In re Circle K Corp.

137 B.R. 346, 1992 Bankr. LEXIS 227, 1992 WL 45490
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Arizona
DecidedMarch 5, 1992
DocketBankruptcy Nos. B-90-5052-PHX-GBN to B-90-5075-PHX-GBN
StatusPublished

This text of 137 B.R. 346 (In re Circle K Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Circle K Corp., 137 B.R. 346, 1992 Bankr. LEXIS 227, 1992 WL 45490 (Ark. 1992).

Opinion

ORDER

GEORGE B. NIELSEN, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

Since the petition filing, debtors rejected a number of leases of convenience store properties and have abandoned, with Court approval, certain estate property.

[348]*348Applications for administrative expense priority were filed by landlords of three of the rejected leases. The properties will be referenced as the “McCoy/Barbre Property” located in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the “Ma-tise Property” located in Tyler, Texas; and the “Calco Property” also located in Tulsa. Applicants seek administrative priority for costs to remediate environmental contamination associated with underground storage tanks. The expenses include removal of the tanks and cleanup of the surrounding soil.

I

Owners of the Matise Property have submitted a claim of $15,666.85 for removal of the underground storage tanks and contaminated soil. The Calco Property applicant submits expenses of $4,961.60 to comply with state and federal underground storage tank statutes. The McCoy/Barbre property submitted a claim of $6,700.00.

Before vacating the rejected leased premises, debtors allege the company ceased operating, emptied and capped underground storage tanks. Debtors’ papers further state the company locked the fuel pipes and secured all other lines, manways and equipment, except vent lines, which must be kept open by federal regulations.

Debtors’ objection to the administrative expense applications of the former landlords has been brought before the Court through a motion for summary judgment. In their papers, debtors argue that none of the landlords’ claims are for costs involving actual, necessary expenses for preserving the debtors’ estate. Therefore, the costs are not eligible for administrative expense priority. 11 U.S.C. § 503. The court in In re Dant & Russell, Inc., 853 F.2d 700, 708-09 (9th Cir.1988), held a landlord’s environmental cleanup costs caused by debtor’s pre-petition conduct are not entitled to administrative priority.

Here, debtors argue the applicants’ claims are identical to the claims asserted in Dant & Russell. All involve assertions of administrative priority by landlords of property leased before and during Chapter 11 for remediating environmental contamination. Additionally, costs of cleanup or tank removal are not costs preserving debtors’ estate. This Court previously entered orders approving the debtors’ rejection of leases. The Court has also authorized debtors to abandon items of inconsequential value located at these sites. Due to these orders, the debtors do not own, lease or operate either convenience stores on the sites in question or the tanks located at these facilities. Therefore any costs incurred in connection with the tanks are not costs of preserving the estate.

Debtors further argue that rejection of an executory contract or unexpired lease relates back to immediately before filing the bankruptcy. 11 U.S.C. § 365(g)(1). No lease effectively existed between the landlords and debtors after the petition date. Accordingly, prepetition leases never became property of the estate and any costs incurred to clean up contamination would not be actual, necessary costs of preserving estate property. The underground storage tanks are fixtures, debtors state, embedded in the soil and thus part of the leased property. Here the tanks can only be used while situated at the properties, due to federal regulation. Therefore, the tanks never became part of the debtors’ estate. If, in the alternative, the debtors actually owned the tanks, the Court’s prior order authorizing rejection of the leases extinguish any interests debtors had in the tanks. Any property rights passed to the landlords upon rejection. Even if the tanks are considered estate property, debtors argue they had the authority to divest the estate of these items by abandonment. The abandonment was requested since the tanks had no value to the estate. Abandonment transferred title and responsibility over the tanks to the landlords. Title to property abandoned by a debtor vests in any party holding a possessory interest in the abandoned property. Possession of land carries with it everything embedded in the soil. Therefore, the landlords became owners of the tanks following abandonment.

Furthermore, debtors argue, expenses incurred by the applicants did not preserve [349]*349any property rights of the debtors. The tanks were removed and scrapped. No property was preserved for the benefit of the estate. The benefit, if any, from removal of the tanks inured to the landlords, not to debtors. To qualify as actual and necessary administrative expenses, expenditures must benefit the estate, rather than the creditor.

The landlords contend that under 28 U.S.C. § 959(b), debtors had a duty to obey all federal and state environmental regulations. Therefore, costs of compliance are actual and necessary costs of preserving the estate. However, debtors argue this Court has already determined § 959(b) does not apply in circumstances involving rejected, leased properties with environmental contamination. See April 5, 1991 Order and Decision on Environmental Objections to Lease Rejection, docket item 3643. Thus, due to prior order, § 959(b) provides no basis for awarding landlords an administrative priority.

Regardless, debtors insist they did follow § 959(b). Before vacating the premises, debtors contend they closed all underground storage tanks in accordance with federal regulations. State regulations are essentially identical to federal temporary closure requirements. Therefore, the tanks were in current compliance with federal and state law when debtors vacated the premises.

The landlords also contend removal costs were necessary to prevent the debtors’ prosecution for post-petition environmental violations. Debtors believe they were in full compliance with federal temporary closure regulations at the time they vacated the property. The tanks can lawfully remain in a temporary closure status for up to one year. Thereafter, the tanks could be put back in service, rather than removed.

Even if the tanks were not put back into service, any prosecution for failure to remove the tanks could not have been initiated for at least one year after debtors ceased operating the properties. The target of the prosecution could be either landlords or debtors. Under Texas law, all current and past owners and operators are jointly and severally liable for compliance with storage tank requirements. Property owners acted in their own interest when the tanks were removed.

Landlords have been awarded an administrative expense priority for costs of removing hazardous waste owned by a debt- or from the landlord’s property. Matter of Kent Holland Die Casting & Plating, 125 B.R. 493 (Bankr.W.D.Mich.1991). Kent Holland is distinguishable, debtors believe. Debtor in Kent Holland never rejected its lease, continued to operate the property post-petition and handled hazardous waste in a negligent manner. Supra at 496-98.

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Bluebook (online)
137 B.R. 346, 1992 Bankr. LEXIS 227, 1992 WL 45490, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-circle-k-corp-arb-1992.