In re: The Zuercher Trust of 1999

CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 22, 2017
DocketNC-15-1174-KuBS
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re: The Zuercher Trust of 1999 (In re: The Zuercher Trust of 1999) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re: The Zuercher Trust of 1999, (bap9 2017).

Opinion

FILED MAR 22 2017 1 NOT FOR PUBLICATION SUSAN M. SPRAUL, CLERK 2 U.S. BKCY. APP. PANEL OF THE NINTH CIRCUIT

3 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY APPELLATE PANEL 4 OF THE NINTH CIRCUIT 5 In re: ) BAP No. NC-15-1174-KuBS ) 6 THE ZUERCHER TRUST OF 1999, ) Bk. No. 3:12-bk-32747 ) 7 Debtor. ) ______________________________) 8 ) MONICA HUJAZI, ) 9 ) Appellant, ) 10 ) v. ) MEMORANDUM* 11 ) E. LYNN SCHOENMANN, Chapter 7 ) 12 Trustee; WIN WIN ALEXANDER ) UNION, LLC, ) 13 ) Appellees. ) 14 ______________________________) 15 Argued and Submitted on January 19, 2017 at San Francisco, California 16 Filed – March 22, 2017 17 Appeal from the United States Bankruptcy Court 18 for the Northern District of California 19 Honorable Hannah L. Blumenstiel, Bankruptcy Judge, Presiding 20 Appearances: Bradley Kass of Kass & Kass Law Offices argued for appellant Monica Hujazi; Thomas F. Koegel of 21 Crowell & Moring LLP argued for appellee E. Lynn Schoenmann, Chapter 7 Trustee; Elsa Horowitz of 22 Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin, LLP argued for appellee Win Win Alexander Union, LLC. 23 24 25 26 * This disposition is not appropriate for publication. 27 Although it may be cited for whatever persuasive value it may have (see Fed. R. App. P. 32.1), it has no precedential value. 28 See 9th Cir. BAP Rule 8024-1. 1 Before: KURTZ, BRAND and SPRAKER,** Bankruptcy Judges. 2 INTRODUCTION 3 On remand from a prior appeal of the bankruptcy court’s 4 order approving the sale of two apartment buildings, the 5 bankruptcy court found (for the second time) that the purchaser – 6 Win Win Alexander Union, LLC – was a good faith purchaser within 7 the meaning of § 363(m).1 Monica Hujazi, the former principal of 8 the debtor, now appeals from the bankruptcy court’s second good 9 faith finding. 10 Because that finding was not clearly erroneous, We AFFIRM. 11 FACTS 12 Most of the relevant facts pertaining to the bankruptcy 13 court’s sale order are set forth in this Panel’s prior decision, 14 Zuercher Trust of 1999 v. Kravitz (Zuercher Trust of 1999), 2014 15 WL 7191348 (Mem. Dec.) (9th Cir. BAP Dec. 17, 2014). There is no 16 need to reiterate most of those facts. Indeed, Hujazi’s opening 17 appeal brief adopted our prior factual recitation as her own. 18 To briefly recap, the bankruptcy court entered on June 10, 19 2013, an order authorizing Peter Kravitz as chapter 11 trustee to 20 sell an apartment building on Union Avenue to Win Win based on 21 22 ** 23 Hon. Gary A. Spraker, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Alaska, sitting by designation. 24 1 Unless specified otherwise, all chapter and section 25 references are to the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. §§ 101-1532, and 26 all "Rule" references are to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Rules 1001-9037. All "Civil Rule" references are to 27 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

28 2 1 its initial credit bid of $2.7 million.2 The sale order further 2 authorized Kravitz to sell a second apartment building on 3 Alexandria Avenue to Vista Investment Group, LLC or its designee 4 for $6.8 million and also confirmed and authorized Win Win as the 5 backup purchaser of the Alexandria property based on its credit 6 bid of $4.5 million “in the event that the sale of the Alexandria 7 Property to Vista fails to close.” Additionally, the sale order 8 included a finding that both Win Win and Vista qualified as good 9 faith purchasers for purposes of § 363(m). Ultimately, Kravitz 10 consummated the sale of both properties to Win Win. 11 We issued our decision in the prior sale order appeal on 12 December 17, 2014. In that decision, we held: (1) the bankruptcy 13 court’s § 363(m) good faith finding was not clearly erroneous 14 based on the record available to the bankruptcy court at the time 15 the sale order was entered; (2) the bankruptcy court’s good faith 16 finding under § 363(m) precluded us from considering any of 17 appellant’s other issues challenging the sale and seeking 18 reversal of the sale order; (3) one lingering good faith issue 19 existed, which arose from appellant’s argument that certain post- 20 sale-order events evidenced the bad faith of Kravitz, Win Win and 21 Vista; and (4) consistent with our precedent, the lingering good 22 faith issue only could be properly addressed on remand to the 23 bankruptcy court. 24 Roughly two months after our remand, on February 19, 2015, 25 the bankruptcy court held a status conference to discuss the 26 27 2 In the current appeal, appellee chapter 7 trustee E. Lynn 28 Schoenmann has appeared as Kravitz’s successor in interest.

3 1 Panel’s remand. None of the parties have provided a transcript 2 of the status conference, so we don’t know specifically what was 3 said at the status conference. In any event, the court entered 4 an order the day after the status conference requiring the 5 Zuercher Trust or Hujazi, within thirty days, to file a motion 6 for relief from or reconsideration of the sale order to address 7 the good faith issue this Panel had remanded for consideration.3 8 Hujazi timely filed her motion for reconsideration or 9 relief. Hujazi asserted that Kravitz unilaterally decided not to 10 sell the Alexandria property to Vista for $6.8 million and 11 instead unilaterally and without court approval sold the 12 Alexandria property to Win Win based on its backup credit bid of 13 $4.5 million, thereby causing a loss to the estate of 14 $2.3 million. Hujazi maintained that the Alexandria sale to 15 Win Win contravened the court’s sale order because the sale order 16 permitted the trustee to sell the Alexandria property to Win Win 17 only if Vista refused to close. According to Hujazi, because 18 Kravitz backed out of the sale to Vista (as opposed to Vista 19 backing out), Kravitz was required to obtain a new or revised 20 sale order. Hujazi complained that it made no sense that Kravitz 21 3 The bankruptcy court interpreted our December 2014 decision 22 as recognizing a lingering good faith issue only with respect to 23 the sale of the Alexandria property, so it stated in its February 20, 2015 order that any motion asking for relief from or 24 reconsideration of the bankruptcy court’s prior good faith ruling should “address the [m]ovant’s concerns as to the sale of the 25 Alexandria Property only.” Hujazi’s appeal brief does not 26 contain any argument challenging this ruling of the bankruptcy court, so we decline to address it. See Christian Legal Soc'y 27 Chapter of Univ. of Cal. v. Wu, 626 F.3d 483, 487–88 (9th Cir. 2010); Brownfield v. City of Yakima, 612 F.3d 1140, 1149 n.4 (9th 28 Cir. 2010).

4 1 could not deliver clear title to Vista but could turn around and 2 deliver clear title to Win Win. Hujazi contended that fraud, 3 collusion and unfair advantage among Kravitz, Win Win and Vista 4 were demonstrated by the fact that Win Win turned around and 5 resold the Alexandria property to Vista for $6.8 million – the 6 same price Vista had agreed to purchase the property from Kravitz 7 for. 8 To support her arguments, Hujazi relied on declarations that 9 Kravitz and Win Win had filed with this Panel in the sale order 10 appeal. However, Hujazi did not present any new evidence. 11 Moreover, the record suggests that Hujazi never requested any 12 discovery regarding the post-sale-order events, either before or 13 after this Panel’s remand.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Anderson v. City of Bessemer City
470 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Retz v. Samson (In Re Retz)
606 F.3d 1189 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Brownfield v. City of Yakima
612 F.3d 1140 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Edward D. Pope
841 F.2d 954 (Ninth Circuit, 1988)
Robin Orr v. Bank of America, Nt & Sa
285 F.3d 764 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
In re: Bobby Joe Wallace and Bridget Janine Wallace
490 B.R. 898 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Hinkson
585 F.3d 1247 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
Thomas v. Namba (In Re Thomas)
287 B.R. 782 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
Young v. Butler (In Re Butler)
308 B.R. 1 (S.D. New York, 2004)
Menk v. Lapaglia (In Re Menk)
241 B.R. 896 (Ninth Circuit, 1999)
Marciano v. Fahs (In Re Marciano)
459 B.R. 27 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Said Adeli v. Christopher Barclay
834 F.3d 1036 (Ninth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. 2.61 Acres of Land
791 F.2d 666 (Ninth Circuit, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
In re: The Zuercher Trust of 1999, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-zuercher-trust-of-1999-bap9-2017.