In Re Varrichione

354 B.R. 563, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3955, 2006 WL 3234175
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedNovember 9, 2006
Docket17-42112
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 354 B.R. 563 (In Re Varrichione) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Varrichione, 354 B.R. 563, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3955, 2006 WL 3234175 (Mass. 2006).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

JOAN N. FEENEY, Bankruptcy Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

The matter before the Court is the Limited Objection to the Chapter 7 Trustee’s Final Report and Account before Distribution, Request for Compensation and Report on Claims/Proposed Distribution (the “Final Report”). Carl D. Aframe (“Attorney Aframe”), the Debtor’s attorney, holds a Chapter 13 administrative expense claim arising out of the approval on February 28, 2006 of his “Application for Allowance of Compensation pursuant to 11 U.S.C. Section 330 and 331 and Rule 2016 of the Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Local Rule 2016-1.” Attorney Aframe filed the Limited Objection in which he argues that, as a result of the mischaracterization of a claim filed by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) as secured, his allowed administrative claim in the sum of $24,241.10 will be reduced to a payment of $4,991.21 as set forth in the Trustee’s Final Report and application of 11 U.S.C. § 724(b)(1) and (2). 1

The Court heard Attorney Aframe’s Limited Objection on September 14, 2006 and directed the parties to file briefs in support of their respective positions. The issue presented is whether Attorney Af-rame established that the IRS’s claim should be recharacterized as unsecured by virtue of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 223, § 67 and Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 36, § 34 or 11 U.S.C. § 554.

The facts necessary to determine the Limited Objection are not in dispute. Neither Attorney Aframe nor the IRS requested an evidentiary hearing. The Court now makes its findings of fact and rulings of law in accordance with Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7052.

II. FACTS

The Debtor filed a Chapter 13 petition on December 5, 2002. On his petition, he listed his address as 625 Salem End Road, Framingham, Massachusetts. At the time he filed his petition, the Debtor owned a 50% interest in 625 Salem End Road as a tenant in common, the only interest which he listed on Schedule A-Real Property. The Debtor also owned a 1/4 beneficial interest in a real estate trust know as the Varrichione Realty Trust, which held title to real property located at 120 Wausha-kum Lake Avenue, Framingham, Massachusetts (the “Property”). On Schedule B-Personal Property, the Debtor described his interest, which he valued at $70,000, as follows: “25% beneficial interest in real estate at 120 Lake Ave., Fram-ingham, MA owned by Varrichione Realty Trust; subject to life estate of Louise F. Varrichione; subject to a mortgage to *565 Framingham Cooperative Bank in the amount of $54,771.42.” 2 Two days before he filed his Chapter 13 petition, the Debtor and Louis Varrichione, Jr., as Trustees of the Varrichione Realty Trust, granted Louise Francis Varrichione a life estate in the Property for consideration of less than $100.

Prior to the commencement of the Debt- or’s Chapter 13 case, the IRS, on February 2, 1995, recorded a personal property lien with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in the name of Edward J. Varrichione. It also had recorded two tax liens against the Debtor’s real property at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds in which the land records for the Town of Framingham are kept. The real estate tax liens had expired four months prior to the filing of the Debtor’s Chapter 13 petition by virtue of 26 U.S.C. § 6323(f) (1) (A) (i) . 3

Confronted with the a motion to dismiss filed by Chapter 13 Trustee and an objection to confirmation of his Chapter 13 plan filed by the United States of America on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on the ground that the Debtor failed to adequately address its secured claim in the sum of $26,665.01 and its unsecured claim in the sum of $207,665.01, the Debtor voluntarily converted his Chapter 13 case to a case under Chapter 7 on June 18, 2003. Mark G. DeGiacomo was appointed the Chapter 7 Trustee. Prior to the voluntary conversion of his case, however, Attorney Aframe, on behalf of the Debtor, had filed an Objection to the Proof of Claim of the IRS. Specifically, the Debt- or objected to the portion of the claim relating to the 1992 and 1993 tax periods for which the IRS had recorded a lien on February 2, 1995. The Debtor stated: “[W]hile allegedly secured, [the claims] are not secured inasmuch as the Debtor had and has had no assets valued in the sum of *566 $26,139.00. Thus, the Debtor calls upon the IRS to prove the value of their security as of February 2, 1995, the date of the filing of the lien and thereafter.” 4

Following the conversion of the Debtor’s case to Chapter 7, the Chapter 7 Trustee, on September 21, 2004, filed an adversary proceeding (Adv. P. No. 04-1299) against Louise Frances Varrichione. On December 21, 2004, he amended his Complaint following the Court’s allowance of the Defendant’s request to join her son, Louis Varrichione, Jr., as a defendant, both individually and as a trustee of the Varri-chione Realty Trust. 5 In his Amended Complaint, to which no answers were filed, the Trustee alleged that on November 23, 1994, more than eight years before the filing of the Debtor’s bankruptcy petition, the Debtor’s parents, Louis Varrichione and Louise Frances Varrichione, conveyed the Property to the Debtor and Louis Var-richione, Jr. as Trustees of the Varrichione Realty Trust under a Declaration of Trust dated October 27, 1994. He further alleged that the granting of a life estate to Louise Frances Varrichione just before the Debtor filed his Chapter 13 petition, “reduced the value of the Debtor’s interest in the Property which is property of the estate.” 6 Based upon these allegations, the Chapter 7 Trustee formulated three-counts under 11 U.S.C. §§ 548(a)(1)(A), (a)(1)(B), and 550 seeking to recover the alleged fraudulent transfer of the life estate.

On May 24, 2005, approximately five months after filing his Amended Complaint, the Trustee filed a “Motion to Approve Stipulation between Chapter 7 Trustee and Louise Frances Varrichione, Louis Varrichione, Jr. and Edward J. Varri-chione, Individually and as Trustees of Varrichione Realty Trust.” Pursuant to his Motion, the Trustee sought authority to accept the sum of $68,208.25 in full satisfaction of his claim to the Debtor’s 1/4 beneficial interest in the Varrichione Realty Trust. On June 17, 2005, the Court, in the absence of objections, granted the Trustee’s Motion.

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Bluebook (online)
354 B.R. 563, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3955, 2006 WL 3234175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-varrichione-mab-2006.