Health Facilities Planning Council v. Dunning

456 F.2d 410
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 11, 1972
DocketNos. 25586, 25587
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 456 F.2d 410 (Health Facilities Planning Council v. Dunning) 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
Health Facilities Planning Council v. Dunning, 456 F.2d 410 (9th Cir. 1972).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

These are two consolidated appeals from an order of the district court approving the trustee’s plan of reorganization for Maryvale Community Hospital, Inc., as fair and equitable, and feasible, as provided in Section 174 of Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act (11 U.S.C. § 574). We affirm.

The hospital was incorporated under the Arizona non-profit corporation laws on December 2, 1959, as a non-stock membership corporation. On July 12, 1961, its articles of incorporation were amended to provide specifically that upon dissolution the assets of the corporation would be distributed to a religious, charitable or educational organization.

The promoters, in order to finance construction of the hospital, sold $3,237,000 of eight percent first mortgage bonds from January, 1959, through June, 1962, to 1,359 persons. The bonds were issued pursuant to an indenture of mortgage and deed of trust entered into between the hospital corporation and a title and trust company.

In August of 1961 the hospital was completed and commenced operations. About a year later, the bonds became in default in certain principal, interest and sinking fund payments.

In May, 1963, certain bondholders brought a class action in the district court against the hospital promoters for fraud. In 1966, that action was terminated by a settlement whereby the promoter defendants paid the sum of $100,200 to the Chapter X trustee who had joined the action as a party.

On July 31, 1963, the indenture trustee filed an action in the Arizona state court seeking an accounting and the appointment of a receiver. The next day [412]*412five of the bondholders filed an involuntary petition for reorganization of the hospital corporation under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act. The proceeding was held in abeyance pending the state court receivership. On November 26, 1963, the state court action was dismissed and a receiver was appointed, pursuant to Section 117 of Chapter X, to hold and protect the debtor’s assets pending approval or dismissal of the Chapter X petition. On May 11, 1964, the district court approved the petition and appointed a trustee for the purpose of rehabilitating and reorganizing the debtor hospital corporation as a going concern.

The hospital then progressed from a condition of insolvency to become a profitable institution. In August, 1968, after various plans for reorganization were presented to and considered by the Chapter X trustee, the district court approved the sale of the debtor’s assets to Good Samaritan Hospital for the cash price of $5,110,000, plus the assumption of cei'tain outstanding contingent liabilities. The sale was made pursuant to Section 116(3) of Chapter X.

While this plan was being considered by the court, the State of Arizona was permitted to intervene as amicus curiae. The Health Facilities Planning Council, an Arizona nonprofit corporation, was permitted to intervene under Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The State and the Health Council assert an interest in the distribution of the debtor’s funds pursuant to the Arizona nonprofit corporation laws to the extent of any sums in excess of those owed to the bondholders. By reason of the af-firmance on the merits of the order of the district court, we do not decide whether the appellants have standing to object in the district court or to appeal.

Several months after the sale was approved, the district court determined that the bondholders were the only creditors of the debtor, and directed the trustee to prepare a plan for distribution of the proceeds from the sale.

The trustee submitted a plan for distribution, and it was approved by the court. The plan provided that the total amount owed to the bondholders under the indenture, computed as of October 22, 1968, the date of sale, was the sum of $5,054,680 plus the $100,200 recovered against the promoters in settlement of the fraud action, for a total of $5,154,880, which is in excess of the amount available for distribution of approximately $4,874,000.

The bondholders’ claims under the terms of the indenture computed by the indenture trustee and approved by the Chapter X trustee and the district court are:

Principal amount Simple interest at 8% Interest on interest at 8% Prepayment premiums
Less:
Interest paid during course of proceedings
$3,236,900
1,758,704
438,082
219,820
$5,653,506
599,826
NET CLAIM $5,054,680

The State and the Health Council object to the plan of distribution on the grounds: (1) it permits the payment of interest on interest; (2) it permits the semiannual compounding of interest on interest; (3) it permits a prepayment on call premiums, and (4) it distributes the settlement proceeds to the bondholders. The monetary value of the objections is:

Interest on interest $438,082
Prepayment premiums 219,820
Settlement proceeds 100,200
$758,102

With reference to that part of the plan which provides for the payment of interest on interest to be compounded semi-annually, the bonds contain the provision “[t]hat Maryvale Community Hospital, Inc. . . . hereby promises to pay . . . [the principal sum] . and to pay interest on said principal sum ... at the rate of eight percent (8%) per annum, such interest to be payable . . . semi-annuall^ [413]*413. until the principal sum hereof shall have become due and payable”. Section 6.2 of Article VI of the trust indenture provides: “Upon the oecurance of any . . . default the Corporation . shall pay to the Trustee . all sums then . . . due with interest at the rate of eight percent (8%) per annum on overdue interest and principal . . . . ”

The bondholders clearly have a contractual right to receive interest on interest compounded semiannually. However, in Chapter X reorganization proceedings, even though a claimant may have a valid contractual claim, equitable considerations must control their allowance. “It is manifest that the touchstone of each decision on allowance of interest in bankruptcy, receivership and reorganization has been a balance of equities between creditor and creditor or between creditors and the debtor.” Vanston Bondholders Protective Committee v. Green, 329 U.S. 156, 165, 67 S. Ct. 237, 241, 91 L.Ed. 162 (1946). In Vanston, although a first mortgage indenture provided for the payment of interest on interest, the court directed that it not be paid because it was not justified by “an application of equitable principles”, 329 U.S. at 165, 67 S.Ct.

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456 F.2d 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/health-facilities-planning-council-v-dunning-ca9-1972.