QSI-Fostoria DC, LLC v. General Electric Capital

223 F.R.D. 465, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16938, 2004 WL 1903320
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedAugust 17, 2004
DocketNo. 3:02 CV 7466
StatusPublished

This text of 223 F.R.D. 465 (QSI-Fostoria DC, LLC v. General Electric Capital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
QSI-Fostoria DC, LLC v. General Electric Capital, 223 F.R.D. 465, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16938, 2004 WL 1903320 (N.D. Ohio 2004).

Opinion

ORDER

CARR, District Judge.

This is a diversity suit brought by the former owner, QSI-Fostoria DC, LLC (QSI), of a building that it leased to Quality Farm and Fleet (Quality) for use as a distribution center. To finance its purchase of the building, QSI obtained financing from and gave a mortgage to Bridger Commercial Funding, LLC (Bridger).

The tenant, Quality, leased a material handling system from defendant General Electric Capital Business Asset Funding Corporation (GE Capital). As part of its arrangement with Quality, GE Capital required the landlord, plaintiff QSI, to enter into a Landlord Waiver and Agreement (Landlord Agreement).

Quality’s business was not successful, and it filed bankruptcy. Thereafter, pursuant to its Landlord Agreement with GE Capital, QSI served notice on GE Capital to remove its equipment from QSI’s building.

GE Capital did not remove the equipment for more than a year. According to QSI, such failure made the premises unrentable to another tenant.1

[467]*467Not receiving rental income from either Quality or a successor tenant, QSI defaulted on the note and mortgage it had given to Bridger. Bridger, in the meantime, had transferred QSI’s note and mortgage to BACM 2001-1 Central Park West, LLC (BACM).

Rather than foreclose on the QSI premises, BACM took a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

QSI brought this suit to recover damages from GE Capital for its failure to have removed the equipment from QSI’s premises. QSI’s complaint sought declaratory and in-junctive relief (to have the equipment removed) and asserted three claims for monetary damages: 1) breach of the Landlord Agreement; 2) unjust enrichment; and 3) trespass. Subsequent removal by GE Capital of the equipment has mooted the claims for declaratory and injunctive relief.

According to BACM, it did not learn of the pendency of this litigation and QSI’s claim for monetary damages against GE Capital until after it had received QSI’s deed in lieu of foreclosure. BACM claims that, as a result of certain terms and conditions of the Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure Agreement (Deed in Lieu Agreement), it, not QSI, is entitled to recover on those claims.

In essence, BACM contends that the Deed In Lieu Agreement included a transfer of QSI’s claims from QSI to BACM. QSI disagrees, and contends that the Deed in Lieu Agreement, which does not expressly mention the claims against GE Capital, did not transfer those claims from it to BACM.

BACM filed a motion for leave to intervene or to be substituted in place of QSI as the plaintiff. BACM has been granted leave to intervene; its request to be substituted as party plaintiff is still pending.

In addition, GE Capital has filed its second motion for summary judgment. In that motion, GE Capital contends that, as a result of certain terms and conditions in the mortgage which QSI gave to Bridger, QSI is not a real party in interest.

For the reasons that follow, I conclude that QSI did not transfer its claims against GE Capital to QSI in the Deed in Lieu Agreement. The motion to substitute shall, accordingly, be denied. I also conclude, without adjudicating the merits of GE Capital’s contentions about the underlying mortgage, that GE Capital’s second motion for summary judgment should be denied.

Discussion

A. BACM’s Motion to Substitute

BACM bases its demand for substitution on Rule 25(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides:

Transfer of Interest. In case of any transfer of interest, the action may be continued by or against the original party, unless the court upon motion directs the person to whom the interest is transferred to be substituted in the action or joined with the original party.

This rule applies only where the transfer of interest occurs during the pendency of the litigation, and not where the transfer occurred prior to the litigation began. See Andrews v. Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital, 140 F.3d 1405, 1407 (11th Cir. 1998).

The merits of BACM’s contention that, pursuant to Rule 25(c), it alone is entitled to pursue the damages claim against GE Capital depend entirely on the Deed in Lieu Agreement. This is so because whatever rights QSI may have transferred in its mortgage to Bridger, which that firm in turn assigned to BACM, were transferred prior to the commencement of this suit.

Section 1(a) of the Deed in Lieu Agreement required QSI to convey to BACM “all of [QSI’s] right, title and interest in and to the Project, all personal property of [QSI] located on or at the Project and any easements, licenses or other arrangements with respect to adjacent properties that benefit the Project,----”

Section 1(a) of the Deed in Lieu Agreement has seven subsections, which described [468]*468“without limitation” the property being conveyed by QSI to BACM. BACM contends § l(a)(vii) conveyed the claims at issue in this case to it. That provision conveys:

All intangible property used by [QSI] and/or Quality in connection with the development, use and operation of the Project, including, without limitation, plans and specifications, reports, permits, licenses, certificates of occupancy, development rights, warranties, guaranties, telephone exchanges, trademarks and the name of the Project (collectively, the “Intangible Property”).

(Emphasis added).

Section 1(b) of the Deed in Lieu Agreement states that the “foregoing assets and properties” (i.e., the assets and properties listed in § 1(a) and its subsections) “are hereinafter collectively referred to as the ‘Project.’ ”

QSI argues, and its argument is persuasive, that the claims against GE Capital at issue in this suit — which are for damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and trespass — are not “intangible property used” by it “in connection with the development, use and operation of the Project.” Consequently, the Deed in Lieu Agreement did not convey the claims to BACM. Most simply put, the claims against GE Capital were not “used” by QSI. Thus, they are not covered and were not conveyed by § l(a)(vii) of the Deed in Lieu Agreement.

BACM also contends, in the alternative, that § 9(it), one of fifteen subsections under the “Representations and Warranties of Borrower” (i.e., QSI) in the Deed in Lieu Agreement, transferred the claims to it. That subsection provides, in pertinent part:

Borrower intends to transfer and convey to Lender all of Borrower’s right, title and interest in and to the Project, and this transaction is not intended as a mortgage, trust conveyance, deed of trust or security instrument of any kind. After the Closing, Borrower wdll not have any further interest (including rights of redemption) or claims in and to the Project or to the proceeds and profits that may be derived therefrom. The Project being transferred to Lender represents all of the property, real personal, owned by Borrower and after the Closing Borrower shall have no debts or liabilities to any party.

(Emphasis supplied).

Section 9 and its subsections, including § 9(1),

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Related

Andrews v. Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital
140 F.3d 1405 (Eleventh Circuit, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
223 F.R.D. 465, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16938, 2004 WL 1903320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/qsi-fostoria-dc-llc-v-general-electric-capital-ohnd-2004.