In re United Roberts Corp.In re Roberts
UNPUBLISHED
Individual debtor brothers made several transfers to and from jointly owned corporate debtor, including transfer of each of their respective residences to the corporation, and mortgages and promissory notes from the corporation to themselves. The parties also executed leases that allowed each brother to retain their residence, subject to payment of monthly "rent." In bankruptcy, trustee sought determinations of (1) whether brothers' claim that their rent payments were offset by a debt owed to them; and (2) whether brothers were required to assume or reject their leases. The court denied brothers' claimed offset of patent royalties owed them by the corporation, as they had transferred their interests in those royalties to family partnerships and, therefore, there was no mutuality, as required for offset. Brothers were ordered to either assume or reject their leases by a date certain and, if they chose to assume, pay the entire monthly rent accrued since the filing of the corporation's petition in order to cure.