Perrine v. Bettman (In re Bettman)

102 B.R. 300, 1989 Bankr. LEXIS 1119
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedApril 14, 1989
DocketBankruptcy No. 088-80229-21; Adv. No. 088-0086-21
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 102 B.R. 300 (Perrine v. Bettman (In re Bettman)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perrine v. Bettman (In re Bettman), 102 B.R. 300, 1989 Bankr. LEXIS 1119 (E.D.N.Y. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

CECELIA H. GOETZ, Bankruptcy Judge:

This is a complaint challenging the dis-chargeability of a debt. The Plaintiffs are William and Louise Perrine (“Perrines”). The Defendants are Martin and Marlene Bettman. The evidence, however, relates exclusively to Martin Bettman. The complaint challenges dischargeability under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A).

The Court has jurisdiction over this adversary proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157, 1334. This is a core proceeding because it involves a determination as to the dischargeability of a particular debt. 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I).

The debt which the complaint asks to have declared nondischargeable was the value on foreclosure of a money market certificate pledged on June 17, 1983 as collateral to the Hempstead Bank (now Norstar Bank), for a loan made to Bettman Nut Enterprises, Inc. (“Bettman Nut”). The gravamen of the complaint is that the plaintiffs were induced to pledge the bank certificate as collateral on the representation that it was required to secure the personal obligation of Martin Bettman and not of any corporate entity, that they relied on assurances that Martin Bettman’s personal financial situation was sound; that Martin Bettman knew these representations to be misleading and made them with the intent to deceive the plaintiffs.

The defendants filed a general denial.

The parties stipulated to the following facts:

1. The Plaintiff (sic) did pledge a certificate of deposit as security for a loan made by Norstar Bank (previously Hempstead Bank) to Bettman Nut Enterprises, Inc.

2. Bettman Nuts, Inc. (sic) defaulted in the payment of its debt to Norstar Bank [301]*301and Norstar Bank availed itself of the plaintiffs full deposit in the sum of $40,-122.71 as security for that debt on or about January 17, 1987.

3. The pledge was made for no consideration.

Three witnesses testified. The plaintiff, William Perrine, the defendant, Martin Bettman, and a Norstar Bank official, Bernhardt Berg.

THE FACTS

Sometime after the plaintiff, William Perrine, reached the age of 68 and retired, a friend suggested that he assist Martin Bettman who at that time was in the soft drink business, but shortly thereafter, began the manufacture of candy. He carried on these businesses through a corporation, Bettman Nut.

From 1972 until 1983 Perrine worked at the premises of Bettman Nut every day running errands, canning, making candy and doing whatever else was necessary. He worked without any compensation other than that the insurance on his car was paid for by the company.

Perrine’s relationship with Bettman was not that of a social friend; the only occasions on which he visited Bettman’s home was to run an errand or to use the premises for the manufacture of candy.

Sometime prior to February 1983 Bett-man approached the Hempstead Bank about a loan and was advised that the Bank would require collateral. Bettman told Perrine, to whom he spoke almost daily, that he was in financial difficulty: “That we’re tight and I’ve got to decide what I can afford to buy and which I can’t, as far as ingredients were concerned and I wish I could put my hands on some additional money.” (Tr., p. 5)

According to Perrine, Bettman asked for $25,000. Bettman assured him that the money would be repaid within three months as soon as his mother’s will was settled, showing what he described as a copy of his mother’s will. He told Perrine that she had left him a house and high-paying dividend stocks and various other things. He insisted that he had to have money within two or three days or he would be in very big trouble. Perrine’s recollection was that this conversation took place in June 1983.

Perrine’s response was that he did not have $25,000 in cash but that he had a savings certificate. Bettman responded that the certificate could be used in lieu of cash.

Bettman then took Perrine to the Hemp-stead Bank where Bettman Nut maintained its account and introduced him to Mr. Berg, a bank official, saying, “Mr. Berg, Mr. Per-rine has agreed to lend me $25,000 ... but Mr. Perrine doesn’t have the cash he has a certificate and he claims he doesn’t know too much about handling a certificate so would you help?” (Tr. p. 26)

Berg then gave Perrine various forms: a hypothecation agreement and an acknowledgment and assignment. These forms contained many blanks. He instructed Per-rine to have his wife sign both documents, to bring the acknowledgment and assignment to the Heritage Federal Savings Bank which held the savings certificate and to arrange to have the Bank send the completed forms to the Hempstead Bank.

When the hypothecation agreement was given to William Perrine it was in blank. After he returned with it to the Hempstead Bank he signed it either once, or twice, in the presence of Mr. Berg who completed it. As completed it was dated February 8, 1983 and pledged the “Heritage Federal Savings & Loan Association Savings Certificate No. 6-710249” as collateral for a loan made “Bettman Nut Enterprises, Inc.”

All the discussion at the Hempstead Bank was limited to the mechanics of the pledge, to how the documents should be signed and the arrangements made to transfer the savings certificate to the Hempstead Bank. All that Berg apparently told Perrine was that the forms would have to be filled in by him and his wife. When Berg was asked whether Bettman had indicated to Perrine for whom the loan was to be, he responded: “I cannot factually answer that, because I may have assumed, we both may have assumed what [302]*302the loan was for. I cannot say that was brought up.” (Tr. p. 61).

On June 17, 1983, Perrine signed a second hypothecation agreement pledging a six-month money market certificate, No. 7022909, issued by the Hempstead Bank. It is this collateral which gave rise to the debt which the plaintiffs seek to have declared nondischargeable.

Before this new hypothecation agreement was signed, Berg met a second time with Perrine at which time he again gave him the hypothecation agreement in blank with instructions to have it completed by himself and his wife.

The second hypothecation agreement, like the first one, showed the collateral as pledged to secure the debt of Bettman Nut.

Perrine was asked whether at any time Berg or Bettman had indicated to him that the pledge he was making was for a debt for Bettman Nut and he responded, “Absolutely not.”

DISCUSSION

The meager record made by the plaintiffs in this proceeding is entirely inadequate to discharge the double burden they carry to prove fraud and nondischargeability. According to the pre-trial statement it was plaintiffs’ position that he was fraudulently induced into pledging a certificate of deposit with the Norstar Bank “Based upon affirmative representations that the debt to be secured was for personal, as opposed to corporate, obligations and as to defendant’s personal assets and personal solvency.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 B.R. 300, 1989 Bankr. LEXIS 1119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perrine-v-bettman-in-re-bettman-nyed-1989.