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Case 25-23251-MEH Doc 47-1 Filed 01/05/26 Entered 01/05/26 16:34:06 Desc
Exhibit 1 - Declaration of Leonard A. Bennett Esq. Page 5 of 30
Seaview building has remained vacant, uninhabitable, and under the control of a court-appointed
receiver rather than the owner.
10. I and my law firm, together with a second Virginia law firm and the Virginia
Poverty Law Center, represent nearly all of the Seaview Tenants – 94 in total.
11. The tenant lawsuit was filed in the Virginia Circuit Court for the City of Newport
News and styled as et al. v. Benjamin Weinstein, Seaview
Apartments, LLC, and Bluerise Group, LLC, Case No. CL2202900M-00. Pursuant to an Order
entered by the Chief Justic of the Supreme Court of Virginia on September 5, 2024, Hon. Michelle
J. Atkins (Ret.) was appointed to preside over the case. The lawsuit has survived motions by the
defendants to dismiss it and is now pending in discovery.
12. On August 19, 2025, my law firm received a Notice of Appointment of Receiver
and a Motion for Receiver to Sell Property with a hearing initially set for September 15, 2025.
13. Our clients moved to intervene to challenge the receivership sale. Many of our
clients had been unable to recover their personal effects and property from the condemned units.
14. We then examined the same process, had direct communications and material
exchanges with the lender and the appointed receiver and concluded that the sale was properly
noticed (advertised) and negotiated at arms length. We thus reached out to the lender and a three-
party mediation was scheduled and held – the Lender, the Debtor and myself (on behalf of the
Seaview Tenants). We continued these exchanges after the in-person meeting and ultimately
reached an agreement with the Lender. Our clients, the Seaview Tenants stood down from
opposing the Sale.
15. On December 3, 2025 all of the Parties here (the Lender, the Seaview Tenants and
the Debtor attended a state court hearing in which the Receivership Sale was approved. The Debtor
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