In re New York, N. H. & H. R.

46 F. Supp. 236, 2 SEC Jud. Dec. 608, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2494
District Court, D. Connecticut·Decided June 3, 1942·No. No. 16562·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

HINCKS, District Judge.

These petitions are brought each by an indenture trustee, No. 492 by Bankers Trust Company as trustee under the First and Refunding Mortgage and No. 611 by Irving Trust Company as trustee under a Collateral Trust Indenture, asking the Court without reference to or restriction by any maximum allowances set by the Interstate Commerce Commission in these proceedings to adjudicate the amounts on account of the services and expenses of the respective petitioners and their counsel in these proceedings; to decree that the allowances thus established constitute under the provisions of the respective indentures prior liens in favor of the petitioners upon the respective mortgaged properties, or upon securities to be issued to the bondholders secured thereby; and to enforce said liens.

[239]*239The matter is before the Court upon motions to dismiss these petitions filed and pressed by the Interstate Commerce Commission through its counsel, by the New Haven Trustees, and by Reconstruction Finance Corp., a collateral noteholder in these proceedings. The petitions have also been opposed by brief in behalf of the Mutual Savings Bank Group.

I. I hold that the services rendered and expenses incurred by the petitioners and their attorneys are covered by the liens of the respective mortgage indentures in so far as said services were reasonably necessary and adapted (a) to protect and advance in these proceedings the interests of the underlying bondholders, (b) to advance the achievement of reorganization, and (c) to protect the mortgage trustee from personal liabilities for which under the mortgage it has a right of indemnity against the debtor’s estate.

I cannot accept the view that the petitioners were acting as mere volunteers in the premises. They were acting at least in substantial part under the contract of the trust indenture whereby they were expressly entitled to “reasonable compensation” and to “reimbursement of reasonable expenses, including counsel fees” for all services rendered “in the execution of the trusts hereby created.” The indenture was drawn long prior to the enactment of Section 77. It provided that in case of default the petitioner, as also bondholders, might enter upon and operate the mortgaged property for the benefit of all bondholders; also that the petitioner might foreclose the mortgage and obtain a receiver.

I think no one will dispute that the petitioners would have been remiss in their proper discharge of their trusts if in an equity receivership they had left their cestuis without representation or after default had failed to take appropriate action for their protection. Certainly this equitable obligation was not precisely to be measured by their possible liability in an action at law for non-feasance. I find nothing in Section 77 which exonerates mortgage trustees from their equitable obligation to take action appropriate to the same objective. Such a view, indeed, seems repugnant to Congressional policy as declared in the Trust Indenture Act of 1939. See 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 77bbb and 77ooo{ c).

To be sure, the Bankruptcy Act substitutes statutory remedies for the remedies incident to an equity receivership: to the extent that the new remedies vary from the old the course of activity by a mortgage trustee and much of the incidental — but inescapable — detail requires adaptation to that change. But this change did not extinguish any rights or obligations growing out of the mortgage indenture nor transform the status of the petitioners from that of responsible trustees to that of volunteers. And the activities reasonably required for their own protection and for the protection of their bondholders under the exigencies of reorganization under Section 77, as indeed also services contributing to the achievement of reorganization, fell within the lien of the mortgage contracts. Cf. Straus v. Baker Co., 5 Cir., 87 F.2d 401, at page 408.

I notice that the Commission has made a distinction between “regular and routine services performed in administering the trust, ordinarily covered by an annual maintenance fee” and other “special” services performed in the reorganization proceedings. This distinction seems to me entirely valid. Such routine services cannot constitute allowances in the reorganization proceedings and are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, because they are not “incurred in connection with the proceedings and plan”, as specified under section 77, subdivision c(12), 11 U.S.C.A. § 205, sub. c(12). Nevertheless, both the routine services and the services in the reorganization proceedings may be covered by the lien of the mortgage indenture.

II. I hold that all compensable services and expenses of the petitioners which were incurred in connection with the proceedings and plan fall within the provisions of Section 77(c) (12).

Just as Section 77 provides a technique of reorganization which does not require the enforcement of mortgage liens, so it contemplates by subdivision c(12) a technique for the liquidation and discharge of contractual claims for services which obviates the necessity of the foreclosure of the covering liens. And the fact that the services and expenses of these petitioners happen to be the subject matter of contract liens no more excludes their allowance from the effect of sub. c(12) than the existence of outstanding mort[240]*240gages operates to immunize the bondholders secured thereby from the other provisions of the -Act which contemplate that their claims may be discharged by the substitution of securities of equivalent value under a plan which satisfies the requirements of the Act. The petitioners’ contract provided that they shottld receive reasonable compensation and reimbursement. The same standard of liquidation is prescribed by Section 77. Only the method and the forum for accomplishing the liquidation is changed.

The language of sub. c(12) specifies a single method which shall apply to all parties alike. That Congress indeed intended that subdivision c(12) should apply to Indenture Trustees who might happen to have a lien, as well as to other parties in interest and committees who were without a lien, abundantly appears from the legislative history of the Act. There is thus no occasion for the modification of the inclusive language of sub. c(12) by the process of construction.

. [9] And certainly the construction advanced by the petitioners is inadmissible. They point to the language of sub. c(12) under which the court may order the allowances thereby authorized to be paid “out of the debtor’s estate”. I agree that this language is broad enough to authorize in a proper case payment from the free (unmortgaged) assets of the estate. In this respect, perhaps the Act goes further than the equitable rule whereby allowances for services in behalf of mortgaged property might be charged against the mortgaged assets. But I cannot agree that the scope of sub. c(12) is limited to such allowances as may only be charged against the general (unmortgaged) estate. The language used, viz., “the debtor’s estate”, is broad enough to include the mortgaged assets as well as the free assets. And if the enforcement provisions of sub. c(12) are entitled to this broad construction, as I hold, there is no room left for the argument that the liquidation provisions of sub. c(12) with the accompanying grant of jurisdiction to the Commission must by a narrower process of construction be confined to services not covered by lien.

III.

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In re New York, N. H. & H. R., 46 F. Supp. 236, 2 SEC Jud. Dec. 608, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2494 (D. Conn. 1942).

46 F. Supp. 236 (In re New York, N. H. & H. R.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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