Shaia v. Meyer (In Re Meyer)

206 B.R. 410, 1997 Bankr. LEXIS 410, 1997 WL 166792
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedMarch 24, 1997
Docket19-30822
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 206 B.R. 410 (Shaia v. Meyer (In Re Meyer)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaia v. Meyer (In Re Meyer), 206 B.R. 410, 1997 Bankr. LEXIS 410, 1997 WL 166792 (Va. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DOUGLAS O. TICE, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

Prior to filing his bankruptcy petition, the debtor received a cash bequest from his late father’s estate. Although the will did not require him to do so, the debtor used the funds to pay off two mortgages which encumbered a parcel of residential real property held by him and his wife as tenants by the entirety. In this adversary proceeding, the Chapter 7 trustee asserts that those payments constituted a voluntary or fraudulent conveyance which can be recovered by the bankruptcy estate. On November 14, 1996, the court held a trial on the trustee’s complaint and then took the ruling under advisement. For the reasons set forth in this memorandum opinion, judgment will be entered in favor of the trustee.

Findings of Fact

On October 1, 1973, Arnold and Naomi Meyer acquired a parcel of improved real property in Henrico County, Virginia, as tenants by the entirety with a right of survivor-ship. Although the property had been encumbered and refinanced several times over the years, the interests at issue in this case arose less than five years ago. Specifically, on August 3, 1992, the Meyers executed a promissory note for $163,750.00 in favor of Ryland Mortgage Company 1 and provided as security a first deed of trust on the property. One day later, they executed a second note for $8,602.31 in favor of NationsBanc Home Equity Corporation of Virginia, providing as security a second deed of trust on the property.

The Meyers incurred these debts to pay off a prior lender who had funded the debt- or’s business, a corporation named Wispy of *414 Southern Virginia, Inc., which later traded as Busy Beaver of Virginia. Through that corporation, formed in February 1987, the debt- or offered a wide array of consumer home repair services, from window replacement to the installation of aluminum siding. By 1993, however, Busy Beaver had become insolvent and had ceased doing business as an ongoing concern. As a consequence, the debtor was forced to continue accepting gifts from his family and to obtain regular cash advances from his credit cards in order to make ends meet.

On September 12,1993, the debtor’s father died testate. Under the will, the debtor received one cash bequest in the amount of $10,000.00 and another equal to the sum of the outstanding balances on all mortgages encumbering his personal residence. In addition, the will created two trusts with a corpus totaling $1.25 million. The debtor, however, had no right to the income earned by these trusts during his mother’s lifetime and would lose any claim to the corpus if he predeceased her.

In two letters mailed in November 1993, the co-executor of the estate reminded the debtor that, although the will referred to the mortgage notes in fixing the amount of the second cash bequest, he was not required to pay any money to Texas Commerce and NationsBanc. Nevertheless, the debtor believed that his father wanted him to own his residence free and clear of any liens and that he therefore had a “moral duty” to pay off the notes. On February 24, 1994, the debtor deposited a cheek from the estate totaling $169,223.71 into a joint checking account maintained with his wife. He then paid NationsBanc $6,183.75 on February 27, 1994, and Texas Commerce Bank $162,027.90 on February 28, 1994, in full satisfaction of their claims.

At the time the debtor prepaid the mortgage notes, they had not been called. The debtor, however, had defaulted in his repayment to several unsecured creditors.

• Needing operating capital for Busy Beaver, the debtor in 1989 had borrowed $90,-000.00 from Michael and Jennifer Fine and had executed demand notes in their favor. Though the Fines had called the notes, the debtor still owed them $110,833.27 on February 28,1994.
• On October 5, 1992, the Rusco Window Company had obtained a civil judgment against the debtor for $7,362.31 plus interest and costs. This judgment remained unsatisfied on February 28,1994.
• On March 8, 1993, the Ted Lansing Corporation had obtained a civil judgment against the debtor for $1,492.62 plus interest and costs. This judgment too remained unsatisfied on February 28, 1994.

These debts, together with those held by other unsecured creditors, had contributed significantly to the debtor’s financial woes by the time he received the bequest. Excluding the value of his interest in the real property, 2 the debtor’s assets had a value of $60,414.00 on February 28, 1994. (Ex. A to Trustee’s Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.) On that same date, excluding any amount due under the mortgage notes, the debtor had liabilities totaling $201,922.00. (Ex. A to Trustee’s Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.)

During the following year, the debtor continued to be pressed by his creditors. For instance, when the Ted Lansing Corporation filed a summons to garnish the debtor’s wages on January 20, 1995, the debtor was forced to settle the claim and to pay $2,100.00 in full satisfaction of the judgment. Finally, after consulting with friends and an attorney, the debtor filed a petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code on June 13, 1995. In his schedule of property claimed to be exempt from the bankruptcy estate pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(2)(B), the debtor included the residential real property still held with his wife as tenants by the entirety, his contingent interest in the trust created by his father’s will, and miscellaneous personal property totaling $10,150.00.

Trustee’s Complaint

The trustee filed a complaint against the debtor and his wife on January 5,1996, which asserted that the “transfer” of the debtor’s individual non-exempt cash bequest into an *415 exempt interest in the residential real property constituted both a voluntary conveyance under Va.Code § 55-81 and a fraudulent conveyance under Va.Code § 55-80. The trustee therefore asked the court (1) to award a joint and several judgment against the Meyers for the amount of the “transfer,” (2) to find that the trustee can satisfy the judgment by selling the real property, (3) to determine the validity, priority, and extent of interests in and liens on the property, and (4) to approve a sale of the property by the trustee pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 363(h).

Discussion and Conclusions of Law

This ease presents the novel issue of whether a trustee in bankruptcy can set aside a pre-petition payment made by the debtor, in his individual capacity and with non-exempt funds, on a debt oWed jointly by him and his wife and secured by exempt realty which they hold as tenants by the entirety. The court has been unable to find a case directly on point.

The Voluntary Conveyance

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Related

National Loan Investors, L.P. v. Frank Robinson
98 S.W.3d 781 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Shaia v. Meyer (In Re Meyer)
260 F.3d 352 (Fourth Circuit, 2001)
In Re Dow Corning Corp.
237 B.R. 380 (E.D. Michigan, 1999)
In Re Massey
225 B.R. 887 (E.D. Virginia, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
206 B.R. 410, 1997 Bankr. LEXIS 410, 1997 WL 166792, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaia-v-meyer-in-re-meyer-vaeb-1997.