OneUnited Bank v. Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church

501 B.R. 1, 2013 WL 5508148, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140782
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedSeptember 30, 2013
DocketBankruptcy Appeal No. 12-12134-NMG
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 501 B.R. 1 (OneUnited Bank v. Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
OneUnited Bank v. Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, 501 B.R. 1, 2013 WL 5508148, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140782 (D. Mass. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

GORTON, District Judge.

Appellant OneUnited Bank (“OneUnit-ed” or “the Bank”) negotiated two mortgage loans with appellee Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church of Boston (“CSAME”), upon which CSAME ultimately defaulted. When the Bank sought to foreclose upon the mortgaged properties, CSAME filed a Chapter 11 petition in the Bankruptcy Court of this District. The Bank subsequently filed a proof of claim and moved to dismiss the bankruptcy petition. CSAME objected to both and the Bankruptcy Court entered orders denying the Bank’s motion to dismiss and sustaining CSAME’s objection to the Bank’s claim. Currently pending before the Court is the Bank’s consolidated appeal of both orders.

I. Facts

A. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Book of Discipline

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (“the National Church”) was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1816. By its own nomenclature, the National Church is a “connectional” church in which its local churches are connected through a network of church groups which rely upon one another to accomplish the purposes of the National Church. The groupings are derived from the organizing document of the National Church, known as the Book of Discipline (“the Book”). In particular, local churches within a geographic region send representatives to an “Annual Conference,” which is both an incorporated entity and a meeting. Conferences are, in turn, organized into Episcopal Districts, of which there are 20 throughout the country, each presided over by a bishop. The First Episcopal District, of which CSAME is a member, consists of 380 local churches.

Part III of the Book governs the property rights of the National Church and its connectional churches, of which CSAME is one. In Part III, the Book establishes what is called the “In Trust Rule,” which provides that the “title to all real, personal and mixed property” owned by the conferences and chapters “shall be held in trust for” the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Incorporated (“AMECI”). In particular, the Book specifies that title in such property vests in AMECI when a church is disbanded. AMECI is a nonprofit entity that was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1936 and, apart from “holding in trust” all property of the local churches, appears principally charged with representing and protecting the same property rights in legal proceedings.

B. CSAME

Appellee CSAME was incorporated, under another name, by act of the Massachusetts General Court in January, 1839. [5]*5CSAME has remained continuously incorporated in Massachusetts since that time and currently has no plans to disaffiliate from the National Church.

At present, CSAME has approximately 1,000 active members and employs both religious and administrative staff. It conducts regular worship services, provides pastoral care and religious education and engages in a variety of other charitable activities. It raises money through congregational giving which it uses to support regular programming and to pay other expenses. It also owns and maintains property, some of which it has sought to develop. Notably, CSAME has borrowed money from appellant OneUnited in order to finance a community center, to be operated as a separate, non-profit entity called the Roxbury Renaissance Center (“the RRC”).

C. The Church and Construction Loans

In October, 2006, CSAME obtained two loans from OneUnited. The first loan, with a principal of $1,115 million at a fixed 7.875% interest rate over five years (“the Church Loan”), refinanced then-existing loan obligations to other banks. The second loan, with a principal of $3,652 million and an 18-month maturity date (“the Construction Loan”), was negotiated for the purpose of rehabilitating a vacant building into the RRC. The Construction Loan accrued interest at a floating “prime” rate of not less than 7% nor more than 14%. Both Loans provided for default interest rates at the greater of 18% or the then current “prime” rate, plus 5%.

Both Loans were secured by mortgages upon real estate owned by CSAME, including the main church building in which CSAME conducts religious services. The Book requires local churches to obtain the approval of the Quarterly and Annual Conferences of which the local church is a member before that church is permitted to encumber or transfer property. CSAME obtained such approval for the mortgages associated with the subject Loans.

As a condition required by OneUnited, CSAME persuaded the First Episcopal District both to guarantee the Construction Loan and to issue a certificate of deposit, in the amount of $850,000, to ensure that CSAME could meet its monthly service payments. In a footnote to a financial statement submitted in support of its guarantee, the First District asserted that the Bishop had the authority to transfer funds between organizations and among local churches. During an eviden-tiary hearing conducted by the Bankruptcy Court with respect to the instant dispute, witnesses from CSAME and the First Episcopal District questioned whether such authority existed within the Book and claimed that, in practice, any bishop attempting to exercise authority over funds from a local church would meet resistance.

During that hearing, the Chief Operating Officer of OneUnited, Ms. Teri Williams, explained in general terms how the Bank establishes interest rates on its loans. When setting the default interest rates on loans, OneUnited considers the risk associated with the loan, the increased internal and external costs associated with a loan in default and the prevailing market rate. Ms. Williams did not offer testimony concerning how OneUnited’s practices focused on the specific characteristics of the Loans in this case. She did testify, however, that 1) the Bank did not determine what specific default interest rate to charge in case of default but rather used risk as a factor to determine whether the loans in general would include a default interest rate at all and 2) OneUnited applied an 18% minimum default interest [6]*6rate on a number of commercial loans between 2004 and 2007.

Based upon testimony at the subject hearing, the Bankruptcy Court drew several conclusions: (1) the Bank considered a default interest rate at the floating prime rate plus 5% to be sufficient to cover its increased costs; (2) the default interest rate was generally applicable and OneUn-ited did not separately calculate the rate for the two Loans at issue; and (3) OneUnited set an 18% minimum rate simply because it believed that the market would bear that rate.

D. Defaults by CSAME

Although construction on the RRC began in November, 2006, the project became plagued by prolonged delays and was not finished by the time that the Construction Loan became due in June, 2008. After several extensions, OneUnited formally declared an event of default in April, 2010, at which point the Construction Loan began accruing interest at the default rate of 18%. When the Church Loan matured in December, 2011, CSAME was unable to make the required balloon payment, causing OneUnited to declare an event of default on that loan as well. Interest has also accrued on that loan at the rate of 18% since default. In order to avert imminent foreclosure upon its properties, including the building in which it conducts religious services, CSAME filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in March, 2012.

II.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
501 B.R. 1, 2013 WL 5508148, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140782, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneunited-bank-v-charles-street-african-methodist-episcopal-church-mad-2013.