Miami Center Liquidating Trust v. Dade County

75 B.R. 61
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedMay 21, 1987
DocketNo. 86-2608-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 75 B.R. 61 (Miami Center Liquidating Trust v. Dade County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miami Center Liquidating Trust v. Dade County, 75 B.R. 61 (S.D. Fla. 1987).

Opinion

ORDER DISMISSING COMPLAINT IN ABSENCE OF MANDATORY JURISDICTION

KEHOE, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon the Plaintiff’s Application for a Temporary Restraining Order pursuant to a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Permanent Injunction. At the hearing on the Application, the primary question considered by the Court was whether its mandatory jurisdiction, rather than its discretionary jurisdiction, had been invoked. The Court’s concern arose from the fact that the file reflected that the subject matter of the Complaint and Application was an integral part of duly-instituted bankruptcy proceedings before the Honorable Thomas C. Brit-ton in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. Because the Bankruptcy Court is this Court’s adjunct in bankruptcy matters and because the nature of these proceedings appeared to be the very sort Congress intended for the Bankruptcy Court’s jurisdiction, the Court advised the parties that as a basic policy consideration and out of deference to the Bankruptcy Court’s jurisdictional integrity, its expertise and its familiarity with the present issues, jursidiction in this case would be assumed only if it was shown to be mandatory.

The parties, having prepared and timely submitted memoranda on the mandatory jurisdiction question, and the Court having carefully reviewed the memoranda and having otherwise independently apprised itself in the premises, it is

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that no clear showing has been made to invoke this Court’s mandatory jurisdiction to entertain the present Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Permanent Injunction and, accordingly, the Complaint is hereby DISMISSED.

In entering this Order, the Court has relied on the following:

[63]*63THE CURRENT PROCEEDINGS1

1. This case arises out of bankruptcy proceedings culminating in a 1985 Bankruptcy Plan confirmed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, which created the Plaintiff Miami Center Liquidating Trust. The Bankruptcy Plan itself centers around highly improved real estate known as the Miami Center Property, prominently located in the downtown section of the City of Miami (Dade County, Florida).

2. The primary Defendant is Dade County, Florida, a political subdivision under the Florida Constitution that operates pursuant to a home rule charter. Under that charter, the Defendant County has the power to “levy and collect such taxes as may be authorized by general law and no other taxes.” This includes the levying and collection of ad valorem real property taxes. (For the tax years 1983 through 1985, the ad valorem real property taxes for the bankrupt property came under the control of the Bankruptcy Court.)

3. In connection with such taxes for the tax years 1979 through 1985, the Plaintiff alleges that the Defendant County failed in its duty to perform a just and uniform real property valuation, resulting in an overvaluation of the Miami Center Property, in violation of the Plaintiff’s constitutional due process rights.

4. The legal disputes over these longstanding property tax disagreements prompted court proceedings currently pending in the Circuit Court for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida.

5. In the present Complaint, the Plaintiff argues that it is entitled to real property tax refunds from the Defendant County and that such refunds would increase the assets available for creditors under the Bankruptcy Plan.

6. Thus, the Plaintiff is now before this Court, during the latter stages of the bankruptcy proceedings, alleging that:

Th[e District] Court has both pendent and ancillary jurisdiction to enforce the injunction of 11 U.S.C. § 524 and to determine the validity, extent and amount of the claims of [the Defendant County] for all tax years at issue, and is the only forum which can offer Plaintiff a plain, speedy and efficient remedy, and enforce its rights pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 524. [emphasis added]

7. In addition to Dade County, Florida, the Complaint names as Defendants: (a) Dade County’s Acting Property Appraiser and (b) its Tax Collector, (c) the Executive Director of Florida’s Department of Revenue and (d) the former and (e) current Florida Attorneys General.

BANKRUPTCY HEARING OF DECEMBER 29, 1986

8. During the December 29, 1986, Bankruptcy Court hearing in this matter, Judge Thomas C. Britton first learned of the law suit filed in this Court. At that time, Judge Britton expressed his “... understanding that the issue of the amount owed on the [County’s] tax, not necessarily the amount to be paid from the estate ... are two separate questions — there may well not be enough money after the payment of all administrative expenses to satisfy this lien, ... but the amount of the tax, whether the state statute is constitutional or not would be a part of that process, [and] ought to be decided in the state court.”

9. At that hearing, the Plaintiff’s counsel advised the Bankruptcy Court that the basis for the present District Court action was constitutional and related to “the application of the Bankruptcy Code ...,” that “Dade County never filed a claim in these proceedings ...” and “never submitted itself to the jurisdiction of [the Bankruptcy] Court, ... therefore, ... [the Plaintiff needed] a determination of whether or not [the County is] a creditor entitled to any priority, [which] is not a state court issue.”

10. Throughout this portion of the hearing, Judge Britton maintained that his jurisdiction had not terminated, that he contin[64]*64ued to have control over all the issues, that the Plaintiff could have raised every issue in [the state court] proceeding ..., “that the Plaintiff was just making an issue to get it before the District Court and away from the state court ...” and that the Plaintiff was “playing games to the disadvantage of another litigant.”

11. In connection with the status of Dade County’s claim, Judge Britton specifically pointed out:

* * * * * *
This is the first moment since the beginning of this lawsuit that it has been indicated to me in any respect that the status of the county tax claim as a claimant against this estate is not recognized because no claim was filed. It is the first time it has been hinted. The debtor recognized it constantly and you have recognized it constantly up until now, you have set aside a reserve for it, and now you are saying that this whole matter must be decided in a court that cannot even hear it earlier than a year from now because no claim was filed. I am appalled.

12. With reference to the termination of the Bankruptcy Court’s jurisdiction, Judge Britton advised the parties:

***** *
I am very anxious to get the case closed and disposed of and cut off the administrative expenses that accompany a bankruptcy case, but I will not do it if, by doing so, I leave problems for the very court that I am charged with the responsibility of serving, the District Court.

13. Judge Britton thereupon summed up his views:

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75 B.R. 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miami-center-liquidating-trust-v-dade-county-flsd-1987.