481537 (1st Cir. 1993).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge.

Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank (the “Bank”) sued Elizabeth Bogosian on two separate promissory notes, one executed by Belmont Realty Corporation (“Belmont”) and guaranteed by Bogosian (the “Belmont Note”), and one executed by Bogo-sian herself (the “Bogosian Note”). Bogo-sian filed certain defenses and counterclaims. The district court held that an earlier decision in a bankruptcy court adversary proceeding initiated by Belmont was res judicata as to Bogosian’s counterclaims. The district court granted summary judgment for the Bank, finding in its favor on all counts of its amended complaint and dismissing all of Bo-gosian’s counterclaims. Bogosian appeals. Belmont appeals from the district court’s denial of its Rule 60(b) motion to amend the court’s separate order dismissing Belmont’s appeal from the bankruptcy court adversary proceeding. Bogosian’s and Belmont’s appeals were consolidated. We affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.

I.

Bogosian created Belmont for the purpose of purchasing and developing parcels of real estate in Newport and Middletown, Rhode Island. She secured a loan to Belmont of $1.2 million from the Bank. In 1987, Belmont executed and gave the Belmont Note to the Bank. Bogosian personally guaranteed the Belmont Note. Though she gave one-third of Belmont’s stock to her son and one-third to her daughter, Bogosian herself controlled Belmont’s activities.

Bogosian was a partner with her brother in a real estate company called E & J, which also had outstanding loans from the Bank. In 1986, E & J went into receivership because of a bitter management struggle between Bogosian and her brother. Bogosian accepted direct personal liability for one-half of E & J’s debt to the Bank and executed the Bogosian Note in March 1989.

Never receiving the necessary governmental approvals for the development of the Newport and Middletown properties, Belmont defaulted on the Belmont Note in early 1989. In order to delay foreclosure on the properties, Belmont filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Rhode Island (the “Bankruptcy Proceeding”). In September 1989, the Bank brought the instant action in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island (the “District Court *1095 Action”) against Bogosian as Guarantor of the Belmont Note, seeking to collect the outstanding indebtedness due it from Belmont. In October 1989, the Bank amended its complaint to add a second claim against Bogosian based on the Bogosian Note. Bo-gosian admits that both notes remain unpaid.

One might think that such facts would lead, as the court below described wishfully, to “a simple action by a lender to collect on two promissory notes.” Over the course of more than four years, however, the parties have battled over these promissory notes in three separate arenas: the United States District Court, the United States Bankruptcy Court, and now here. They leave behind them what the district court described as a “tortuous procedural trail.”

A. The Bankruptcy Proceeding

Initially, Bogosian ignored the - District Court Action, and a default judgment was entered against her. Her attentions may have been on the bankruptcy court where, in January 1990, Belmont filed an adversary complaint (the “Adversary Proceeding”) against the Bank. Belmont asserted various claims based on an alleged oral agreement by the Bank not to call the Belmont Note until the purchased properties could be developed.

Less than six months later, the bankruptcy court issued a decision (the “Belmont Decision”) dismissing Belmont’s adversary complaint. The bankruptcy court determined that the alleged oral agreement would be unenforceable by virtue of the Statute of Frauds, RJ.Gen.Laws. § 9-1-4, and the par-ol evidence rule. See In re Belmont Realty Corp., 116 B.R. 21 (Bankr.D.R.I.1990). Belmont appealed from the Belmont Decision to the district court (the “Bankruptcy Appeal”).

B. The District Court Action

Meanwhile, in March 1990, the district court withdrew the default judgment against Bogosian. The court allowed her to file counterclaims against the Bank asserting what were in essence the same claims based on an alleged oral agreement by the Bank not to call the Belmont Note, that had constituted Belmont’s claims against the Bank in the Adversary Proceeding. On August 24, 1990, the district court dismissed Bogosian’s counterclaims on the grounds that the parol evidence rule would prohibit introduction of evidence of the alleged oral agreement at trial.

In December 1990, however, the district court granted a motion by Bogosian to file amended counterclaims based on “newly discovered” information. The amended counterclaims were based on the same alleged oral agreement by the Bank, as well as new allegations of fraud and an alleged conflict of interest that the Bank had with respect to Bogosian’s estranged family members.

C. The Consent Order and the Dismissal of the Bankruptcy Appeal

At that point, there were two cases pending in the district court relating to Belmont and the Belmont Note—the Bankruptcy Appeal and the District Court Action. Due to the similarity of the issues involved in both cases, the parties agreed that the Bankruptcy Appeal should be continued nisi pending resolution of the District Court Action. Thus, on February 22,1991, the district court entered a Consent Order setting out the agreement. The Order stated that the District Court Action “may resolve all pending issues,” but made it clear that if “further proceedings in [the Bankruptcy Appeal] become necessary or desirable, any party may initiate it in the same manner as if this order had not been entered.”

In effect, the order simplified the proceedings so that the issues between the parties would be resolved in the District Court Action rather than in the Bankruptcy Appeal. The Order did not refer to any agreement as to the res judicata effects of the Belmont Decision in the Adversary Proceeding.

The appeal notwithstanding, the Belmont Decision already constituted a final judgment for res judicata purposes. See Katchen v. Landy, 382 U.S. 323, 334, 86 S.Ct. 467, 475, 15 L.Ed.2d 391 (1966) (normal rules of res judicata apply to decisions of bankruptcy courts); Turshen v. Chapman, 823 F.2d 836, 839 (4th Cir.1987) (in bankruptcy ease, a final resolution of an adversary proceeding has preclusive effect even if underly *1096 ing bankruptcy proceeding continues); Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction § 4433 (1981) (judgment has preclusive effect while appeal is pending).

So long as the bankruptcy proceeding was pending, however, the parties were under no practical compulsion to negotiate any agreement about the res judicata effects of the Belmont Decision.

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11 F.3d 1092, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 30998, 1993 WL 481537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-belmont-realty-corporation-debtor-rhode-island-hospital-trust-ca1-1993.