In re American Capital Equipment, LLC

296 F. App'x 270
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedOctober 16, 2008
DocketNos. 07-2546, 07-2746
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 296 F. App'x 270 (In re American Capital Equipment, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re American Capital Equipment, LLC, 296 F. App'x 270 (3d Cir. 2008).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

FISHER, Circuit Judge.

Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, Hartford Fire Insurance Company, First State Insurance Company, Alianz Global Risk U.S. Insurance Co., Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. of Ohio, Century Indemnity Company, Pacific Employers Insurance Co., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., Continental Insurance Company, Continental Casualty Company, and The Fair-child Corporation appeal the order of the District Court affirming the Bankruptcy Court’s denial of their motion to dismiss [272]*272Skinner Engine Company’s and American Capital Equipment’s Chapter 11 case for lack of good faith. For the following reasons, we will affirm.

I.

Skinner Engine Company (“Skinner”) allegedly manufactured asbestos-containing engines and engine parts for ships until some time in the 1970s. During the 1980s, Skinner began to be named as a defendant in a number of lawsuits alleging exposure to asbestos by merchant marines. None of these claims has ever resulted in a judgment against Skinner. Because these claims fell under admiralty jurisdiction, they were originally brought in the Northern District of Ohio in a special docket entitled MARDOC. In 1991, these MAR-DOC claims were transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In 1996, the Court administratively dismissed all MAR-DOC claims, providing that these cases could be reinstated if claimants could show an asbestos-related compensable injury and probative evidence of exposure to the defendant’s products. In 2003, the Court clarified that the administrative dismissals were “not intended to provide a basis for excluding the MARDOC claimants from participating in settlement programs or prepackaged bankruptcy programs of a like nature or purpose.” In re Asbestos Products Liability Litigation (No. VI), Order Granting Relief to MARDOC Claimants with Regard to Combustion Engineering, Inc., Civil Action No. 2 MDL 875 (E.D.Pa. Feb.19, 2003).

After being bought and sold a number of times, Skinner was eventually purchased by American Capital Equipment (“ACE”) in 1998. On April 16, 2001, Skinner and ACE (“Debtors”) filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions, citing the financial underperformance of Skinner and a slowdown in the automotive industry. Debtors’ disclosure made no mention of the outstanding asbestos claims against Skinner. At the time of filing, Skinner had approximately 29,000 asbestos claims pending against it. It had also purchased approximately $146,000,000 worth of insurance coverage for these claims. Most of these policies, which are Debtors’ only significant assets, were issued by the appellants in the present case (“Appellants”).

Debtors have proposed a series of different plans for reorganization, none of which have yet been confirmed. The most recent plan proposes, among other things, the creation of a trust designed to pay the asbestos claimants in accordance with particular matrices and mechanisms similar to those approved in other asbestos-related bankruptcies. Under this system, each asbestos claim would be audited under the oversight of the Bankruptcy Court, resulting in payments based on the severity of the claimant’s illness. As part of the plan, claimants who chose to “opt-in” would also be charged a twenty-percent “surcharge” on any recovery which would be earmarked to pay non-asbestos creditors. Claimants could also choose to “opt-out” and simply maintain their existing action in the District Court. The trust would be funded primarily by the proceeds from Skinner’s insurance policies. Debtors alleged that such a plan would allow them to satisfy the claims of the greatest number of creditors. Skinner’s unsecured creditors and asbestos claimants voted in support of this plan. Skinner’s insurers then initiated an adversary proceeding alleging that such an arrangement violated their contractual rights under the insurance policies.

In June 2005, Appellants filed a motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 petitions, arguing that the case no longer served a legitimate purpose under Chapter 11 and was no longer proceeding in good faith under [273]*27311 U.S.C. § 1112(b). Appellants alleged that the plan was not designed to maximize the value of the assets to the creditors, but instead was designed to gain an improper litigation advantage over the insurers by allowing the asbestos claimants to use truncated, court-monitored procedures to access the insurance policies in exchange for claimants’ agreement to hand over a portion of their insurance recoveries to other non-asbestos creditors. Following a series of hearings, the Bankruptcy Court ultimately issued an order denying the motion and staying the proceedings pending appeal. Appellants appealed the Bankruptcy Court’s order denying the motion to dismiss to the District Court. In a May 11, 2007 order, the District Court affirmed the Bankruptcy Court’s order denying Appellants’ motion to dismiss, finding that the plan maximized value to creditors and was not filed solely to gain a litigation advantage over creditors, and concluding that the Bankruptcy Court did not abuse its discretion in declining to dismiss Debtors’ Chapter 11 case for a lack of good faith. This timely appeal followed.

II.

The District Court exercised jurisdiction over the appeal of the Bankruptcy Court’s denial of Appellants’ motion to dismiss under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1). We have jurisdiction over this consolidated appeal pursuant to id. §§ 158(d)(1) and 1291.1 In assessing whether the good faith requirement of 11 U.S.C. § 1112(b) is satisfied, we must conduct a “fact intensive inquiry” to determine where a “petition falls along the spectrum ranging from the clearly acceptable to the patently abusive.” In re Integrated Telecom Express, Inc., 384 F.3d 108, 118 (3d Cir.2004) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). “We therefore review for abuse of discretion the Bankruptcy Court’s refusal to dismiss a Chapter 11 petition for want of good faith.” Id. We will find an abuse of discretion where the decision “rests upon a clearly erroneous finding of fact, an errant conclusion of law, or an improper application of law to fact.” In re SGL Carbon Corp., 200 F.3d 154, 159 (3d Cir.1999) (internal citations and quotations omitted).

III.

As we explained in SGL Carbon, “Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions are subject to dismissal under 11 U.S.C. § 1112(b)” in the absence of good faith. 200 F.3d at 160-62.2 Of particular relevance to the question of good faith is whether the petition serves a “valid bankruptcy purpose.” Integrated Telecom, 384 F.3d at 120. As the Supreme Court has explained, the two main functions of the bankruptcy law are (1) “preserving going concerns” and (2) “maximizing property available to satisfy creditors.” Id. at 119 (quoting Bank of Am. Nat’l Trust & Sav. Ass’n v. 203 N. [274]*274LaSalle St P’ship,

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110 F. Supp. 3d 579 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 2015)
In Re American Capital Equipment, LLC
688 F.3d 145 (Third Circuit, 2012)
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418 F. App'x 91 (Third Circuit, 2011)
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428 B.R. 686 (W.D. Virginia, 2010)

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296 F. App'x 270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-american-capital-equipment-llc-ca3-2008.