St. Christopher Associates, L.P. v. United States

75 Fed. Cl. 1, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 406, 2006 WL 3838416
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedDecember 29, 2006
DocketNo. 03-2221C
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 75 Fed. Cl. 1 (St. Christopher Associates, L.P. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Christopher Associates, L.P. v. United States, 75 Fed. Cl. 1, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 406, 2006 WL 3838416 (uscfc 2006).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND FINAL ORDER

BRADEN, Judge.

I. RELEVANT FACTS1

St. Christopher Apartments, Inc. is a 100-unit multifamily apartment project for elderly persons, located in Hartford, Connecticut (“Property”). On June 3, 1971, the original owner of the Property received a mortgage from the Connecticut Bank (“Bank”) in the amount of $2,391,000 to finance the purchase and construction at the Property site. The mortgage was issued under Section 236 of the National Housing Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1715z-l, as amended, that affords 40-year loans at market rates, with a subsidy allowing owners effectively to pay only a 1% rate amortized over 40 years. See Def.App. at 7. In return, the property owners are required to pass the benefits of the federally-assisted loans to tenants by charging lower rents. Id. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) provided mortgage insurance to the Bank and entered into a Regulatory Agreement with the original owner. Id. In 1983, however, the original owner defaulted, causing the Bank to assign the mortgage to HUD. See Def.App. at 7; Pl.App. at 53.

The Finch Group formed St. Christopher Associates Limited Partnership (“Plaintiff’) to acquire the Property and assume the debts of the prior owner. See Compl. 1112. On December 2, 1983, the Finch Group responded to HUD’s attempt to locate a new buyer for the Property and submitted a “proposal for the restructuring of debt and equity of St. Christopher Apartments.” See Pl.App. at 22. On December 19, 1984, Plaintiff and HUD executed a Provisional Workout Arrangement (“PWA”) to structure how Plaintiff would make mortgage and interest arrears payments. See PLApp. at 51-52; Gov’t App. 11-13

Paragraph 3(a) of the PWA provided: Commencing in the month following Prehminary TPA [Transfer of Physical Assets] Approval, a monthly payment of $16,627.75, which represents the Level Annuity Monthly Payment (LAMP) required to amortize the outstanding principal balance of $2,375, 398, over a new 40-year [3]*3term effective in the month following Preliminary TPA Approval at the per annum interest rate of seven and one-half (7/6) percent, after application of the monthly interest reduction payment of $10,604.00. Notwithstanding the mortgage modification, the entire balance outstanding on the Note and Mortgage shall be due and payable on May 1, 2012, the expiration date of the original mortgage term. The mortgage modification shall be in form suitable for recording.

Id.

Paragraph 3(b) of the PWA provided:

In addition, the following supplemental payments shall be made to reduce mortgage interest arrears from limited partner investor capital contributions in accordance with the following schedule:
Date Amount
(Pursuant to 2(b) above)
First anniversary of TPA Approval 80,000
Second anniversary of TPA Approval 92,000
Third anniversary of TPA Approval 92,000
Fourth anniversary of TPA Approval 92,000
Fifth anniversary of TPA Approval 90,749
Sixth anniversary of TPA Approval 100,000
Total $766,749

On October 1, 1984, prior to the execution of the PWA and closing, HUD approved Plaintiffs request for a rent increase on the Property, based upon “the cost of electricity, reserve for replacements and operational expenses.” Def.App. at 14. On December 28, 1984, HUD and Plaintiff executed a Regulatory Agreement, pursuant to Section 236, an Agreement For Modification of Note and Mortgage, incorporating the terms of the PWA, and closing documents. See Gov’t App. at 1-10; see also Pl.App. at 15-20 and 53-56.

Shortly thereafter, HUD misapplied PWA payments received from the Finch Group. See PLApp. at 62 (July 16, 1985 letter from the Finch Group to HUD requesting a review of billings from May, June, and July of 1985); see also id. at 66 (Jan. 29, 1986 letter from the Finch Group to HUD reporting: “In reviewing our records we noted that this [August 1, 1985] check was not applied by HUD as a payment in accordance with the workout.”); see also id. at 71 (May 2, 1986 letter from the Finch Group to Director of HUD’s Housing Management Division in Hartford, Connecticut again reporting: “A review of the April 18th HUD mortgage account statement and previous month’s statements indicates that monthly contributions to the replacement reserve escrow on this project have apparently been applied against mortgage interest.”); see also id. at 79-82 (Plaintiffs analysis of mortgage billings concluding that “the primary problem with the St. Christopher’s mortgage statement is that the billing adjustments were not made retroactively to the amounts agreed to, and the effective dates of, the Agreements”).

On June 14, 1985, the Chief of HUD’s Loan Management Branch sent a memorandum, warning her superiors that HUD’s accounting practices were the cause of misapplication of the Plaintiffs mortgage payments:

OFA could handle [the payment terms contained in the Agreement] if it were not for the fact that the interest has not been capitalized into a second, nor has it been recast into the first so it will “hang out there” absorbing all collections and causing additional interest to accrue—with no provision, once again, for how this is to be handled.

PLApp. at 75.

On June 16 1986, however, HUD sent Plaintiff a letter advising that the misapplication could not be corrected retroactively:

In accordance with the Modification Agreement signed by HUD on November 1, 1984, indicating that monthly payments must be made to the Reserve for Replacement Account, we concur with your payment of the monthly Replacement Reserve of $1,762 into an escrow account at Fleet National Bank. However, we are unable to retroactively adjust your delinquent mortgage interest and Reserve for Replacement balances, since doing so would not be in conformance with present Office of Finance and Accounting Procedures and Regulations.

[4]*4PLApp. at 74. HUD staff continued efforts to have the errors corrected, without success. See PLApp. at 656-58, 755.

On December 23, 1985, Plaintiff made an $80,000 payment for mortgage interest arrears, pursuant to the PWA. See Gov’t App. at 72. On December 28, 1986, Plaintiff also made a $92,000 payment for mortgage interest arrears, pursuant to the PWA. Id. at 73. Plaintiff, however, did not make the payment due on December 28, 1987 or thereafter because Plaintiff was unable to syndicate the investor limited partnership units and, as a result, no limited partner investor capital contributions were made after 1986. See PLApp. at 51, 568; see also Gov’t App. at 11, 95 (Dec. 21, 1989 letter from HUD to Plaintiff denying a rent increase and noting the “non-payment or your required yearly workout payment of $92,000”).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
75 Fed. Cl. 1, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 406, 2006 WL 3838416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-christopher-associates-lp-v-united-states-uscfc-2006.