In re the Rehabilitation of Lawyers Mortgage Co.

158 Misc. 579, 287 N.Y.S. 625, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1115
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 23, 1936
DocketNo. 2
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 158 Misc. 579 (In re the Rehabilitation of Lawyers Mortgage Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Rehabilitation of Lawyers Mortgage Co., 158 Misc. 579, 287 N.Y.S. 625, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1115 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1936).

Opinion

Frankenthaler, J.

This is an application by a com nittee of creditors of Lawyers Mortgage Company, now in rehabilitation, for the reorganization of that company in accordance with a proposed plan prepared by the committee, or such other plan as the court may finally approve. Various kinds of relief are sought, the details of which will be referred to presently.

By order of this court, dated August 2, 1933, the Superintendent of Insurance was directed to take possession of the property of the company for the purpose of rehabilitating it. The order was made pursuant to sections 401 and 402 of the Insurance Law. It contained a provision authorizing and empowering the Superintendent to adopt, with such modifications as he might consider desirable, and subject to the court’s further directions, a plan of rehabilita[580]*580fcion outlined in the petition. In accordance with said plan the Superintendent caused a separate company to be organized, known as Lawyers Mortgage Guarantee Corporation, for the purpose of taking over the servicing and other functions theretofore performed, by Lawyers Mortgage Company. On May 11, 1935, Charles J. Mylod, then Special Deputy Superintendent of Insurance in charge of the rehabilitation of Lawyers Mortgage Company, caused a letter to be sent to certain of the larger creditors inviting them to attend a meeting to be held on May 23, 1935, for the purpose of formulating a definite program for the reorganization of the company and considering a tentative plan of reorganization prepared on behalf of the Superintendent of Insurance, the skeleton features of which were referred to in the letter. The letter stated that experts in the field who devoted extensive study to the question are of the firm opinion that the best interests of the creditors of the Lawyers Mortgage Company will be promoted by a fair and equitable plan of reorganization, restoring the operation to a permanent and independent standing;” that Mylod had also reached the same opinion after careful analysis; and that “ there is abundant evidence that this Company continues to enjoy the respect, confidence and cooperation of its certificate holders. As evidence in part of this statement, wherever the guaranteed mortgage situation is discussed, this Company is recognized as one that has the potentialities of a successful rehabilitation. I am firmly convinced from my experience at the Lawyers Mortgage Company that the certificate holders desire that a plan of reorganization be prepared which will lead to the preservation of the Company for their benefit.” In a letter dated November 30, 1935, forwarded by Mylod to Superintendent of Insurance Pink, the former went so far as to state that “ ever since the Lawyers Mortgage Company was taken over by the State for rehabilitation it has been generally recognized that this company is the strongest if not the only large organization that has a possibility of reorganization.”

On May 21, 1935, the Mortgage Commission formally took over the certificated mortgage issues which had been guaranteed by Lawyers Mortgage Company, entering into an agreement, however, with the Superintendent of Insurance whereby the latter was permitted to continue the servicing of mortgages through the Lawyers Mortgage Guarantee Corporation as his agent, subject to the right of the Mortgage Commission to cancel this arrangement and service the mortgages itself or through some other agency. By letter dated November 27, 1935, the Mortgage Commission served notice of cancellation upon the Superintendent of Insurance and Lawyers Mortgage Guarantee Corporation, effective as of the close [581]*581of business on December 31, 1935, its intention being to transfer the servicing of the mortgages to a servicing corporation which it had caused to be organized for the purpose of servicing all certificated mortgages under its control.

In the meantime the committee of creditors which makes the present application had been designated at the meeting of May 23, 1935, and spent many months studying the situation and working upon the formulation of a plan for the reorganization of Lawyers Mortgage Company. The committee had proceeded upon the assumption that the Mortgage Commission would continue to permit Lawyers Mortgage Guarantee Corporation to service the certificated mortgages guaranteed by Lawyers Mortgage Company and had just about completed its work and prepared a tentative plan when the Mortgage Commission announced that it would service all the certificated mortgage issues through its own staff.

The present motion followed, as well as a companion motion by the committee to stay the take-over by the Mortgage Commission until it could be determined whether reorganization of the company was feasible. (158 Misc. 575.) The relief sought on the instant application may be summarized as follows:

(1) Leave to the committee to intervene in the rehabilitation proceedings for the purpose of submitting for the court’s approval a proposed plan of reorganization annexed to the moving papers;

(2) The court’s assumption of jurisdiction over the committee and the reorganization proceedings;

(3) Provision for hearings before a referee or otherwise upon the fairness and equitableness ” of the proposed plan on notice to creditors, stockholders and other parties in interest, the time and place of the hearings and the manner of giving notice to be determined by the court, and the expenses to be paid out of the assets in the hands of the rehabilitator.

The petition in support of this motion states that the meeting at which the committee was selected was attended by holders of certificates or mortgages, guaranteed by Lawyers Mortgage Company, of an aggregate principal amount of more than $26,000,000. The members of the committee are E. G. Lantman, executive secretary of the Teachers Retirement System, which holds guaranties totaling $8,690,685; Ridley Watts, a director of Chemical Bank and Trust Company, holding for various trusts guaranties of £2,022,932.88; Hubert E. Rogers, representing the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, holding guaranties in the sum of $1,421,400; Mortimer N. Buckner, chairman of the board of trustees of New York Trust Company, holding for various trusts guaranties of $526,650; and Stanley M. Isaacs, vice-president of the Baron de [582]*582Hirsch Fund, owning $50,000 of guaranties. Counsel for the committee stated on the return day of the application that the proposed plan was only a tentative one and urged that an opportunity for a frank and full interchange of views be afforded to all those interested, to the end that a fair and equitable plan of reorganization might ultimately be worked out to the advantage and benefit of the holders of the company’s guaranties.

The avowed purpose of the order of August 2, 1933, which placed the Lawyers Mortgage Company in the control of the Superintendent of Insurance, was the rehabilitation of the company. The order itself, as previously observed, provided for a plan of rehabilitation proposed by the Superintendent of Insurance. Although the Insurance Law (§ 402, subd. 2) authorizes the Superintendent at any time that he shall deem that further efforts to rehabilitate * * * would be futile ” to apply for an order of liquidation, no such application has ever been made. Neither the Superintendent nor the Mortgage Commission, both of whom appeared by counsel on the return day of the present motion, have made any claim that the reorganization of the Lawyers Mortgage Company is undesirable or not feasible.

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Related

In Re the Liquidation of Lawyers Mortgage Co.
56 N.E.2d 305 (New York Court of Appeals, 1944)
In re the Liquidation of Lawyers Mortgage Co.
169 Misc. 802 (New York Supreme Court, 1938)
Carpenter v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance
74 P.2d 761 (California Supreme Court, 1937)
In re the Liquidation of New York Title & Mortgage Co.
163 Misc. 353 (New York Supreme Court, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
158 Misc. 579, 287 N.Y.S. 625, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-rehabilitation-of-lawyers-mortgage-co-nysupct-1936.