Quantum Corporate Funding, Ltd. v. Assist You Home Health Care Services of Virginia, L.L.C.

144 F. Supp. 2d 241, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6628, 2001 WL 527472
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 15, 2001
Docket01 CIV. 2691(RO)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 144 F. Supp. 2d 241 (Quantum Corporate Funding, Ltd. v. Assist You Home Health Care Services of Virginia, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Quantum Corporate Funding, Ltd. v. Assist You Home Health Care Services of Virginia, L.L.C., 144 F. Supp. 2d 241, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6628, 2001 WL 527472 (S.D.N.Y. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

OWEN, District Judge.

Before me is Plaintiff Quantum’s application for a preliminary injunction pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a) seeking to prevent the Defendant Assist You and Nurse You corporations from disposing of assets pledged to Quantum under two loan and security agreements dated June 23, 2000. On March 29, 2001, this Court directed the defendants to show cause as to why an order enjoining the transfer of assets should not be entered and also put a temporary restraining order in place to maintain the status quo pending a hearing on Quantum’s application. 1 The parties appeared on April 19, 20 and 25, 2001 for said hearing and presented the following facts.

Quantum is a New York corporation engaged in the business of factoring 2 and commercial finance. The corporate defendants, Nurse You and Assist You, and individual defendant Hofler, are citizens of Virginia and providers of health care services. Hofler is manager of the Assist You entities and president and CEO of Nurse You. On June 23, 2000, the parties entered into two virtually identical Loan and Security Agreements, one pertaining to the Assist You corporations and the other to the Nurse You entity, in which Quantum, in its “sole absolute discretion,” agreed to make loans and advances (of up to $350,000 to Assist You and $100,000 to Nurse You) against defendant’s “Eligible Account” re *243 ceivables. 3 The agreement defined “Eligible Account” receivables at Appendix A, page S — 4:

Eligible Account — shall mean Accounts created by Borrower [Defendants] in the ordinary course of its business arising out of its sale of goods or rendition of services, which are and at all times shall continue to be acceptable to Lender [Quantum] in its sole and absolute discretion. Eligible Accounts shall exclude accounts that are over one hundred twenty (120) days from invoice date, contra accounts, foreign, employee and affiliate accounts, accounts with poor credit histories, excessive concentration accounts, accounts subject to cross-aging or any other accounts which do not constitute acceptable collateral to Lender. Standards of eligibility may be fixed and revised from time to time solely by Lender in its exclusive judgment. In determining eligibility, Lender may, but need not, rely on aging, reports and schedules of Accounts furnished by Borrower but rebanee by Lender thereon from time to time shall not be deemed to limit its right to revise standards of ehgibihty at any time without notice as to both Borrower’s present and future Accounts.

The Loan and Security Agreements, among other things, require that the corporate defendants pay their obligations when due (§ 10.1.1), remain solvent under a definition of solvency stated in the contract (§§ 7.1.14, 10.1.9), prepare and maintain books, records and financial statements in accordance with Generaby Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) (§§ 7.1.12, 8.1.3) and also prohibit the defendants from making loans (§ 8.2.2) or merging or consolidating with any other entity (§ 8.2.2).

The Agreements also established a specific manner in which Quantum could collect on its interest in defendants’ account receivables because, as described by the witnesses and attorneys, Medicare regulations prohibit the assignment of claims by providers, like the defendants, to “any other. person,” 42 C.F.R. § 424.73. Accordingly, the Agreements established that Medicare payments to the defendants would be placed in a “lockbox” at First Union Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina in defendants’ name and the contents of the lockbox would be forwarded to Quantum on a daby basis (§§ 6.2.10, 6.2.11).

Frank Madonna, Quantum’s senior vice-president and officer responsible for asset-based lending, negotiated the Agreements with .Assist You and Nurse You, which were represented by Hofler. He testified and introduced various documents, including the UCC-1 forms evidencing Quantum’s secured interest in the defendants’ receivables and filed in the Circuit Clerk’s Office in Petersburg, Virginia. Prior to execution of the Agreements, Quantum discovered that defendants were in arrears on payroll taxes in the amount of approximately $80,000 and Quantum’s loan in or *244 about July 2000 was used to pay this tax debt. Madonna testified that Quantum normally schedules an audit somewhere within the first three months of taking on a new client, however, plaintiff had trouble doing so with Hofler and the corporate defendants. Quantum was finally able to audit the defendants in October 2000 using its financial field examiner Dick Seymour of DF Flores & Associates.

Seymour reported to Quantum in the last week of November 2000 that the Assist You entities had failed to post general ledgers since September 30, 2000, the same for Nurse You since August 31, 2000, payroll taxes through November 13, 2000 were past due and no reconciliation of defendants’ accounts receivables (to determine what monies had actually been collected) had been performed on the financial reports submitted to Quantum. Seymour also noted that there was no internal financial controller or outside accountant. Madonna testified that Seymour further informed Quantum that the defendants’ aforementioned payroll tax liability was at that point in excess of $400,000.

Quantum was understandably concerned because defendants’ payroll tax liability exceeded the amount of Quantum’s loan and plaintiff, therefore, reduced defendants’ available financing. It informed Hofler that, by Seymour’s calculations, defendants were over-advanced on their credit by approximately $44,000. Madonna stated that he contacted Hofler, who conceded that defendants owed the taxes and that payroll would be paid as soon as sufficient funds became available. Madonna stated that approximately $16,000 of the payroll taxes were paid on January 3, 2001, but he never saw any other documents evidencing further payment of defendants’ payroll liability. Madonna testified that defendants stopped furnishing Quantum financial information and lockbox payments entirely on February 15, 2001. At this time, the parties exchanged several letters declaring one another to be in breach of the Agreements.

Madonna, addressing a recent set of fi-nancials Quantum received from the defendants in connection with this Court’s TRO order, concluded that defendants are insolvent as defined by the Agreements and that as of March 23, 2001, Quantum’s loan statements reflect that (1) the total amount of the loan outstanding to the Assist You companies was $201,748.58, including interest from February 15 to March 23 and (2) the total amount of the loan outstanding to Nurse You was $27,988.74.

Hofler testified on behalf of the defendants. Most of his testimony centered on the process by which the corporate defendants get paid under the Medicare and Medicaid regimes. Defendants’ clients are referred for community-based care from the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services.

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144 F. Supp. 2d 241, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6628, 2001 WL 527472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quantum-corporate-funding-ltd-v-assist-you-home-health-care-services-of-nysd-2001.