Travelers Insurance v. Broadway West Street Associates

164 F.R.D. 154, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18157, 1995 WL 716727
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided December 5, 1995·No. Nos. 92 Civ. 5650 (SWK), 92 Civ. 5651 (SWK)·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KRAM, District Judge.

In these related mortgage foreclosure actions, plaintiff Travelers Insurance Company (“Travelers”) moves, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, for summary judgment in 92 Civ. 5650 (the “First Action”) and 92 Civ. 5651 (the “Second Action”). Travelers also seeks an order, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25(c), substituting Broadway Mortgage Holding Corporation (“BMHC”) as the party plaintiff in the First Action, and substituting Crescent Heights of Connecticut Corporation (“Crescent”) as the party plaintiff in the Second Action. Defendant Broadway West Street Associates (“BWSA”) cross-moves for an order vacating the receivership in both actions. For the reasons set forth below, Travelers’s motions are granted and BWSA’s cross-motion is denied.

BACKGROUND1

I. The Mortgages

Travelers, a Connecticut corporation with its principal place of business in Connecticut, [157] holds certain first mortgages and notes which encumber the properties located at 71 Broadway, New York, New York (the “Broadway Property”) in the amount of $40,-000. 000, and 21-23 West Street, New York, New York (the “West Street Property”) in the amount of $32,000,000 (the “Mortgages”).2 The Mortgages provide that, in the event that BWSA fails to make any payments when due, Travelers may declare immediately due and payable the entire outstanding principal, together with interest and related charges, if any, to which it is entitled.

On June 28, 1991, after BWSA defaulted on the Mortgages, Travelers revoked BWSA’s right to collect rents paid by the tenants of the properties. Subsequently, Travelers and BWSA executed a Cash Management Agreement (“CMA”), dated August 1, 1991, pursuant to which BWSA ceded to Travelers financial control and operation of the Broadway and West Street Properties. In the CMA, BWSA conceded that it “failed to make numerous monthly payments under the Loan Documents,” and acknowledged that it was “in default under the Loan Documents and admit[ted] that it is unable to cure” the default. See CMA at ¶¶ (b) and (d), annexed to the Affidavit of Thomas Odai, sworn to on Oct. 18,1993, as Exh. “6.”

Pursuant to the CMA, Montrose Realty Corporation (“Montrose”) was designated as the managing agent for the properties, and all tenants were to make payments directly to Montrose. Montrose, in turn, was to pay Travelers any excess rental income over certain operating and other expenses (the “Excess Cash Collateral”), and Travelers was to apply the Excess Cash Collateral to BWSA’s loan obligations. Apparently, the parties were thereafter unable to resolve the problems posed by declining tenancies and rents during a downturn in the economy in New York’s real estate industry.

II. The Complaints

On July 29, 1992, Travelers commenced these actions by filing two complaints seeking the entire principal of the Mortgages. On September 23, 1992, the Court appointed George Lence (“Lence”) as receiver for both properties. In the appointment the Court ordered that Lence “prior to entering upon [his] duties, execute and file an oath that [he] will faithfully discharge the trust committed to [him]____” See Order Appointing Receiver, dated September 23, at 3. Shortly after his appointment, Lence hired the Shoren-stein Company (“Shorenstein”) to replace Montrose as managing agent.

The complaint in the First Action named BWSA and “John Doe # 1” through “John Doe # 100” as defendants, and the complaint in the Second Action named as defendants the City of New York Environmental Control Board (the “Environmental Board”), as well as BWSA and “John Doe # 1” through “John Doe # 100.” On October 20, 1992, Travelers amended both complaints, deleting the John Doe defendants. Subsequently, Travelers served a second amended complaint in the Second Action, identifying eleven tenants of the West Street Property as named defendants in addition to BWSA and the Environmental Board.

Both actions name BWSA as a defendant, and allege that BWSA is a limited partnership, none of whose partners are Connecticut citizens. The Second Action names twelve defendants in addition to BWSA, and bases jurisdiction on diversity of citizenship. In the 1994 Memorandum Opinion, however, the Court held that diversity of citizenship had not been properly pleaded by Travelers with [158] respect to defendants William N. Breger Associates, Feldstein Associates, and Cichanow-icz, Callan & Keane. The Court allowed Travelers to amend its pleadings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1653 to cure the defective allegations of jurisdiction, and on August 17, 1994, Travelers filed a third amended complaint asserting diversity jurisdiction over the defendants in question.

III. Discovery Issues

On April 30, 1993, BWSA served Travelers with its First Request for the Production of Documents (the “Document Request”), seeking information concerning Travelers’s application of the Excess Cash Collateral to satisfy BWSA’s loan obligations. BWSA allegedly sought this discovery to support allegations it intended to assert as to Travelers’s misappropriation of these funds. BWSA contended that it was considering-amending its answers to the complaints in order to plead additional affirmative defenses of “unconscionability and unclean hands” as well as plead

a possible counterclaim (conversion) based on allegations that Travelers had misapplied some (or all) of the rental income it received directly from the buildings’ managing agents and which it should have earmarked for payment of certain of BWSA’s obligations under the applicable notes and mortgages.

See Declaration of Michael Roffer, dated Apr. 7, 1995 (the “Roffer Deck”), at ¶ 14.

On June 4, 1993, Travelers provided BWSA with its Responses and Objections to the Document Request. Thereafter, on June 23, 1993, BWSA was granted access to approximately 2,500 pages of documents produced by Travelers, including, inter alia: (1) monthly management statements (covering the period October 1991 through October 1992) ; (2) monthly operations reports (covering the period November 1992 through April 1993) ; and (3) statements of debt showing all amounts outstanding on the Mortgages. On that date Travelers also informed BWSA that other requested documents were irrelevant and thus inappropriate subjects of document production.

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Travelers Insurance v. Broadway West Street Associates, 164 F.R.D. 154, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18157, 1995 WL 716727 (S.D.N.Y. 1995).

164 F.R.D. 154 (Travelers Insurance v. Broadway West Street Associates) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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