Rescap Liquidating Trust v. PHH Mortgage Corp. (In re Residential Capital, LLC)

558 B.R. 77
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 21, 2016
DocketBk. Case No. 12-12020 (MG) 16-cv-0034 (JGK) (GWG)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 558 B.R. 77 (Rescap Liquidating Trust v. PHH Mortgage Corp. (In re Residential Capital, LLC)) 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
Rescap Liquidating Trust v. PHH Mortgage Corp. (In re Residential Capital, LLC), 558 B.R. 77 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN G. KOELTL, District Judge:

This is an appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) from the Memorandum Opinion and Order of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”) dated November 23, 2015 (the “Order”). See In re Residential Capital, LLC, 541 B.R. 202 (Bankr.S.D.N.Y.2015). The appeal is brought by ResCap Liquidating Trust (the “Trust”), as successor to Residential Funding Company, LLC (“RFC”), a financial services company that, along with its affiliates (together, “the Debtors”), filed for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code on May 14, 2012 (the “Petition Date”) with discharge effective as of December 17, 2013 (the “Effective Date”). The appellees, Decision One Mortgage Company, LLC (“Decision One”), PHH Mortgage Corp. (“PHH”), Honor Bank f/k/a The Honor State Bank (“Honor Bank”) and Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company, Inc. (“Sierra Pacific”), are lenders that sold residential mortgage loans to the Debtors pursuant to contracts executed with RFC prior to the Petition Date (the “Contracts”).

After the bar date for claims as set forth in the Order Establishing Deadline for Filing Proofs of Claim and Approving the Form and Manner of Notice Thereof (the “Bar Date Order”) had passed, and after the Debtors had filed the Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan Proposed by Residential Capital, LLC, et al. and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Plan”), and after the entry of the Order Confirming the Plan (the “Confirmation Order”), and after the Effective Date, the Trust initiated separate litigations against Decision One, PHH and Honor Bank. The Trust asserted various claims on the Contracts related to each appellee’s representations and warranties concerning the residential mortgage loans. The Trust initiated similar litigation against Sierra Pacific three days prior to the Effective Date. In response, each appellee filed counterclaims against the Trust, asserting that the Trust’s lawsuits breached certain provisions in the Contracts, which purport to entitle each appellee to seek damages in the form of attorney’s fees and costs from [80]*80the Trust (the “Counterclaims”).1 The liti-gations are currently pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

The Trust filed a motion in Bankruptcy Court to enjoin the appellees from pursuing the Counterclaims, arguing that the Counterclaims were subject to the bankruptcy discharge and the injunction provisions (the “Injunction Provisions”) of the Bar Date Order, the Plan and the Confirmation Order. However, the Trust did not contest that the appellees may otherwise seek attorney’s fees as defenses or setoffs under the Contracts.'

The Bankruptcy Court denied the Trust’s motion, reasoning that the Counterclaims are not pre-petition claims subject to discharge and the Injunction Provisions “because they result from the voluntary post-confirmation actions of RFC and the Trust.” In re Residential Capital, LLC, 541 B.R. at 217. Accordingly, the dispute on appeal is whether the Bankruptcy Court erred by declining to enjoin the appellees from pursuing their contractually-based Counterclaims because — contrary to the general rule that contract claims accrue for purposes of the Bankruptcy Code at the time of contract execution — those Counterclaims arose post-confirmation, post-discharge because the Trust had “voluntarily ... returned to the fray” by suing on the Contracts post-confirmation, post-discharge, thus rendering the bankruptcy discharge and complementary Injunction Provisions inapplicable.

For the reasons explained below, the Order is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

The following facts are undisputed unless otherwise noted.

A.

Years prior to the Petition Date, RFC entered into the Contracts. See App. at 1-180; see also App. at 447-49.2 Pursuant to the Contracts, the Debtors purchased residential mortgage loans from the appellees, again prior to the Petition Date. According to the Trust, the residential mortgage loans turned out to be defective and greatly contributed to the Debtors’ eventual insolvency and bankruptcy. Each Contract contains certain provisions — such as covenants not to sue, notice and opportunity to cure provisions, forum selection clauses, and/or prevailing party provisions — breach of any of which purport to entitle each respective appellee to assert claims seeking attorney’s fees and other costs from RFC (the “Clauses”). See, e.g., App. at 10, 12, 22-28, 82-33, 47-48; Appellees’ App. at 168,172-73, 228-29.

B.

On August 29, 2012, the Bankruptcy Court entered its Bar Date Order setting November 9, 2012 (subsequently extended to November 16, 2012) as the general bar date by which claimants were required to file proofs of claims with the Bankruptcy [81]*81Court. See App. at 181-200; Bankr. Dkt. 2093 (Order Extending Deadline for Filing Proofs of Claims) at 2. On or around September 7, 2012, the appellees received notice of this bar date. See Bankr. Dkt. 1412 (Affidavit of Service for the Notice of Deadlines for Filing Proofs of Claim). The notice advised potential creditors that they must file proofs of claim against the Debtors by the bar date and that the bar date applied “to all claims against the Debtors that arose before May 14, 2012.” App. at 201. The notice stated that “claim” had the same definition as contained in the Bankruptcy Code, meaning a “right to payment, whether or not such right is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, legal, equitable, secured, or unsecured.” App. at 202 (quoting 11 U.S.C. § 101(5)). The notice also informed any creditor that if it failed to file a timely proof of claim, and was otherwise not exempt from this requirement, it would be “forever barred, estopped and enjoined from asserting such claim against the [D]ebtors.” App. at 205. No appellee filed a proof of claim that would cover the Counterclaims. See App. at 516. In fact, other than PHH, which filed a proof of claim unrelated to the Counterclaims, none of the appellees filed a proof of claim at all.3 See App. at 521-24, 526-27.

The Debtors notified their creditors, including the appellees, that the Debtors’ own pre-petition claims would survive the bankruptcy. The Debtors’ proposed disclosure statement filed on July 4, 2013 provided that the Trust “retain[s] and may enforce all rights to commence and pursue, as appropriate, any and all Causes of Action of the Debtors or the Debtors’ Estates, whether arising before or after the Petition Date” unless the Debtors had expressly waived the action in question. Bankr. Dkt. 4157 (Proposed Disclosure Statement) at 119; see also Bankr. Dkt. 4770-1 (Amended Proposed Disclosure Statement containing same language) at 139; Bankr. Dkt. 4809 (Order Approving Disclosure Statement) at 6. The notice of the disclosure statement, which each ap-pellee received on or around August 29, 2013, also disclosed that the Plan would “CONTAIN[ ] RELEASE, EXCULPATION, AND INJUNCTION PROVISIONS.” App. at 214 (emphasis in original).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
558 B.R. 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rescap-liquidating-trust-v-phh-mortgage-corp-in-re-residential-capital-nysd-2016.