Maleski v. DP Realty Trust

653 A.2d 54, 1994 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 725
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 14, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 653 A.2d 54 (Maleski v. DP Realty Trust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maleski v. DP Realty Trust, 653 A.2d 54, 1994 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 725 (Pa. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

PELLEGRINI, Judge.

Before us are preliminary objections of the defendants, DP Realty Trust (DP), DP Realty Trust, Inc. (DP Inc.), Covest Ltd. (Co-vest), Ficrest Retirement Corporation (Fi-crest), Ficrest Retirement Nominee Trust (Ficrest Trust), Robert F. Feige (Feige), Timothy D. Cox (T. Cox), Bernard Cox (B. Cox), and Steven Seehrest (Seehrest), to a complaint filed against them by Cynthia M. Maleski (Maleski), the Insurance Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Statutory Liquidator) acting in her capacity as the statutory liquidator of Corporate Life Insurance Company (Corporate Life), and Newspan, Inc. (Newspan).1

By order of this Court dated February 15, 1994, Corporate life, a Pennsylvania-based stock life insurance company, was placed into liquidation pursuant to Chapter V of the Insurance Department Act2 (Insurance Act) due to insolvency. In accordance with that order, Maleski was appointed Statutory Liquidator and vested with all of the powers of that post conferred under the Act. See 40 P.S. § 221.21, 221.23(23). On July 1, 1994, pursuant to these powers, Maleski brought this action in this Court’s original jurisdiction alleging claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, fraud, fraudulent conveyance, and negligence against the above mentioned defendants.

The allegations of the complaint, which at this stage of the pleadings, with the exception of the in personam matter, we are required to accept as true,3 describe the parties as follows:

• Feige is a Massachusetts citizen engaged in the business of buying, selling, brokering and servicing real estate mortgage loans, conducting these activities individually and through companies that are owned and controlled by him.
• Seehrest is a citizen of North Carolina who is an owner, officer or director of DP, DP Inc., Ficrest, as well as other entities.
• DP is a Massachusetts business trust, owned and controlled by Feige and T. Cox, of which both Feige and Seehrest are fifty percent beneficiaries.
• DP Inc. is a Tennessee corporation which is owned and controlled by Seehrest and Feige and is engaged in the business of buying and selling mortgages.
• Covest is a Massachusetts corporation engaged in the business of servicing mortgages which is owned by Feige and his wife.
• Ficrest is a Massachusetts corporation owned and controlled by Feige and Se-ehrest.
[58]*58• Ficrest Trust is a Massachusetts corporation owned and controlled by Feige and B. Cox, of which both Feige and Sechrest are fifty percent beneficiaries.

As to the facts, the complaint alleges as follows: Frederic Richardson (Richardson) and Sechrest wanted to locate an insurance company to purchase on a “mortgage margin.” (¶ 23). To this end, Sechrest contacted Feige, a mortgage broker, to locate a company to purchase, eventually deciding on Corporate Life. (¶ 23). Sechrest and Feige formed DP Inc., with no capital, to facilitate this acquisition along with Richardson, who formed American Homestead, Inc., (American Homestead) to be the corporation that actually was to acquire Corporate Life. (¶ 23).

To initiate the acquisition, Richardson approached Corporate Life and proposed a plan in which Corporate Life was to pay DP Inc. full par value for mortgages having a market value sixty percent of par. (¶ 24). In turn, American Homestead was to make a capital contribution to Corporate Life funded by DP Inc.’s purchasing of American Homestead preferred stock which was funded by the forty percent difference between the price paid by Corporate Life for the mortgages and the sixty percent of par DP Inc. paid for the mortgages it conveyed to Corporate Life. (¶8 24, 35) ,4

Corporate Life agreed to this plan, and on February 28, 1991, it entered into a Stock Exchange Agreement with American Homestead. (¶ 25).5 This agreement was amended by the parties on May 7, 1991, (Amended Stock Exchange Agreement) with Corporate Life agreeing to pay DP Inc. the $14.2 par value for mortgages which had a market value of only $9 million. (¶ 25).6 Corporate Life booked these mortgages, not at their market value, but rather, at their par value. (¶ 25).

In addition to the Amended Stock Exchange Agreement, the parties subsequently entered into several other agreements dealing with the purchase and management of the mortgages by Corporate Life. One such agreement was the “Post-Transfer Agreement,” entered into by the parties on May 7, 1991, whereby Corporate Life agreed to purchase, and in fact did purchase, an additional $52 million in mortgages from DP Inc. over a period of fourteen months. (¶ 33). Further, the parties also entered into an “Agency Agreement” on that same day which provided that all of the mortgages purchased by Corporate Life would be serviced by an affiliate of DP Inc., CoVest. (¶ 34).

With respect to the mortgages purchased under the Amended Stock Exchange Agreement, DP Inc. served a dual role, both as the broker of the mortgages and as a principal of American Homestead through its ownership of preferred stock in that company. (¶ 26). In its capacity as the broker, DP Inc. represented to Corporate Life, as well as to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (Insurance Department), that the mortgages were valid, legal and binding obligations. (¶ 27). The Insurance Department conditionally approved the acquisition of these mortgages, provided that they met fourteen specified criteria. (¶ 27).7 DP Inc. and Corporate [59]*59Life represented to the Insurance Department that the mortgages did satisfy these criteria, when in fact, several of the criteria were not satisfied. (fs28, 29).8

As to the mortgages which failed to meet the criteria set forth by the Insurance Department, the Amended Stock Exchange Agreement required that DP Inc. repurchase or replace these mortgages with mortgages which satisfied the criteria. (¶8 38, 40). However, on February 28, 1992, Corporate Life and DP Inc. entered into a Restated Agreement which released DP from its obligation of replacing the defective mortgages. (¶ 38). Instead, this agreement permitted DP Inc. to replace the valuable mortgages which existed in Corporate Life’s portfolio with mortgages having the same par value but a much lower market value. (¶ 39). Further, this agreement also granted DP Inc. the right to manage Corporate Life’s portfolio, including the power to foreclose on the mortgages, to take deeds in lieu of foreclosure, and to accept discounted payoffs of the mortgages. (¶41). DP Inc. was required to split the profits from all of these transactions with Corporate Life. (¶ 41).

Subsequent to the Restated Agreement, Feige and DP Inc. began liquidating the mortgages in Corporate Life’s portfolio, but did not split the profits derived from these sales with Corporate Life. (¶ 46). Instead, Feige deposited this money into DP Inc.’s general operating account and used it to pay expenses unrelated to the management of Corporate Life’s portfolio. (¶ 48). Additionally, DP used some of this money to purchase more nonqualifying loans to sell to Corporate Life. (¶ 49).

In late 1992, the business relationship between DP Inc. and Corporate Life was deteriorating. (¶ 55).

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653 A.2d 54, 1994 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maleski-v-dp-realty-trust-pacommwct-1994.