In re Buerge

479 B.R. 101, 68 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 168, 2012 WL 3913003, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4133
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Kansas
DecidedSeptember 6, 2012
DocketNo. 11-20325
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 479 B.R. 101 (In re Buerge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Buerge, 479 B.R. 101, 68 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 168, 2012 WL 3913003, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4133 (Kan. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO ABANDON AND DENYING MOTION TO SELL

ROBERT D. BERGER, Bankruptcy Judge.

Debtor seeks to compel the Chapter 7 Trustee to abandon Debtor’s minority stock interest in two closely held bank holding companies. The Trustee seeks an order approving the sale of the stock to Debtor’s most significant creditor, Prime [104]*104Lending II, LLC.1 The Trustee failed to prove the bidders qualified as good faith purchasers or offered to purchase the stock for value. Instead, Debtor proved the sale is too costly and the return to unsecured creditors is too inconsequential to overcome the burden the sale would impose. Accordingly, the Trustee’s motion is denied, and Debtor’s motion is granted.

Background

Prime and Debtor have been litigating since December 16, 2008. Debtor’s former lender, Columbian Bank and Trust Company, failed that year, and the FDIC liquidated Columbian’s loan portfolio. Debtor, a banker, made a bid for the loans Colum-bian made to his restaurant businesses, Trolley’s, LLC; Trolley’s Overland Park, LLC; and Trolley’s Real Estate Holdings, LLC (collectively referred to herein as “Trolley’s”). Debtor guaranteed the loans, which totaled approximately $3.7 million and were secured by Trolley’s real estate and assets. The FDIC sold the loans to Prime’s predecessor, which immediately assigned the loans to Prime. Upon obtaining the notes out of the disarray of Colum-bian’s failure, Prime declared the loans in default and filed suit in state court on February 6, 2009, against Debtor, Trolley’s, and partners. Trolley’s filed for bankruptcy on May 11, 2009. The Trolley’s bankruptcies, which were also before this Court, were extremely litigious with Prime. The bankruptcy concluded with the liquidation of Trolley’s assets. Debtor filed for Chapter 7 relief on February 11, 2011. On December 4, 2011, Prime filed a proof claim for $4,707,937.90. On March 23, 2012, Prime amended its proof of claim to $2,545,668.66 to reflect Prime’s recovery from liquidation of Trolley’s assets.

Findings of Fact

On the Debtor’s bankruptcy petition date, Debtor owned stock consisting of 326 shares (or approximately 11 percent) of a family-owned bank holding company known as Buerge Bancshares, Inc. (BBI), and 132.64225 shares (or approximately 11 percent) of another family-owned bank holding company known as Financial Enterprises, Inc. (FEI). BBI's subsidiary bank is First State Bank of Joplin, Missouri, and FEI’s subsidiary bank is First National Bank of Clinton, Missouri, both small community banks. BBI and FEI are primarily owned by Debtor’s father, Alden Buerge, Debtor’s brother, and Debt- or. Approximately ten percent of each company is held by non-family shareholders. The Buerge family has been in the banking business since 1965.

Debtor is a party to stock purchase agreements (SPAs) with BBI and FEI, which restrict Debtor’s ability to transfer the stock and impose certain requirements upon disposition. The most significant restriction prohibits a transfer which destroys BBI’s and FEI’s eligibility for Sub-chapter S tax treatment.

Debtor maintains he has no equity in the stock. Debtor’s schedules value the BBI shares at $1,102,930.30, and the FEI shares at $566,255.07. FEI is a C corporation and does not pay dividends. BBI is a Subchapter S corporation and pays quarterly distributions to cover the income tax associated with profit passed through to the shareholders. The stock is encumbered by liens held by Liberty Bank and Alden Buerge. The liens secure approximately $1,798,000 in debt. Quarterly debt service payments on the loans secured by the stock total about $27,249, and the esti[105]*105mated quarterly state and federal taxes are about $34,385. The dividends usually do not provide shareholders with cash in excess of their tax liability. There was one exception regarding a larger than usual distribution made in the fourth quarter of 2011. The evidence proved this one unusually high dividend was an anomaly triggered by the disruption to BBI’s normal business following the devastating May 22, 2011, Joplin tornado.2 Thus, the stock does not have any value to the estate beyond what the shares are worth. In fact, the shares generate income tax liability to the bankruptcy estate. BBI has historically generated a profit. As a pass-through taxable entity, the profits are taxed at the shareholder level. The bankruptcy estate is burdened with the proportionate income tax liability attributed to BBI’s profits. If BBI does not distribute dividends to cover these tax liabilities, the bankruptcy estate does not have assets to pay the tax liability. The longer the Chapter 7 Trustee holds the BBI stock, the greater the income tax liability associated with BBI profits.

Prime offers to purchase all the stock for a base bid of $1,830,000. The bid will increase daily from the petition date to cover the interest accruing per diem on the secured claims. The bid also includes a $50,000 escrow deposit to apply toward the secured creditors’ attorney fees. Unsecured claims filed against the estate are approximately $3 million. Prime’s unsecured claim constitutes 85 percent of this class. After deducting the $1,798,968.55 in secured claims and the sale costs including the anticipated $80,463 trustee fee, approximately $27,685 would be available to distribute to unsecured creditors — about a 0.9 percent return.

Procedural History

Debtor has appeared as a witness before this Court several times through the course of this case and the Trolley’s bankruptcies. He is a credible and forthcoming witness. The Trustee testified Debtor has been cooperative throughout the process. Even though the Trustee continued the meeting of creditors nine times, the Trustee testified he had no difficulties obtaining information from Debtor. Prime requested and received at least three extensions of time to file a complaint objecting to dischargeability, but never filed a complaint. Prime conducted extensive discovery. Debtor received his discharge on October 5, 2011.

On September 8, 2011, the Trustee moved to abandon the stock because the SPA transfer restrictions, the amount of the secured debt, the attendant sale costs, and a lack of marketability made the stock of inconsequential value to the estate. Also, the Trustee had not received any offers for the stock even though Prime had been investigating the stock’s value for several months. Prime objected, and on November 3, the Trustee withdrew his motion to abandon. Debtor filed his own motion to abandon on December 6, and on December 8, the Trustee filed his motion to sell the stock to Prime. Prime and the Trustee objected to Debtor’s motion to abandon. Debtor, Alden Buerge, BBI, and FEI objected to the Trustee’s sale [106]*106motion.3 There are five other creditors who have filed proofs of claims in this case, but none of them support or oppose either motion.

The motions were originally set for a February 28, 2012, trial date, but on February 27, the Trustee filed an Amended Asset Purchase Agreement substituting the Prime individual members as the bidders in place of the limited liability company. The Trustee testified this was done because consummation of the original APA would destroy BBI’s and FEI’s eligibility for Subchapter S corporation tax status and could not be a valid purchase under the SPAs and nonbankruptcy law.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
479 B.R. 101, 68 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 168, 2012 WL 3913003, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-buerge-ksb-2012.