LLBM v. Prime Properties

Defense Verdict

Date of Verdict:
Nov. 15.

Court and Case No.:
C.P. Bucks County, No. 2015-05545.

Judge:
Robert J. Mellon.

Type of Action:
Breach of contract.

Injuries:
Lost funds.

Plaintiffs Counsel:
Sean E. Summers, Summers Nagy Law Offices, York.

Defense Counsel:
John A. VanLuvanee, Eastburn and Gray, Doylestown.

Comment:
In 2015, plaintiff LLBM LLC, a York-based firm, was assigned a promissory note of $50,000 by Gary Lucas. The note had been issued in June 2003, by real estate company Prime Properties Inc. to Lucas, who had loaned it money. The company issued the note, which was payable on demand, as a pledge to repay Lucas. Eventually, in 2015, Lucas assigned the note to LLBM.
LLBM asserted that, despite the promissory note and multiple demands to be repaid, Prime Properties had not repaid the $50,000.

LLBM sued Prime Properties, alleging that the company's failure to repay the note was a breach of contract.

Prime Properties claimed that it had paid the proper amount it owed LLBM and denied that Lucas had loaned it $50,000. Despite the $50,000 amount on the face of the note, Lucas actually had loaned only $35,000, which the company had repaid to LLBM LLC in full. Prime Properties presented its balance sheets from 2003 and 2004 which indicated that the company had fully repaid LLBM the $35,000.

LLBM sought to recover $50,000 plus interest.

The jury found that $35,000 was the amount loaned to Prime Properties, and that the company had paid back the $35,000 in full.

—This report first appeared in VerdictSearch, an ALM publication. •