Total Television Entertainment Corp. v. Chestnut Hill Village Associates

145 F.R.D. 375, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1202, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20263, 1992 WL 395522
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 30, 1992
DocketCiv. A. No. 92-2807
StatusPublished

This text of 145 F.R.D. 375 (Total Television Entertainment Corp. v. Chestnut Hill Village Associates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Total Television Entertainment Corp. v. Chestnut Hill Village Associates, 145 F.R.D. 375, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1202, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20263, 1992 WL 395522 (E.D. Pa. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

LOWELL A. REED, Jr., District Judge. INTRODUCTION

This lawsuit represents a second attempt by plaintiff Total Television Entertainment Corporation (“Total Television”) to use the machinery of the federal courts to enforce a Court of Common Pleas judgment entered in its favor in February 1986. I dismissed plaintiff’s initial complaint, filed under Civil Action Number 91-4285, pursuant to a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, concluding that plaintiff had failed to demonstrate a diversity of the parties under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. See Total Television Entertainment Corp. v. Chestnut Hill Village Assoc., et al., No. 91-4285, 1992 WL 70395, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3892 (E.D.Pa. Mar. 30, 1992).

In its second complaint, plaintiff alleges that the subject matter jurisdiction of this Court is predicated upon the existence of a federal question pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Currently before me are the motions of defendant Chestnut Hill Associates Limited Partnership (“Chestnut Hill”) to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for Rule 11 sanctions. Upon consideration of defen[377]*377dant’s motions, and the response of the plaintiff thereto, I shall grant both the motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) and the motion for sanctions.1 I conclude that plaintiffs second complaint fails to state a cause of action “arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States,” 28 U.S.C, § 1331, and that Arthur Jackson, Esq. (“Jackson”) of 8304 Bustleton Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, counsel for plaintiff, has violated Rule 11, because the legal theory relied upon for federal court jurisdiction in this complaint is not “warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 11.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The facts alleged in plaintiff Total Television’s most recent complaint mirror those in its first complaint. Consequently, what follows is my depiction of'the allegations found in plaintiff’s initial complaint from my prior opinion dismissing that complaint:

On July 8, 1983, plaintiff Total Television brought suit in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, against the above-named defendants.. Complaint at ¶1. Plaintiff claims that between 1984 and 1988, the defendants did not make any appearances, nor otherwise contest the state lawsuit, and that as a result, on February 16, 1988, a judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff Total Television against the defendants in the Court of Common Pleas. Complaint at ¶¶5-6. The judgment was for $36,-399.50. Id at ¶ 6.
On October 3, 1988, a Writ of Execution and garnishment were served on First Pennsylvania Bank (“First Pennsylvania”) in Philadelphia to seize an account of the defendants towards satisfaction of the judgment. Id at 118. First Pennsylvania refused to honor the judgment, however, because it asserted that the parties identified in the suit had ceased to exist, and that the property to be executed upon was under the management of a different entity, Chestnut Hill Village Associates (“Chestnut Hill Village”), a Delaware limited partnership. Id at ¶¶ 8, 10.
On January 17, 1990, it is alleged that a Praecipe for Writ of Execution was filed with the office of the Prothonotary to effect a Sheriff’s sale of property owned by defendant Chestnut Hill Village. Id at 11 9. This additional attempt at execution on the judgment was also defeated, because the defendants maintained that the property in question had been sold to defendant Chestnut Hill, which is also a Delaware entity. Id at HIT 9, 14.
Plaintiff claims that the transfers of property just described among the different partnerships were really nothing other than sham transactions intended to evade enforcement of its judgment in violation of the Pennsylvania Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act, which is codified at 39 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 357 (Purdon 1954 & Supp.1990). Id at ¶¶2-15. It contends that besides the fraudulent intent behind the transfers, the entities were under common control, or were different in name only. Id at ¶12.

Total Television Entertainment Corp. v. Chestnut Hill Village Assoc., et al., No. 91-4285, 1992 WL 70395, at *1, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3892, at *2-*3 (E.D.Pa. Mar. 30, 1992).

As in its first complaint, plaintiff asks this Court to set aside the conveyances of property the defendants purportedly engaged in so that it may satisfy its state court judgment, and to enter judgment for punitive damages and the attorney’s fees allegedly incurred by plaintiff to date in attempting to execute upon its existing judgment. Complaint No. 92-2807 (the “Second Complaint”), Counts I and III. In addition, plaintiff also seeks punitive damages and attorney’s fees for the defendants’ alleged “wrongful taking” of property in which plaintiff, under its state court judgment, has legal title, and a judgment in the amount of $52,000 in order to prevent unjust enrichment of the defendants and to [378]*378preserve plaintiffs rights in its existing judgment. Second Complaint, Count II. DISCUSSION

The Motion of Defendant Chestnut Hill to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction

As explained by plaintiff in its response to the motion to dismiss, federal question jurisdiction for the Second Complaint is predicated upon the theory that the defendants, by allegedly transferring property out of state to shield it from plaintiffs Court of Common Pleas judgment, deprived plaintiff of property without due process of law or just compensation, and that because plaintiff has purportedly exhausted its state court remedies without success, it may seek relief in federal court. Plaintiff Total Television’s Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant Chestnut Hill’s Motions to Dismiss and Impose Sanctions (“Plaintiff’s Memo.”) (Document No. 4) at pp. 2-5. Defendant Chestnut Hill contends that the Second Complaint must be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. It argues that plaintiff’s theory for federal question jurisdiction is clearly flawed, because plaintiff has not alleged, nor could it allege, any state action to support its due process claim, and because in the absence of a valid independent basis for federal court jurisdiction, one cannot seek redress in federal court simply based on the fact that he or she has been unsuccessful in state court. Memorandum of Law in Support of Chestnut Hill Associates Limited Partnership’s Motion to Dismiss and Impose Sanctions (“Defendant’s Memo.”) (Document No. 3) at pp. 2-5. I will address the two (2) components of plaintiff’s jurisdictional theory—violation of due process and exhaustion of state remedies—in turn.

A. State Action

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145 F.R.D. 375, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1202, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20263, 1992 WL 395522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/total-television-entertainment-corp-v-chestnut-hill-village-associates-paed-1992.