In Re the Greater Atlanta Apartment Hunter's Guide, Inc.

40 B.R. 29, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5999
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 28, 1984
Docket15-64045
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 40 B.R. 29 (In Re the Greater Atlanta Apartment Hunter's Guide, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Greater Atlanta Apartment Hunter's Guide, Inc., 40 B.R. 29, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5999 (Ga. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

WILLIAM L. NORTON, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

Debtor-corporation, The Greater Atlanta Apartment Hunter’s Guide, Inc. (“Greater *30 .Atlanta”), which had been placed in receivership by Fulton Superior Court on February 1, 1983, filed a voluntary Chapter 7 petition on October 7, 1983. The Board of Directors of Greater Atlanta had passed a corporate resolution on September 30, 1983, authorizing the bankruptcy filing. Marvin Nodvin (“Nodvin”) a 50 percent shareholder, who originally had filed to place the corporation in receivership objected to the corporation’s bankruptcy filing. On November 10, 1983, Nodvin filed the motion presently under consideration to dismiss the corporation’s Chapter 7 petition. Nodvin bases his motion for dismissal on the following grounds: (1) as the corporation was in receivership, it could not file a voluntary bankruptcy petition; and, (2) the Board of Directors could not pass a legitimate corporate resolution as the Board was invalidly constituted. Because the court finds that there is no law which would prevent the corporation from filing a voluntary Chapter 7 petition while under a state court appointed receivership and because this court finds that under the Georgia Business Corporation Code the Board was validly constituted, the court denies Nodvin's motion to dismiss the Chapter 7 petition.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Sometime in November of 1981, attorney Marvin Nodvin (“Nodvin”) and Edna Rasmussin (“Rasmussin”) agreed to form a corporation to be known as the Greater Atlanta Apartment Hunter’s Guide, Inc. (“Greater Atlanta”);

2. Rasmussin and Nodvin were each 50 percent stockholders of the corporation;

3. Rasmussin was president of the corporation;

4. Nodvin was vice-president and secre- • tary of the corporation;

5. Rasmussin and Nodvin constituted the entire Board of Directors;

6. The corporation commenced operation in March, 1982;

7. Although evidence revealed that outside counsel had drafted the Articles of Incorporation and the bylaws, the current location of the Articles of Incorporation and bylaws are in dispute, and neither have been introduced into evidence before this court;

8. Sometime in January of 1983, Nodvin alleged that assets of the corporation had been misappropriated;

9. Nodvin discussed the disappearance of the assets with Rasmussin and for several days thereafter Rasmussin could not be located and contacted;

10. On about January 17, 1983, Nodvin submitted his resignation as an officer and director of Greater Atlanta;

11. Nodvin attempted to call a stockholders meeting of the corporation for January 19, 1983;

12. Although Nodvin, Rasmussin, and Rasmussin’s attorney met on January 19, 1983, no shareholder business was transacted at the meeting;

13. On about January 31, 1983, Ras-mussin, the sole remaining Director of the corporation, appointed Kathleen Siriani (“Siriani”) as a Director to fill the vacancy created by Nodvin’s resignation;

14. At the same time Siriani was appointed secretary and treasurer of Greater Atlanta;

15. On about February 1, 1983, Nodvin applied to Fulton County Superior Court for the appointment of a receiver for Greater Atlanta;

16. On February 1, 1983, the Fulton County Superior Court Judge appointed a receiver for the corporation although the written order was not signed until February 4, 1983;

17. On about September 30, 1983, the Board of Directors composed of Rasmussin and Siriani met and unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Greater Atlanta to file a voluntary Chapter 7 petition;

18. On October 7, 1983, the debtor’s voluntary Chapter 7 petition was filed;

19. No annual shareholders’ meeting has been held since the debtor’s incorporation;

*31 20. On November 10, 1983, Nodvin filed his motion to dismiss debtor’s Chapter 7 petition;

21. A hearing on January 30 and 31, 1984, was held and post-hearing briefs were submitted.

DISCUSSION

A

Nodvin, a 50 percent shareholder in Greater Atlanta, has requested that this court dismiss the voluntary Chapter 7 petition filed by the corporation. Nodvin has argued that because the corporation was under a state court receivership the Board of Directors would have been without authority to file a Chapter 7 petition. Although this argument was urged at the January 30, 1984 hearing by Nodvin’s counsel, it was not included in the brief filed with the court February 21, 1984. Nevertheless, the court addresses the argument briefly.

No statutory law or decisional law supporting Nodvin’s position was cited at the January 30, 1984 hearing. Nor has the court found any. Perhaps this is because such argument runs so patently counter to the statutory right of a debtor to the privileges of the national uniform statute on bankruptcies and the inherent prohibition against any bar by other authority to the exercise of that right. This court holds that a state court receivership cannot operate to deny a corporate debtor access to this nation’s federal Bankruptcy Courts. See discussion in Jordan v. Independent Energy Corporation, 446 F.Supp. 516, 525-30 (D.C.N.D.Tex.1978) (“Congress has enacted a uniform federal bankruptcy policy and has granted the Bankruptcy Courts power to fairly adjudicate and administrate disputes between debtors and creditors .... an order restricting access to the Bankruptcy Court, other than as specifically provided by Congress in the Bankruptcy Act, would not be in the public interest.”); United States v. Royal Business Funds Corporation, 29 B.R. 777, 779 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1983), aff 'd, 724 F.2d 12 (CA2, 1983) (“The court [Jordan v. Independent Energy Corporation court] made it clear that those cases holding that the dependency of a state receivership cannot bar the filing of a federal bankruptcy petition rest upon the grant of exclusive bankruptcy jurisdiction to the federal courts and constitutional principles of supremacy_”).

B

Nodvin’s second argument is more complicated. The allegation is that because of a failure to hold a shareholders’ meeting and elect a new Board of Directors the Board of Directors acting on September 30, 1983 was not a validly constituted Board and could not authorize a valid resolution. The governing law in this matter is the Georgia Business Corporation Code. Analysis of the interrelationship between several sections within this Code demonstrates that Nodvin’s contention does not properly apply the Georgia Business Corporation Code.

The starting point for analysis begins with whether the January 31, 1983 appointment of Siriani to the Board of Directors was a valid act. Pursuant to OCGA §§ 14-2-141

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40 B.R. 29, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 5999, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-greater-atlanta-apartment-hunters-guide-inc-ganb-1984.