In re Plaza Towers, Inc.

294 F. Supp. 714, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11504
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 4, 1967
DocketNo. 66-995
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 294 F. Supp. 714 (In re Plaza Towers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Plaza Towers, Inc., 294 F. Supp. 714, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11504 (E.D. La. 1967).

Opinion

HEEBE, District Judge.

Plaza Towers, a forty-five-story office building in New Orleans, is the tallest building in Louisiana. Unfortunately, it is only partially completed, the general contractor, George A. Fuller Company, Inc., having ceased work in October 1966. The petitioner herein, Plaza Towers, Inc., is the owner of the Plaza Towers and some thirteen other parcels of land, some improved and some unimproved, in an area between Canal Street and the Expressway in New Orleans. Disputes between the corporation and its creditors led to the initiation of a number of lawsuits against the corporation in the state courts. On November 29, 1966, less than two days before the Tower building and two adjacent properties were to be sold by state court foreclosure proceedings, this petition for reorganization under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. §§ 501-676, was filed. Prior to taking any action, the Court contacted the attorneys for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, the interim financer of and first mortgage holder on the Tower, and the attorneys representing mortgage creditors of the other properties, and met with them and attorneys for the debtor the next morning to listen to arguments for and against the issuance of a stay order. The following morning, pursuant to its powers under § 113 of the Bankruptcy Act,1 11 U.S.C.A. § 513, the Court stayed all further proceedings in the three mortgage foreclosure actions.

In the course of the next three months, the Court held several conferences with the interested attorneys. On February 23, 1967, the Court, pursuant to § 141 of the Bankruptcy Act, preliminarily approved the petition for reorganization, appointed a trustee for the debtor, and ordered that a hearing pursuant to § 161 of the Bankruptcy Act,2 11 U.S.C.A. § 561, be held on April 12,1967.

It appeared that a § 144 hearing would also be necessary. The nature and purposes of § 161 hearings and hearings conducted pursuant to § 144 are entirely different, but for a very limited purpose the two are interrelated — under § 137, 11 U.S.C.A. § 537, answers controverting any of the material allegations of the petition, and thus necessitating a § 144 hearing wherein the judge must determine the issues presented by any answers, could be filed at any time prior to the § 161 hearing on April 12. In order to avoid duplication of trials, the simple expedient to follow is to wait until the date set for the § 161 hearing, which is the cut off date for the filing of answers, and thereafter proceed to hold a § 144 hearing on the issues raised by all the answers that had been filed.3 However, here, United States Steel Corporation had already filed an answer on January 11, 1967, and several of the other creditors had made known their intentions to file answers shortly, and the Court was anxious to proceed quickly with the § 144 hearing in advance of the § 161 hearing: if the corporation was reorganizable, then there was no reason to delay the initiation of attempts to reorganize it; if the corporation was [718]*718beyond repair, then it would be unfair to needlessly delay the creditors’ pursuit of their remedies. The solution has its basis in § 145 of the Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 545, which provides:

“If any issue raised in an answer filed under § 136 or § 137 of this Act has * * * already been tried and finally determined under the provisions of § 143 or § 144 of this Act, such final determination shall be conclusive for all purposes under this chapter.” (emphasis added)

The omitted material in the above quote states the conditions under which the § 145 res judicata effect will operate. It will operate if the issues tried and determined under § 144 were

“after hearing upon notice to the debt- or, creditors, indenture trustees, and stock holders entitled to controvert the allegations of the petition.”

The notice referred to, necessary to effect res judicata, is not the notice required for § 161 hearings, but rather is that notice required under the general provisions of the Act, by § 120:

“Whenever notice is to be given under this chapter, the court shall designate, if not otherwise specified hereunder, the time within which, the persons to whom, and the form and manner in which the notice shall be given. * * ”

and § 207:

“Except where otherwise provided in this chapter, the judge may from time to time enter orders designating the matters in respect to which, the persons to whom, and the form and manner in which notice shall be given.”

It thus appeared that in order for a § 144 hearing to have res judicata effect under § 145, the Court need only order such notice of the hearing as it deemed reasonable. This conclusion is further borne out by the absence of anything to the contrary in 11 Remington, § 4457, p. 143:

“By § 145, a final determination of issues raised by an answer is, after a hearing upon notice and trial of the issues, conclusive for all purposes under Chapter X.”

or §§ 4480-81, p. 175:

“Under § 145, an order determining issues raised by a controverting answer, after hearing on notice, is conclusive.”

Therefore the Court ordered that a hearing pursuant to § 144 be held beginning March 20, 1967, on the issues presented by the answer already filed by United States Steel and on the issues raised by any other answers filed on or before March 10, 1967, and ordered that the trustee give at least two weeks’ notice of the § 144 hearing by certified mail to all persons entitled by law to receive notice. It was anticipated that the answers filed by March 10 would raise all the relevant issues, and thus, if everyone entitled to file an answer received notice, all the issues would be tried in the March 20 § 144 hearing and a decision thereon would, by virtue of § 145, have res judicata effect even though other answers might be filed subsequent to the § 144 hearing (but before the § 161 hearing).

The primary issue raised for our determination by the answers filed herein was that the petition was not filed in good faith. The § 144 hearing was thereupon begun on March 20 and continued the rest of that week and then intermittently, as prior commitments of the various attorneys permitted, for nine days. At the conclusion of the hearing, all interested parties were given one week to file memoranda, and the Court took the matter under advisement.

A petition for reorganization must be dismissed if the judge is not satisfied that it has been filed in good faith. Good faith is not affirmatively defined in the statute, but § 146 states four specific tests indicating when a petition has not been filed in good faith; only one of those tests is of concern herein — in the language of § 146(3), a pe[719]*719tition shall be deemed not to be filed in good faith if:

“[I]t is unreasonable to expect that a plan of reorganization can be effected.”

Chapter X is designed for the benefit of all who have claims against or interest in the debtor. It is a remedial statute whereby both unsecured and secured debt, as well as interested stockholders, may be adjusted, modified, or otherwise dealt with. For purposes of good faith it is not necessary to show that an equity may exist for the stockholders, or even for all classes of creditors.4

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
294 F. Supp. 714, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-plaza-towers-inc-laed-1967.