Empire National Bank v. Frohlich

373 F. Supp. 711, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9204
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedApril 1, 1974
DocketNo. 70 B 691
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 373 F. Supp. 711 (Empire National Bank v. Frohlich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Empire National Bank v. Frohlich, 373 F. Supp. 711, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9204 (S.D.N.Y. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

TYLER, District Judge.

This is an appeal, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 67(c), from an order of the Honorable R. Lewis Townsend, Referee in Bankruptcy. In this order, dated October 1, 1973, the Referee granted the trustee’s application to approve a proposed compromise on the condition that an agreement spread on the record before Referee Babitt on September 14, 1973 be reduced to writing and properly executed. The appellee in this case is Everett A. Frohlich, trustee for the bankrupt estate, Black Watch Farms, Inc. (“Black Watch”). The appellant is Empire National Bank (“Empire”), a creditor of Black Watch. Because, so far as the record shows, the information presented to Referee Townsend may not have been sufficient to enable him to determine whether or not the compromise [712]*712was in the best interests of Black Watch, this matter must be remanded to Referee Townsend for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

In order to comprehend the matters here at issue, it is necessary to discuss the events which led to Referee Townsend’s approval of the compromise. On December 14, 1972, the Black Watch trustee, then Harold E. Martin, obtained a default judgment against Jack R. Dick (“Dick”) in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut for $5,270,031. On July 20, 1973, Dick’s motion to vacate the judgment was denied by that court; he then filed a notice of appeal from the denial of his motion. Upon learning that Dick intended to sell a large portion of his very valuable art collection in London, utilizing the services of Sotheby & Co. (“Sotheby”) as auctioneers, the trustee on August 14, 1973, secured a temporary restraining order enjoining Dick from disposing of any of his assets without an order of the Connecticut court. Dick, however, had already removed part of his collection to New York, and these paintings had been seized by the United States to insure collection of unpaid federal income taxes. The trustee, therefore, on August 20, 1973, obtained a similar temporary restraining order from Referee Townsend preventing the sale of these paintings. Negotiations were then begun with Dick, the United States and other creditors of Dick. These resulted in the proposed agreement here at issue, which was spread on the record at a hearing before Referee Babitt on September 14, 1973. On September 25, 1973, a meeting was held in which creditors were invited to show cause why the proposed settlement agreement should not be approved; on October 1, 1973, Referee Townsend entered his decision, approving the compromise; and on October 3, 1973, the definitive agreements referred to in Referee Townsend’s decision were filed.

As can be seen from the- aforementioned series of events, matters moved rather expeditiously once it was learned that the sale of Dick’s art collection was imminent. According to the trustee, the reason for this haste was that Dick and Sotheby had entered into an agreement calling for the sale of the Dick collection, beginning with an auction in London on October 31, 1973. In preparation for this sale, Sotheby had expended large sums of money for advertising. If an agreement among the creditors of Dick had not been reached, it would have been necessary to call off the sale, thus giving up a very favorable opportunity to realize good value for the pictures. In addition, the trustee states that Dick’s real estate in Greenwich, Connecticut was scheduled to be sold pursuant to a foreclosure sale on October 20, 1973. There was a possibility that the Internal Revenue Service might have independently sold the paintings it had seized, without making use of the expert services of Sotheby. The trustee also believed that there was a real chance that Dick would be forced into bankruptcy. The sale of the paintings through Sotheby prevented the realization of these possibilities.

Basically, the terms of the compromise provide that Black Watch will receive $1,750,000 in cash from the sale of the Dick paintings. The compromise further provides certain indemnification provisions designed to relieve the bankrupt estate of any obligation to pay the $1,490,981.01 claimed by the IRS from Black Watch on the ground that it was a transferee of B. W. Farms, Inc. The sale of the Dick paintings is scheduled to take place in four installments. The first sale took place on October 31, 1973, and the second is scheduled to occur in June, 1974. Sotheby agreed that it would pay $5,600,000 to certain of Dick’s creditors on January 9, 1974 from which Black Watch would be paid $850,000. The additional $900,000 promised to the bankrupt was to be paid from the proceeds of the third and fourth sales in the spring and fall of 1975.

Appellant has argued that the trustee’s application for authority to compromise the controversy was proeedurally defective in that it did not provide [713]*713sufficient information to the creditors of Black Watch, thus failing to comply with the requirements of Bankruptcy General Order 33.1 As will be indicated, the trustee’s application was deficient in a number of technical respects. Whether or not these deficiencies were sufficient to make the application violative of General Order 33, however, is not easy to determine.

There have been few decisions which have focused on the issue of how full a disclosure is required by § 27, 11 U.S.C. § 50 and General Order 33. In In Re National Public Service Corp., 68 F.2d 859 (2d Cir. 1934), cert. denied, Utilities Power & Light Corp. v. Irving Trust Co., 292 U.S. 641, 54 S.Ct. 773, 78 L.Ed. 1492 (1934), Judge L. Hand, writing for the circuit court stated that:

“Section 27 certainly presupposes that the creditors shall be advised of the facts fully enough to act intelligently, and the trustee must see to it that they are. He must make a full statement of the relevant facts in his petition for leave and must be prepared at the meeting to advise the creditors fully.” Id. 68 F.2d at 862.

When faced with a possibly defective statement by the trustee, however, the courts have shown certain tolerance and flexibility. See, e. g. In Re Kansas City Journal-Post Co., 144 F.2d 816 (8th Cir. 1944); Pullman Couch Co. v. Eshelman, 1 F.2d 885, 887 (4th Cir. 1924), cert. denied, 266 U.S. 631, 45 S.Ct. 197, 69 L. Ed. 478 (1925); In Re Southern Land Title Corp., 310 F.Supp. 450 (E.D.La. 1970). Cf. In Re Sherman Plastering Corp., 340 F.2d 915, 918-919 (2d Cir. 1965). It would seem that the purpose of General Order 33 is to give the creditors sufficient notice so that they can present their questions and objections before the compromise is approved. In view of the facts that a meeting was held for the purpose of hearing objections to the compromise and that, because of the time pressures, it was not possible to present the final terms of the compromise, the content of the trustee’s petition may well have been sufficient here.

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Related

In Re Black Watch Farms, Inc.
373 F. Supp. 711 (S.D. New York, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
373 F. Supp. 711, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/empire-national-bank-v-frohlich-nysd-1974.