In re Seven Fields Development Corp., 06-3658.

Citation505 F.3d 237
Decision Date24 October 2007
Docket NumberNo. 06-3658.,06-3658.
PartiesIn re SEVEN FIELDS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Debtor. Mary Geruschat; Dolores Speney; Antoinette Morocco; and Donna M. Buxton, Appellants v. Ernst Young LLP; Charles Modispacher.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)
505 F.3d 237
In re SEVEN FIELDS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Debtor.
Mary Geruschat; Dolores Speney; Antoinette Morocco; and Donna M. Buxton, Appellants
v.
Ernst Young LLP; Charles Modispacher.
No. 06-3658.
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
Argued June 28, 2007.
Filed October 24, 2007.

[505 F.3d 238]

Vincent A. Coppola (argued), Pribanic & Pribanic, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellants.

William H. Schorling (argued), Samuel W. Braver Stanley J. Parker, Christopher P. Schueller, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellees.

[505 F.3d 239]

Before: SMITH and GREENBERG, Circuit Judges, and POLLAK, District Judge.*

OPINION OF THE COURT

GREENBERG, Circuit Judge.


I. INTRODUCTION

This matter comes on before the court on an appeal by Mary Geruschat, Dolores Speney, Antoinette Morocco, and Donna M. Buxton ("appellants") from the district court's memorandum order dated July 14, 2006, which adopted as its own and affirmed the bankruptcy court's opinion and order dated September 2, 2005, in which the bankruptcy court (1) asserted its jurisdiction to resolve a state-law malpractice, negligence, and fraud suit that appellants, creditors in a consolidated Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, brought in a state court against the accountants who performed work during the bankruptcy, Ernst & Young LLP and its employee, Charles Modispacher (together "Ernst & Young"), (2) refused to remand appellants' case to the state court from which Ernst & Young removed it, and (3) dismissed the complaint on its merits. This appeal, however, primarily is about jurisdiction, both our jurisdiction to review the bankruptcy and district courts' decisions not to abstain from exercising jurisdiction and not to remand the matter to the state court, and, depending on the extent, if any, that we have jurisdiction to review those courts' decisions, whether the district court properly found that the bankruptcy court had subject matter jurisdiction and the final adjudicative authority to resolve the state-law actions.

As we will discuss in detail later, appellants initially filed their suit in a state court, but Ernst & Young removed the case to a federal court, i.e., a bankruptcy court. Appellants then sought an order remanding the case to the state court on the grounds that (a) there were procedural irregularities in the removal process, (b) the bankruptcy court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute, and (c) even if the bankruptcy court did have jurisdiction, it should have abstained permissively or was required to abstain mandatorily from exercising its jurisdiction. The bankruptcy court disagreed with appellants, exercised jurisdiction, and dismissed the case on its merits. On appellants' appeal, the district court affirmed the bankruptcy court's order and, though to a degree writing separately, adopted the bankruptcy court's opinion and order as its own.

This appeal followed. But appellants challenge only the decisions regarding the procedural irregularities in the removal process, the bankruptcy court's finding that it had jurisdiction and final adjudicative authority, and its decision not to abstain from exercising that jurisdiction. Thus, we are not reviewing the disposition of the malpractice, negligence, and fraud dispute on the merits. Inasmuch as we conclude that we lack jurisdiction to review a substantial portion of the issues appellants raise on this appeal, and that the bankruptcy and district courts did not err in the rulings over which we have appellate jurisdiction, we will affirm the July 14, 2006 memorandum order of the district court and, accordingly, in effect, will affirm the bankruptcy court's opinion and order dated September 2, 2005.

II. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The case has grown out of the activities of Earned Capital Corporation, Managed

505 F.3d 240

Properties, Inc., Canterbury Village, Inc., and Eastern Arabian, Inc. (collectively "Debtors"), corporations engaged in developing real property. To raise capital, the Debtors sold investment shares in the property, and, in return, promised the investors an annual return.

The Debtors' plan involved the development of 600 acres in the Borough of Seven Fields, Butler County, Pennsylvania, with townhouses and recreational facilities. Unfortunately for the Debtors, however, their plan did not go as expected. Thus, they became delinquent in making the payments they promised to the investors, leading the Debtors to oversell shares to maintain the promised payments. The Debtors could not continue this Ponzi-type scheme indefinitely, and, consequently, on June 3, 1986, they filed separate voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. That court consolidated the Chapter 11 proceedings on June 5, 1986, in a case entitled In re Earned Capital Corporation, No. 86-21474.

Prior to the time that the Debtors filed their bankruptcy petitions, they had employed the accounting firm of Arthur Young & Company (a predecessor of Ernst & Young) to review their financial records and prepare the financial schedules needed for the bankruptcy. On June 12, 1986, the bankruptcy court approved the appointment of Ernst & Young.1 Ernst & Young determined that the Debtors were insolvent and that they owed the vast majority of their obligations (totaling over $60,000,000) to the approximately 2,500 investors. An Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors ("Committee"), selected from among the investors, represented the investors in the bankruptcy case. The Committee and the Debtors filed competing plans of reorganization, both calling for consolidation of the Debtors' assets and liabilities into one surviving reorganized corporation.

The bankruptcy court found the Debtors to be insolvent and confirmed an Amended Plan of Reorganization ("Amended Plan") on October 21, 1987. According to appellants, the court based this disposition on information that Ernst & Young provided the court and the Debtors' creditors. Under the Amended Plan, the Debtors were merged into a successor entity, Seven Fields Development Corporation ("Seven Fields"), and their assets, the principal one of which was the Butler County real estate, became assets of Seven Fields. Under the Amended Plan, all of the secured and trade creditors' claims were to be paid in full or in accordance with agreements otherwise negotiated, but the investor class of unsecured creditors was to receive common stock in Seven Fields at a par value equal to 5% of their allowed claims with the remaining 95% classified as unsecured, nondischargeable debt. Under the Amended Plan, "[a]ll activities of [Seven Fields] shall seek to achieve the goal of full payment to [the investors/stockholders]," app. at 33, and assets were to "be managed, improved, developed and sold, etc. where appropriate, to the end that all creditors will eventually achieve maximum returns," id. at 22. The investors voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plan, 2,179 to 87, on an individual basis, and, in claims terms, $62,639,067 to $13,758,972. After confirmation, Seven Fields liquidated its assets, substantially through the sale of the Butler County real estate, and made distributions to the investors. Seven

505 F.3d 241

Fields, however, did not pay the allowed claims of the investors in full through this liquidation.

On September 29, 2004, appellants, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated as shareholders of Seven Fields, filed a complaint against Ernst & Young in the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County, alleging professional negligence (Count I), fraud and deceit (Count II), and negligent misrepresentation (Count III). Because, as will be seen, the precise allegations in the complaint are significant in determining a central issue on appeal, i.e., the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court over appellants' state-law causes of action, we recite the relevant allegations verbatim:

2. Prior to the formation of Seven Fields . . ., the predecessor entities were involved in a bankruptcy in which [Ernst & Young] acted as accountants and performed services on behalf of, inter alia, the [appellants] and other members of the class — during and after the bankruptcy.

3. As a result of the work performed by [Ernst & Young], all of the predecessor entities were represented by [Ernst & Young] to be insolvent, the predecessor entities were consolidated and a successor corporation, Seven Fields . . ., acceded to ownership of the assets of the predecessor entities which included a substantial tract of land in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

4. In addition to declaring the predecessor entities insolvent, [Ernst & Young] advised the United States Bankruptcy Court, the [appellant] class and others, that even after the reorganization and bankruptcy and in spite of the fact that Seven Fields . . . owned a substantial tract of land in Butler County, Pennsylvania, [Ernst & Young] represented to the [appellant] class members and others that the new company had a debt of about $280 million to the group of investors.

5. The foregoing had been represented previously and throughout the bankruptcy by [Ernst & Young] to the United States Bankruptcy Court, the investor class and others.

6. [Appellants] and the remaining class members had all invested varying sums of money in one or more of the predecessor entities including Earned Capital, Inc. and upon being advised by [Ernst & Young] that the company was $280 million in debt, [appellants] and the remaining class members were horrified in that [Ernst & Young], in effect, represented that [appellants] and the remaining class members had either lost all of their money or were going to lose a substantial portion of the money.

7. As a result of the advice received by[2] [Ernst & Young], an effort to develop the property and other assets was made which included sales of assets at prices below their market value and a general...

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