NationsBank v. Commercial Financial Services, Inc. (In Re Commercial Financial Services, Inc.)

268 B.R. 579, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 1342, 38 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 136, 2001 WL 1246409
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 15, 2001
Docket19-10074
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 268 B.R. 579 (NationsBank v. Commercial Financial Services, Inc. (In Re Commercial Financial Services, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NationsBank v. Commercial Financial Services, Inc. (In Re Commercial Financial Services, Inc.), 268 B.R. 579, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 1342, 38 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 136, 2001 WL 1246409 (Okla. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTIONS TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED ADVERSARY COMPLAINT

DANA L. RASURE, Bankruptcy Judge.

On July 23, 1999, Plaintiff Bank of America, formerly known as NationsBank, N.A., (“BOA”) filed its First Amended Adversary Complaint (the “Complaint”) (Adversary Docket # (“Adv.Doc.”) 34) on behalf of itself and as an agent for others, 1 seeking an order declaring that approximately $66 million in funds held by' Defendant Commercial Financial Services, Inc. (“CFS”) had been impressed with a constructive or resulting trust in BOA’s favor. 2

*584 In response to the Complaint, the parties have filed the following pleadings:

• Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s Motion to Dismiss First Amended Adversary Complaint and Memorandum of Law in support thereof, both filed August 3,1999 (Adv.Doc.35, 36) (collectively “CFS’s Motion to Dismiss”)

• Bank of America, N.A.’s Objection to Defendant’s August 3, 1999 Motion to Dismiss, filed September 1, 1999 (Adv. Doc.43) (“BOA’s Objection”)

• Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s Reply in Support of Motion to Dismiss First Amended Adversary Complaint, filed October 5,1999 (Adv.Doc.49)

• Bank of America, N.A.’s Surreply to Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s October 5, 1999 Reply in Support of its August 3, 1999 Motion to Dismiss, filed November 15, 1999 (Adv.Doc.67) (“Sur-reply”)

• Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s Sur-Surreply, filed January 28, 2000 (Adv.Doc.81) (“Sur-Surreply”)

On December 22, 1999, the Court granted the motions of the Asset-Backed Secu-rityholders Committee (the “ABS Committee”) and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “OCUC”, collectively the “Committees”) to intervene in this matter to protect their claims to the funds claimed by BOA in the Complaint. The OCUC adopted CFS’s Motion to Dismiss in toto as its position. Thereafter, the following pleadings were filed:

• Motion of the Official Committee of Asset-Backed Securityholders to Dismiss Adversary Proceeding and Memorandum of Law in Support thereof, both filed January 28, 2000 (Adv.Doc.79, 80) (“ABS’s Motion to Dismiss”)

• Bank of America’s Objection to the ABS Committee’s October 22, 1999[sic] Motion to Dismiss, filed March 3, 2000 (Adv. Doc.86)

The parties and intervenors have supplemented their memoranda as follows:

• Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s Supplement in Support of Motion to Dismiss, filed November 17, 2000 (Adv. Doc.88) (“CFS’s First Supplement”)

• Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors’ Supplement in Support of Motion to Dismiss, filed December 5, 2000 (Adv. Doc.94) (“OCUC’s Supplement”)

• Bank of America N.A’s Combined Response to Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors’ Supplements to Motion to Dismiss, filed December 20, 2000 (Adv.Doc.96) (“BOA’s Response to Supplements”)

• Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s Second Supplement in Support of Motion to Dismiss, filed June 8, 2001 (Adv. Doc.97) (“CFS’s Second Supplement”)

• Bank of America, N.A.’s Response to Commercial Financial Services, Inc.’s June 8, 2001 Second Supplement in Support of its Motion to Dismiss (filed June 28, 2001) (Adv.Doc.100) (“BOA’s Response to Second Supplement”).

I. Jurisdiction

The Court has jurisdiction of this “core” proceeding by virtue of 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334; 157(a) and (b)(2)(A), (B) and (O); and Miscellaneous Order No. 128 of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma: Order of Referral of *585 Bankruptcy Cases effective July 10, 1984, as amended.

II. Standard for evaluating motion to dismiss

In evaluating a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cognizable claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (made applicable to this adversary proceeding by Bankruptcy Rule 7012(b)), “it must appear beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts that would entitled him to relief.” Swanson v. Bixler, 750 F.2d 810, 813 (10th Cir.1984). The Court must “assume as true the facts asserted in the complaint and construe the well-pleaded allegations in favor of the plaintiff.” Ballen v. Prudential Bache Securities, Inc., 23 F.3d 335, 336 (10th Cir.1994). “All reasonable inferences must be indulged in favor of the plaintiff, ... and the pleadings must be liberally construed.” Swanson, 750 F.2d at 813.

III. The Complaint

The relevant well-pleaded facts that the Court assumes are true for the purpose of these motions to dismiss are summarized as follows:

In early 1998, representatives of CFS solicited BOA’s 3 participation in a financing transaction to be evidenced by a Note Purchase Agreement. At all relevant times, CFS was engaged in the business of purchasing delinquent and defaulted consumer loans and receivables, primarily credit card accounts (“Loans”), and then collecting or attempting to collect on such Loans. The structure of the proposed financing transaction was thus: CFS would transfer a package of Loans (in this case, the “Series 1998-B Loans”) to CF/SPC GREAT, Inc., a special purpose corporation wholly owned by CFS. CF/SPC GREAT, Inc. in turn would transfer the Series 1998-B Loans to a Delaware business trust (the “Master Trust”). The Master Trust, now holding the assets in a vehicle “remote” from CFS and its general creditors, would issue trust certificates that entitled the holders to payments of principal and interest derived from the income stream generated from CFS’s collections on the Series 1998-B Loans. 4 It was envisioned that one of the trust certificate holders would be another Delaware business trust, the GREAT Series Trust 1998-B (the “Series Trust”), and that it would issue a promissory note (“Series Note”) to BOA in exchange for a loan in the face amount of the Series Note. The proceeds of the loan would be transferred directly to CFS as consideration for its transfer of the Loans to the Master Trust. 5 The Series Note was to be repaid with proceeds from collections by CFS on the Series 1998-B Loans residing in the Master Trust.

To induce BOA to participate in the financing transaction, CFS represented that it had developed proprietary methods for valuing, pricing, purchasing and collecting such Loans. Central to CFS’s promotion of this financing opportunity was the presentation of CFS’s “ECR Model,” a “proprietary model for estimating cash to be recovered [from an Loan] over time.” Complaint, Exh.

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268 B.R. 579, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 1342, 38 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 136, 2001 WL 1246409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nationsbank-v-commercial-financial-services-inc-in-re-commercial-oknb-2001.