Efcor, Inc. v. BancAmerica Commercial Corp. (In Re Efcor, Inc.)

74 B.R. 837
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 29, 1987
DocketBankruptcy 5-87-00018
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 74 B.R. 837 (Efcor, Inc. v. BancAmerica Commercial Corp. (In Re Efcor, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Efcor, Inc. v. BancAmerica Commercial Corp. (In Re Efcor, Inc.), 74 B.R. 837 (Pa. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

THOMAS C. GIBBONS, Bankruptcy Judge:

On January 15, 1987, debtor herein, Ef-cor, Inc., filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. One week later, debtor filed a Motion under 11 U.S.C. § 363 for Authority to Use Cash Collateral seeking the right to use all of the proceeds of its inventory and accounts receivable in the ordinary course of business.

The critical facts underlying the Motion under consideration are not seriously disputed. On April 1, 1983, Dov Grossman, purchased all the stock of the debtor. Previously he had purchased the stock of three other companies in related businesses: Atlas Technologies, Inc., Blackhawk Industries, Inc., and Allen-Stevens Conduit Fittings Corporation. At the time of the purchase of debtor’s stock a financial relationship was established with BancAmerica Commercial Corporation (hereinafter “BACC”). Certain documents were executed between the parties, most important of which was the Loan and Security Agreement which provided for a discretionary revolving line of credit based upon percentages of eligible accounts receivable and inventory. Each of the aforementioned companies whose stock was owned by Grossman had individual lenders with appropriate security interests in its borrowers’ assets.'

In early 1985 BACC told the debtor, Ef-cor, that it wanted Efcor to find a new source of financing to replace it. On September 8, 1986, BACC sent debtor a written sixty (60) day notice of termination of the Loan and Security Agreement. Debtor requested additional time to find a replacement lender and on November 7, 1986, debtor, Grossman and BACC entered into an agreement which, among other things, extended the termination of BACC’s financing until January 15, 1987. At this time debtor owed BACC approximately $7.7 Million.

Following prolonged negotiations beginning on April 2, 1987 an agreement was reached between the parties (Efcor, Gross-man, BACC and Gould, Inc., a junior secured creditor) as to the terms of a cash collateral order to be submitted to the Court. On February 2, 1987, this Court signed the order agreed to by the parties regarding cash collateral.

Inter alia, the cash collateral order provided that for thirty (30) days the debtor could use all cash coming into a pre-exist-ing lock box arrangement (with one exception of a required interest payment). After the 30 day period expired, however, debtor could only use cash collateral to the extent that the sum of (1) 50% of the eligible inventory and (2) 80% of the eligible receivables exceeded $6,116,179.00. “Eligibility” *839 was to be defined by looking to the Loan and Security Agreement and amendments thereto, with only such modifications as were specified in the Cash Collateral Order.

Testimony adduced at the evidentiary hearing on debtor’s Motion established that BACC’s consent to the foregoing arrangement was based on the representation (1) that debtor and Grossman would not be “out of formula” by more than $200,000 during the first 30 days. (2) In this connection a $200,000 non-recourse mortgage on property owned by Grossman in Scranton, Pennsylvania, would be given as additional collateral to cover this contingency. It was represented that the said Scranton property was subject to two liens. One was a mortgage of $400,000 to the City of Scranton; the other a mortgage of approximately $30,000 to one of debtor’s suppliers. (3) Additionally, debtor promised to provide considerably more current and complete information and certain specified daily and weekly reports. Testimony later showed that a judgment lien in the amount of $533,000 was held by the United Penn Bank on the Scranton property. Clearly, this lien was not disclosed to BACC during the negotiations for its consent to a cash collateral order and in order of priority preceded the mortgage which Grossman was to give BACC under its terms. (No explanation for this fact has ever been disclosed).

The cash collateral order entered upon the agreement of all parties to this proceeding required reports to be made to the debtor by BACC. Soon after the initial reports were received BACC maintained that the debtor was “out of formula” by considerably more than the sum it had been anticipating of $200,000. It argued that debtor’s own submissions as of 2/15/87 were out of formula by $315,308 according to debtor’s Exhibit # 2.

A later report of 2/24/87 reported to show that the debtor was then within $25,-760 of the agreed formula by recording purchases from affiliates’ lenders in the amount of $709,215 during the week ending 2/21/87. The record showed that of the sum of $709,215 of inventory purchased from its affiliates by the debtor during the week ending 2/21/87, $281,009 represented raw material and $282,886 represented work-in-process. These purchases, principally from its affiliate Atlas, were received when the debtor was no longer manufacturing, but contracting out all of its manufacturing to the same Atlas facility.

Following the receipt of the report from the debtor for the week ending 2/21/87 showing the $709,215 in purchases from affiliates, BACC advised debtor by a letter of 3/3/87 (BACC Exhibit # 10) that it did not consider the inventory purchased from affiliates as eligible unless the debtor supplied written consent to the sale free of the security interest from the selling affiliate’s lender. The consent requested by BACC was not forthcoming. Moreover, debtor gave BACC nothing whatever to assure BACC that it now had a first priority secured interest in inventory purchased from affiliates and ahead of any security interest which debtor’s affiliates’ lenders might have.

As a consequence to the foregoing BACC considered the inventory purchased from affiliates as ineligible. This resulted in a substantial insufficiency at all times after 30 days after the entry of the cash collateral order. Thereafter, 31 days following the consent collateral order BACC flatly refused to advance any of the cash coming into the lock box in receivables to the debt- or.

Debtor then filed the Motion under consideration to modify the consent collateral order contending that BACC had improperly refused to consider inventory purchased from affiliates as eligible and requested:

1. BACC be ordered to turnover all funds which had been deposited in the lock box;
2. The cash collateral order be modified to eliminate the lock box arrangement; and
3. That the debtor be allowed to collect accounts receivable directly from its customers.

BACC filed a Reply and Cross-Motion for Relief from the Automatic Stay pursuant to 11 Ü.S.C. § 362(d) alleging that its ac *840 tions were entirely proper and requested relief from the automatic stay on the ground that:

1. The debtor had no equity in its assets in excess of the secured debt to BACC and others;
2. That there is no possibility that the debtor could reorganize; and
3.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bowman v. Bond (In Re Bowman)
253 B.R. 233 (Eighth Circuit, 2000)
Michael A. Bowman v. Jack Bond
Eighth Circuit, 2000

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 B.R. 837, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/efcor-inc-v-bancamerica-commercial-corp-in-re-efcor-inc-pamb-1987.