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Abrams v. Uchitel6/4/2002
This is a consolidated appeal from two orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County. The first of these grants Appellee Philip Pulley's Emergency Motion for transfer and consolidation in Bucks County of a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court action pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 213(a), and the second appoints a receiver for the limited partnerships involved in this matter.
As the trial court aptly describes the multifaceted proceedings conjoined in this appeal, " his litigation stems from agreements between the parties to acquire and develop commercial real estate." (Trial Ct. Op. at 2). The litigation had its genesis sometime in 1992, when Appellant Phillip Uchitel hired Appellee Pulley as the Director of Construction for Pace Martin Development Group, Inc., a corporation wholly owned by Uchitel. The company included in its structure, inter alia, the Holyoke Company, also wholly owned by Uchitel, which acted as general contractor. In August of 1993, Uchitel contracted with Appellees Pulley and Peter Abrams for the joint purchase and development of commercial real estate. Each project would be undertaken by a separate limited partnership in which they would all have equal equity interests. Pace Martin Construction Company was formed to perform the duties of general and managing partner for all the project partnerships, but would hold no more than a 1% interest in any one of them. Pursuant to the agreement, several projects were realized for which Holyoke and its successor, Holyoke-Matthews, served as general contractor. Abrams became President and Chief Executive Officer of Pace Martin, and Pulley was named Vice President and Secretary. In 1995, the agreement was amended to permit Appellee Fred Levin to become a party.
That same year, the complex of interlocking partnerships and corporations began experiencing financial difficulties which culminated in the commencement, on March 20, 1996, of an action by Abrams and Levin on their own behalf and on behalf of those partnerships in which they held an interest, in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas against Uchitel and Pulley. The Complaint alleged that Uchitel, principally through Holyoke and to a lesser extent his other wholly owned corporate entities, artificially inflated construction costs on the development projects in order to create indebtedness which the projects would then be forced to repay directly to him through Pace Martin. The total of these "loans" was alleged to be in excess of $4 million. The suit further alleged that when Abrams and Levin refused to endorse a loan guarantee document making them personally responsible for any amounts left due and owing by the limited partnership projects, they were wrongfully terminated from their positions at Pace Martin. On behalf of the partnerships, assertions were made of mismanagement, conversion of partnership assets and various other forms of misfeasance, including failure to satisfy obligations to third party creditors.
On April 2, 1996, Uchitel and Pulley filed suit jointly, also in Bucks County, against Abrams, Levin and others alleging breach of contract, and asserting that the same conduct constituting the breach equated to constructive termination of their employment from Pace Martin.
In July of 1996, Abrams and Levin filed yet another suit against Uchitel, Pulley et al., alleging that Pulley had engaged in bid-rigging and overstatement of project construction costs at the instigation and with full knowledge of Uchitel. All three of these actions were consolidated by order of court on November 8, 1996.
Although Pulley had continued as Director of Construction during the inception of the litigation, in August of 1999 his rel
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