Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Co. v. Metropolitan Edison Co. (In Re Naudain, Inc.)

32 B.R. 871, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5461
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 9, 1983
Docket16-16261
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 32 B.R. 871 (Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Co. v. Metropolitan Edison Co. (In Re Naudain, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Co. v. Metropolitan Edison Co. (In Re Naudain, Inc.), 32 B.R. 871, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5461 (Pa. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

EMIL F. GOLDHABER, Bankruptcy Judge:

The issue at bench is whether two checks paid by the debtor to the defendant are avoidable pursuant to section 547(b) of the Bankruptcy Code (“the Code”). Since all the elements necessary to constitute a preference under section 547(b) have been met and since the exceptions to the avoidance of preferential transfers contained in sections 547(c)(1) and 547(c)(2) are inapplicable in the instant case, we conclude that the two check transfers at issue can be avoided by the debtor pursuant to section 547(b) of the Code.

The facts of the instant case have been stipulated by the parties and are as follows: 1 On October 23,1981, Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Company, Inc. (“the debt- or”) filed a petition for reorganization under chapter 11 of the Code. Immediately prior thereto, Metropolitan Edison Company (“Met-Ed”), a public utility company, provided electric service to the debtor pursuant to five separate general service accounts. All of the debtor’s electric service accounts were billed monthly and all bills were to be paid within fifteen (15) days after the respective billing dates in order to avoid late payment charges. The transfers which are the subject of dispute in the instant proceeding represent payments made by the debtor to Met-Ed in the form of two checks, the first of which was drafted by the debtor on September 4,1981, and honored by the debtor’s bank on September 10, 1981. The second check in question was drafted by the debtor on September 16, 1981, and was subsequently honored by the debtor’s bank on September 23, 1981. It is undisputed that the subject payments were made for the benefit of Met-Ed, while the debtor was insolvent and within ninety (90) days prior to the filing of the petition for reorganization by the debtor. It is also without question that the said payments enables Met-Ed to receive more than it would have received if the debtor had filed a petition under chapter 7 of the Code. On June 21, 1982, the debtor 2 filed the instant complaint against Met-Ed to avoid the aforesaid two payments made by it to MetEd.

Section 547(b) of the Code provides:

(b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the trustee may avoid any transfer of property of the debtor—
(1) to or for the benefit of a creditor;
(2) for or on account of an antecedent debt owed by the debtor before such transfer was made;
(3) made while the debtor was insolvent;
(4) made—
(A) on or within 90 days before the date of the filing of the petition; or
(B) between 90 days and one year before the date of the filing of the petition, if such creditor, at the time of such transfer—
(i) was an insider; and
(ii) had reasonable cause to believe the debtor was insolvent at the time of such transfer; and
*873 (5) that enables such creditor to receive more than such creditor would receive if—
(A) the case were a case under chapter 7 of this title;
(B) the transfer had not been made; and
(C) such creditor received payment of such debt to the extent provided by the provisions of this title.

11 U.S.C. § 547(b).

Met-Ed contends initially that the subject payments cannot be avoided in accordance with section 547(b) of the Code because said payments constituted contemporaneous exchanges and not payments made on account of antecedent debts. In order to ascertain whether those payments were made on account of an antecedent debt, it must first be determined when the debt was incurred. In this regard, we note that Collier on Bankruptcy provides:

The determination of when a debt is actually ‘incurred’ is critical. One view is that the debt is not incurred until an invoice is sent or demand for payment is made. The probably better view is that the debt is incurred whenever the debtor obtains a property interest in the consideration exchanged giving rise to the debt. Thus if goods are identified for shipment, unless the special agreement otherwise provides, the debtor has a special property interest and the debt is ‘incurred’. Certainly when a debtor uses a utility the debt is incurred at the time the resource is consumed rather than when the invoice is sent (emphasis added).

4 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 547.39 at 547-121 (15th ed. 1983). In addition, the court in In re Valley Mechanical Industries, Inc., 20 B.R. 350 (Bkrtcy.N.D.Ga.1982) stated:

‘Incurred does not necessarily imply ‘due’. One noted commentary on the bankruptcy laws [Collier] is of the opinion that a debt is incurred at the time that services are rendered or goods delivered and not at the time a bill is sent ... (quotation omitted). This Court believes that the opinion expressed by Collier is the proper view as to when a debt is incurred. For example, the mere fact that a bill is never sent does not mean that an obligation has not been created, but it means only that payment is not yet due.

20 B.R. at 352-53. See also In re Brown, 20 B.R. 554 (Bkrtcy.S.D.N.Y.1982); In re Ray W. Dickey & Sons, Inc., 11 B.R. 146 (Bkrtcy.N.D.Tex.1980).

Therefore, since the debts in the instant case were incurred each time the debtor consumed the electricity provided by MetEd, these debts were necessarily incurred prior to the time the debtor paid for such service. See In re Hersman 20 B.R. 569 (Bkrtcy.N.D.Ohio 1982). As Met-Ed has not disputed the existence of any other element necessary to constitute a preference pursuant to section 547(b), the subject payments were preferential in accordance with that section. Whether these preferences may ultimately be avoided depends, in turn, on the applicability of the exceptions to avoidance asserted by Met-Ed.

Section 547(c)(1) provides:

(c) The trustee may not avoid under this section a transfer—
(1) to the extent that such transfer was—
(A) intended by the debtor and the creditor to or for whose benefit such transfer was made to be a contemporaneous exchange for new value given to the debtor; and
(B) in fact a substantially contemporaneous exchange;

11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(1)(A), (B).

Although Met-Ed contends that the sale of electricity and the payment therefor was intended to be, and in fact was, a contemporaneous exchange, the facts, and Met-Ed’s own pleadings, clearly establish that the transactions in question were purely credit transactions.

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32 B.R. 871, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-shoe-manufacturing-co-v-metropolitan-edison-co-in-re-naudain-paeb-1983.