Cukierman v. Uecker (In re Cukierman)

265 F.3d 846, 2001 WL 1020783
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 7, 2001
DocketNo. 00-15085
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 265 F.3d 846 (Cukierman v. Uecker (In re Cukierman)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cukierman v. Uecker (In re Cukierman), 265 F.3d 846, 2001 WL 1020783 (9th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

SCHROEDER, Chief Judge:

This is an appeal from the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) that involves the interpretation of the administrative priority given obligations under a lease of commercial property. See 11 U.S.C. § 365(d)(3); In re Pacific-Atlantic Trading Co., 27 F.3d 401, 405 (9th Cir. 1994). The issue is whether obligations denominated in a lease as “further rent” are entitled to priority, even though the obligations actually represent repayments of promissory notes. The bankruptcy court and the BAP both agreed with the landlords’ trustees that the obligations were entitled to administrative priority, and the debtor appeals. We affirm on the basis of the statutory language, purpose, history, and the reasoning of our prior decisions. We also deal with the subsidiary issues of administrative priority for attorney’s fees and interest.

The debtor and lessee in this case is appellant Moshe Eliezer Cukierman, and the properties in question are two commercial properties in Berkeley, California. In December 1985, he sold the properties to Trans-Action Commercial Investors, Ltd. and Trans-Action Commercial Mortgage Investors, Ltd. (“TACI/TACMI”). Cukierman agreed to “lease and/or operate” the properties and guaranteed certain income to TACI/TACMI. In return, TACI/TACMI issued Cukierman promissory notes totaling $8.5 million, secured by deeds of trust on the properties.

After a dispute arose over the rights and responsibilities of the parties under the sale agreement, the parties entered into a settlement agreement that restructured the underlying transaction. As part of this restructuring, Cukierman entered into a new lease of the properties and borrowed $600,000 from TACI/TACMI through two promissory notes. In the new lease agreement of June 1988, Cukierman agreed to pay TACI/TACMI rent of $400,000 per year. Critical to this litigation, the lease includes a provision requiring Cukierman to pay TACI/TACMI as “further rent” monthly sums that match Cukierman’s repayment obligations on the promissory notes. For purposes of this appeal, it is not disputed that the “further rent” provision in fact represents the repayment of the promissory notes.

No “further rent” payments were due before October 1, 1992. On November 20, 1992, Cukierman filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. As debtor-in-possession, he moved to assume the lease, but the bankruptcy court denied the motion in November 1993. This amounted to a rejection of the lease, so the debtor’s obligations under the lease ceased at that point. The case was converted to Chapter 7 in March 1994.

TACI/TACMI filed a proof of claim in October 1994 that included all of the unpaid “further rent” obligations that accrued between the time the bankruptcy [849]*849petition was filed and the time of the rejection of the lease. Those amounts, representing approximately $70,000, were labeled as an administrative claim under § 365(d)(3), and thus, according to TACI/TACMI, were entitled to administrative priority. CuMerman contended in the bankruptcy court, as he does here, that there should be no administrative priority, because the obligation to pay “further rent” was not in fact an obligation arising out of CuMerman’s use of the real property. The bankruptcy court rejected his argument, and the BAP affirmed in a published opinion. See In re Cukierman, 242 B.R. 486 (B.A.P. 9th Cir.1999).

CuMerman appeals to this court. Because TACI and TACMI have also gone into bankruptcy proceedings, the appellees include the trustees for the TACI and TACMI estates.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

A. “Further Rent”

Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code authorizes the banMmptcy trustee to assume or reject contracts which are execu-tory and certain leases which have not yet expired. See 11 U.S.C. § 365; 3 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 365.01 (Lawrence P. King ed., 15th ed. rev.2000). Section 365(d) specifies the time -within which the trustee must decide whether to assume or reject such contracts and leases. In a case brought under Chapter 11, an unexpired lease of nonresidential real property is deemed rejected and the trustee must immediately surrender the property if the trustee does not assume or reject the lease within sixty days after the date of the order for relief, unless the bankruptcy court grants additional time. See 11 U.S.C. § 365(d)(4). Until the trustee assumes or rejects an unexpired lease of nonresidential real property, the trustee must perform obligations under that lease in accordance with 11 U.S.C. § 365(d)(3). Because this was a Chapter 11 case at the relevant time, Cukierman, as debtor-in-possession, had the duties of a trustee. See 11 U.S.C. § 1107(a). Section 365(d)(3) reads, in relevant part, as follows:

The trustee shall timely perform all the obligations of the debtor, except those specified in section 365(b)(2), arising from and after the order for relief under any unexpired lease of nonresidential real property, until such lease is assumed or rejected, notwithstanding section 503(b)(1) of this title. The court may extend, for cause, the time for performance of any such obligation that arises within 60 days after the date of the order for relief, but the time for performance shall not be extended beyond such 60-day period.

11 U.S.C. § 365(d)(3).

The Bankruptcy Code grants first priority among unsecured claims to administrative expenses allowed under § 503(b). 11 U.S.C. § 507(a)(1). Such expenses include “the actual, necessary costs and expenses of preserving the estate.... ” 11 U.S.C. § 503(b)(1)(A).1 Section 503(b)(1) [850]*850limits administrative expenses to the fair and reasonable value of the debtor’s actual use of leased property. In re Dant & Russell, Inc., 853 F.2d 700, 707-08 (9th Cir.1988).

We have held that claims arising under § 365(d)(3) are entitled to administrative priority even when they may exceed the reasonable value of the debtor’s actual use of the property. See Pacific-Atlantic, 27 F.3d at 405. We did so because the “notwithstanding section 503(b)(1)” proviso exempts the amount of lease obligations that a trustee must timely pay under § 365(d)(3) from § 503(b)(l)’s limitation of administrative expenses to the fair value of the debtor’s use of the property. Id. When the trustee fails to pay an obligation, the amount accorded administrative priority is similarly not subject to the § 503(b)(1) limitation. Id.

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