Gouveia v. RDI Group, Inc. (In Re Globe Building Materials, Inc.)

325 B.R. 253, 2005 Bankr. LEXIS 875, 44 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 230, 2005 WL 1155287
United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Indiana·Decided May 12, 2005·No. 19-10213·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

*255 MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

J. PHILIP KLINGEBERGER, Bankruptcy Judge.

In this adversary proceeding, the plaintiff Gordon E. Gouveia as the Trustee of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate of Globe Building Materials, Inc. (“Trustee”) seeks to assert the provisions of 11 U.S.C. § 547(b) to recover alleged preferential payments made by the debtor to the defendant The RDI Group, Inc. d/b/a Reichel & Drews, Inc. (“RDI”), and RDI in turn seeks to avoid liability to repay the alleged preferential payments by assertion of the “ordinary course of business” defense under 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(2) and the “new value” defense under 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(4).

The case was initiated by complaint filed on December 26, 2002, to which RDI responded by answer filed on January 24, 2003. The parties filed a Stipulation on May 19, 2004 which provides most of the evidentiary record for the purpose of decision; the balance of the decisional record was produced at an evidentiary hearing held on August 5, 2004. The post-trial briefing schedule closed on January 20, 2005.

The Court has jurisdiction over this adversary proceeding pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1334, 28 U.S.C. § 157, and N.D. Ind. L.R. 200.1. The adversary proceeding before the Court is a core proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(F).

I. FACTS

The Court determines the facts as follows, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P 52(a), made applicable to this adversary proceeding by Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7052.

Globe’s primary business was the manufacture of roofing shingles. RDI and Globe entered into a contract by which Globe agreed to purchase from RDI, and RDI agreed to sell to Globe, a line of custom-built “In-Line Lamination Equipment.” This equipment line was a series of component “sub — machines” which, when assembled together, resulted in a machine to be utilized by Globe to produce laminated shingles.

Paragraphs 3, 8, 9 and 10 of the parties’ Stipulation identify the documents which formed the parties’ contract. Paragraph 3 states that the primary transfer at issue “was made on account of an existing debt owed by Globe to RDI ... under the Accepted Proposal, the Queisser Letter, and the Acknowledgment”. The “Accepted Proposal” is identified in paragraph 8 of the Stipulation as Exhibit “A” to the stipulation. All but the last page (page 49) of that exhibit contains the specifications for the components of the machine that was being purchased from RDI. Page 49 states the terms of payment and the terms of delivery. Exhibit “B” is an acknowledgment issued by RDI of Globe’s acceptance of Exhibit “A”, and it reiterates the payment and delivery terms of Exhibit “A” (paragraph 8 of the Stipulation). The original contract, comprised of Exhibits “A” and “B”, stated a price for the entire machine of $4,080,950.00. As stated in paragraph 9 of the Stipulation, several change orders were submitted with respect to the machine to be produced by RDI, which resulted in the final amended price of $4,210,745.00. The parties also stipulated in paragraph 9 that the change order amendments “did not change the schedule of progress payments” as stated in the original contract. The “Queisser Letter” is Exhibit “D”. This letter modifies the payment schedule.

Putting the three contract documents together, the payment arrangement was that Globe was to have made an initial $50,000.00 payment, which was received in January, 2000. Globe was then to make a $50,000.00 payment on February 1, 2000, and another $50,000.00 payment on Febru *256 ary 14, 2000, so that by February 14, 2000 Globe should have paid RDI $150,000.00. The Queisser Letter states that on February 29, 2000, Globe, would make another payment of $258,095.00, which would satisfy the initial 10% requirement. The Letter then stated “Globe will then make regular monthly payments as listed in the proposal.” Paragraph 12 of the Stipulation sets out the parties’ stipulation as to the contract terms for payment, in the first chart in that paragraph. That chart differs somewhat from the terms noted earlier in this paragraph. The second chart in paragraph 12 of the Stipulation provides the actual payments made by Globe. Initially, Globe was a little bit behind in the payment schedule. However, as of March 31, 2000, according to the paragraph 12 payment schedule, Globe should have paid $408,095.00; as of that date, Globe had in fact paid that amount. By April 30, 2000, Globe should have paid another $408,095.00, and by May 31, 2000, Globe should have paid another $408,095.00. In fact, Globe paid $250,000.00 on May 5, 2000, and then paid $1,026,397.72 on June 9. Thus, as of June 9, although Globe had fallen somewhat behind as of May 31, Globe was actually ahead. As the second chart in paragraph 12 shows, by the end of October of 2000, Globe was essentially one monthly installment payment behind, but that payment was made on November 2, 2000.

As of November 2, 2000, Globe had paid $3,786,555.72 to RDI with respect to the contract for purchase of the equipment line. The contract provided that the final installment payment of 10% of the contract price was to have been made “upon start-up or 90 days of shipment.” Based upon the Stipulation, 10% of the total contract price of $4,210,745.00 is $421,075.00. If one adds this payment amount to the $3,786,555.72 total of payments made as of November 2, one achieves the sum of $4,207,630.72, which is slightly less than the full contract price. So, as of November 2, 2000 — the date the primary preferential payment at issue in this case was made — Globe was essentially current with respect to the payment schedule.

The record is devoid of any evidence which indicates that RDI ever altered its production schedule, threatened to alter its delivery schedule, or otherwise threatened any action against Globe for the slight deviations it made from the original payment schedule: in other words, the record makes it clear that RDI never considered Globe to be in default with respect to the payment terms of the contract.

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Gouveia v. RDI Group, Inc. (In Re Globe Building Materials, Inc.), 325 B.R. 253, 2005 Bankr. LEXIS 875, 44 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 230, 2005 WL 1155287 (Ind. 2005).

325 B.R. 253 (Gouveia v. RDI Group, Inc. (In Re Globe Building Materials, Inc.)) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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