LR5-A Ltd. Partnership v. Meadow Creek, LLC

23 Mass. L. Rptr. 612
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 29, 2008
DocketNo. 062804BLS1
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Mass. L. Rptr. 612 (LR5-A Ltd. Partnership v. Meadow Creek, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LR5-A Ltd. Partnership v. Meadow Creek, LLC, 23 Mass. L. Rptr. 612 (Mass. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

Gants, Ralph D., J.

The background of this case is long and complicated but a greatly abbreviated version is sufficient for purposes of this motion. Frederick Fahey (“Fahey") is a real estate developer doing business through the development company, Premier Homes, Inc. (“Premier”). On November 15, 1998, Fahey executed a purchase and sale agreement to purchase 291 acres in Dracut which had been designated by the town for a golf course residential subdivision. Fahey formed the defendant Meadow Creek, LLC (“Meadow Creek”) to develop what he had hoped would include 180 residential house lots surrounding a championship 18-hole golf course, to be known as Meadow Creek.

By March 2001, however, Fahey was severely short of cash for the project, having already invested over $2.7 million of his own money but still needing additional permits for the project in order realistically to obtain conventional bank financing. At or around that time, while looking for bridge financing, he learned that David Allen (“Allen”), doing business under the trade name Really Financial Partners, controlled various limited partnerships which provided bridge loans to various real estate projects such as Meadow Creek. Ultimately, one of Allen’s limited partnerships, LR5-A Limited Partnership (“LR5-A”), lent millions of dollars to Meadow Creek at interest rates that exceeded the usury rate of 20 percent per year.

Under the Massachusetts criminal usury statute, G.L.c. 271, §49, LR5-A would have committed a crime by lending this money at a usurious loan unless it notified the Massachusetts Attorney General of its “intent to engage in [the] transaction” and maintained records of the transaction. G.L.c. 271, §49(d). There is no dispute that LR5-A provided prior notice to the Massachusetts Attorney General of its intent to engage in the initial $6.7 million bridge loan to Meadow Creek, but Fahey contends that notice is legally ineffective because it was filed with the Attorney General on May 8, 2001, even though LR5-A had not been organized as a Massachusetts limited partnership until May 18, 2001. Fahey also contends that subsequent notices filed with the Attorney General were equally ineffective because they were filed after the $6.7 million loan had already been funded. Consequently, as a result of these allegedly ineffective filings with the Attorney General, Fahey contends that LR5-A committed the crime of usuiy when it provided this $6.7 million loan at a usurious rate of interest.

The General Partner of LR5-A was LR5-A, Corp., whose president was Allen. One of the limited partners of LR5-A was another limited partnership established by Allen, known as Realty Financial Partners v. Limited Partnership (“RFP V”). Among the limited partners of RFP v. were various educational and charitable institutions, including the third-party defendants Harvard University, Yale University, Carnegie Corporation of New York, University of Notre Dame, Princeton University, Oberlin College, Spellman College Special Venture Fund, Inc., and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (collectively, “the Limited Partners”). None of the Limited Partners had participated in any way in the allegedly usurious loans extended by LR5-A except that they provided the money that effectively financed the loans. Under the terms of the RFP v. Agreement of Limited Partnership, dated as of January 1,2001, each Limited Partner was required to make capital contributions (in amounts set forth in a schedule to the Agreement) through a number of payments, known as “drawdowns,” in amounts and at times determined by the General Partner. Agreement at §5.1(A). Failure to pay a drawdown was deemed a default under the Agreement, and carried severe financial consequences for the defaulting limited partner. Agreement at §5.3. These drawdowns, at least in substantial part, were the source of the funds that LR5-A lent to Meadow Creek. For purposes of this motion to dismiss, in which the Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party (Meadow Creek), this Court will assume that the Limited Partners recognized that their drawdowns were being used to finance loans that would be deemed usurious in the absence of prior notification to the Attorney General.

It is undisputed that none of the Limited Partners notified the Attorney General of their intent to engage in what would otherwise be a usurious lending transaction with Meadow Creek. Meadow Creek contends that, by failing to do so, they violated the usury statute and thereby engaged in an unfair and deceptive act in [613]*613violation of G.L.c. 93A. The Limited Partners contend that, as a matter of law, as limited partners of a limited partnership that itself was a limited partner to LR5-A, they had no obligation to provide notice to the Attorney General of LR5-A’s loan to Meadow Creek. As a result, the Limited Partners now move to dismiss the Chapter 93A claim against them in the third-party complaint. In addition, the Limited Partners also move to dismiss the only other claim against them in the third-party complaint, seeking a constructive trust, contending that no such trust may be imposed against them in the absence of a finding of wrongdoing by them. After hearing, the Limited Partners’ motion to dismiss the Chapter 93A claim against them is ALLOWED, and the motion to dismiss the constructive trust claim against them is DENIED.

DISCUSSION

When evaluating the sufficiency of a third-party complaint pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the court must accept as true the factual allegations of the complaint and all reasonable inferences favorable to the third-party plaintiffs which can be drawn from those allegations. Fairneny v. Savogran, 422 Mass. 469, 470 (1996); Eyal v. Helen Broadcasting Corp., 411 Mass. 426, 429 (1991). The issue is whether the facts alleged, generously construed in favor of the third-party plaintiffs, state a valid legal claim that would warrant relief on any theory of law. Whitinsville Plaza, Inc. v. Kotseas, 378 Mass. 85, 89 (1979) (“[A] complaint is not súbject to dismissal if it would support relief on any theory of law”).

The Chapter 93A Claim Premised on a Violation of the Usury Statute

This case presents the Court with a conflict between the requirements of the usury statute, G.L.c. 271, §49, and the protections afforded to limited partners pursuant to G.L.c. 109, §19. To resolve this conflict, this Court must first carefully examine the provisions of each statute in an attempt to find an interpretation that effectuates the purposes of both. See Commonwealth v. Super, 431 Mass. 492, 498 (2000) (“[W]here possible, we interpret statutes so as to ‘reasonably effect! ] the purposes of both statutes,’ “ quoting Crocker v. Martha’s Vineyard Comm’n, 407 Mass. 77, 82 (1990)).

The usury statute in subsection (a) provides:

Whoever in exchange for either a loan of money or other property knowingly contracts for, charges, takes or receives, directly or indirectly, interest and expenses the aggregate of which exceeds [twenty percent per year] upon the sum loaned, or the equivalent rate for a longer or shorter period, shall be guilty of criminal usuiy and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years or by a fine of not more than [$10,000] or by both . . .

G.L.c. 271, §49(a). If one stopped at subsection (a), one would view the usuiy statute as a rather traditional criminal statute barring usurious loans, with rather severe potential penalties.

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Related

Whitinsville Plaza, Inc. v. Kotseas
390 N.E.2d 243 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1979)
Crocker v. MARTHA'S VINEYARD COMMISSION
551 N.E.2d 527 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1990)
Eyal v. Helen Broadcasting Corp.
583 N.E.2d 228 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Fortin v. Roman Catholic Bishop
416 Mass. 781 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1994)
Fairneny v. Savogran Co.
422 Mass. 469 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1996)
Commonwealth v. Super
727 N.E.2d 1175 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2000)
Maffei v. Roman Catholic Archbishop
449 Mass. 235 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2007)
Jensen v. Daniels
57 Mass. App. Ct. 811 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
23 Mass. L. Rptr. 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lr5-a-ltd-partnership-v-meadow-creek-llc-masssuperct-2008.