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ABA Business Law Section

Podcast by ABA Business Law Section

  1. JAN 26

    Bad Boys of Bankruptcy: S3E1: Fraud on the Court: The 25-year Odyssey of Tudor Associates

    In a first for the series, this episode of Bad Boys of Bankruptcy explores a decades-long dispute arising in North Carolina that was originally filed as a Chapter XII case under the Bankruptcy Act of 1898. Our host, Judge Elizabeth Gunn (Bankr. D.D.C.), is joined by Judge Joseph N. Callaway (Bankr. E.D.N.C.) and retired Judge J. Rich Leonard (Bankr. E.D.N.C.), who is now the dean of Campbell Law School. In a complicated scheme to defraud their limited partners, George Osserman and his confidant and girlfriend, Zan Galloway, formed an entity which acquired interests in four parcels of real property in North Carolina which were heavily mortgaged. Osserman then formed Tudor Associates Ltd. II, a Nebraska limited partnership, and appointed Galloway as the general partner. Tudor then acquired the properties from Osserman’s other entity, and gave the other entity a note secured by a wraparound deed of trust on all of the properties. In 1977, Tudor filed for bankruptcy under Chapter XII of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, and in 1979 proposed to sell the properties to an Ohio corporation that, unbeknownst to the bankruptcy court and other parties, was in fact controlled by Osserman. After learning that Osserman in fact controlled the purchaser, Tudor’s limited partners sued in 1983 to set aside the sale on the grounds of fraud. Although Section 511 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 and Rule 60(b)(3) meant that the limited partners’ claim was time barred, the bankruptcy court employed a novel theory and avoided one half of the transfer of the notes, totaling $11.6 million, on the grounds of fraud on the court. Judge Callaway recalls the extensive litigation and appeals that were involved in his efforts to collect on this judgment (including a subsequent Chapter 11 case filed by one of the judgment debtors), where he served as the Chapter XII trustee in the Tudor bankruptcy case, and Judge Leonard recounts the novel issues presented in the subsequent Chapter 11 case, including issues related to the bankruptcy court’s “related to” jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1334.

    50 min

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Podcast by ABA Business Law Section

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