In Re SMS, Inc.

15 B.R. 496, 32 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1631, 5 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 806, 1981 Bankr. LEXIS 2548, 8 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 718
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Kansas
DecidedNovember 18, 1981
Docket19-20331
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 15 B.R. 496 (In Re SMS, Inc.) 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 SMS, Inc., 15 B.R. 496, 32 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1631, 5 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 806, 1981 Bankr. LEXIS 2548, 8 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 718 (Kan. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

JAMES A. PUSATERI, Bankruptcy Judge.

The creditor, Commerce Bank and Trust Company (Commerce), seeks an order authorizing the trustee to abandon any interest in a credit memo owed the debtor by Palmer News, Inc. at the time the debtor’s chapter 7 petition was filed.

The trustee opposes abandonment asserting Commerce was not secured, and alternatively was not perfected in the credit memo. The trustee also requests attorney’s fees for services rendered as the trustee’s attorney, and disbursement fees under § 326 if ordered to abandon the money collected on the credit memo.

The issues for determination are:

1. Was Commerce’s interest in the credit memo secured and perfected.

2. After the trustee collected the amount due the debtor on the credit memo, was Commerce’s interest in the money collected both secured and perfected.

3. Is the trustee entitled to disbursement compensation under § 326(a) of the Code.

4. Is the trustee, serving as attorney for the trustee, entitled to attorney’s fees.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Before the debtor’s chapter 7 petition was filed, it operated a retail bookstore and purchased books and periodicals from Palmer News, Inc. The creditor, Commerce Bank and Trust Company (Commerce) and the debtor entered into three security agreements on April 23, 1980. These security agreements were attached to Commerce’s proof of claim. The first, entitled “Security Agreement”, granted:

*498 a security interest in the property described below together with any and all additions, accessions, substitutions and proceeds thereto and therefrom (hereinafter called “Collateral”).

Typed in as collateral was:

All Equipment, Furniture and Fixtures now owned, purchased with loan proceeds and hereafter acquired.

The second security agreement entitled “Security Agreement Accounts and Contract Rights”, granted a security interest

in all accounts, contract rights, general intangibles, instruments and chattel paper now owned by Debtor, as well as any and all thereof that may be hereafter acquired by Debtor, and in and to all proceeds and products thereof, and in and to all returned or repossessed goods arising from or relating to any contract rights, accounts or other proceeds of any sale or disposition of inventory . . .

The third security agreement was entitled “Inventory” and granted a security interest in

all of debtor’s inventory, general intangibles, now owned by Debtor, and in and to all proceeds and products thereof, and in and to all returned or repossessed goods arising from or relating to any contract rights, accounts or other proceeds of any sale or other disposition of inventory . . .

All three agreements were signed by Commerce’s loan officer, Jerri Head, and the debtor’s president, Sally L. Davis.

Commerce filed two financing statements — one with the Kansas Secretary of State and one with the Shawnee County Register of Deeds on April 28, 1980. The financing statements were standard UCC-1 forms and covered:

All Inventory now owned, purchased with loan proceeds and hereafter acquired, and all additions and accessions thereto, and all present and future Accounts Receivable, proceeds arising therefrom, chattel paper, contract rights and general intangibles however evidenced or acquired. All equipment, furniture and fixtures now owned, purchased with loan proceeds and hereafter acquired.

The financing statement filed with the Register of Deeds also checked the UCC -1 boxes claiming products of collateral and the box covering products of collateral. These boxes were not checked on the UCC-1 filed with the Secretary of State.

These financing statements were attached to Commerce’s proof of claim.

Sometime after the security agreements were entered into but before the debtor filed its chapter 7 petition on May 7,1981, it returned some inventory to Palmer News and received a credit balance, or credit memo. In Schedule B-3 of its petition, the debtor lists the credit at $4,070.61. In its application to abandon property, Commerce states the credit is $4,020.61.

On June 3, 1981 after the debtor filed its petition the Court approved an order signed by the trustee, Commerce’s attorney and the debtor’s attorney, authorizing the trustee to abandon to Commerce all inventory owned by the debtor at the time of filing. Thereafter, the trustee apparently sent out a demand letter and collected the credit memo in cash from Palmer News.

On July 21, 1981 the Court signed an order authorizing the trustee to serve as his own attorney.

On August 19, 1981 Commerce made application to the Court for an order allowing the trustee to abandon the estate’s interest in the credit memo.

On October 28, 1981 a hearing was held. The trustee opposed abandonment and requested attorney’s fees as attorney for the trustee and disbursement compensation under 11 U.S.C. § 326 if ordered to abandon the credit collected in cash.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

Commerce attached to its proof of claim three written security agreements dated April 23, 1980 signed by the debtor’s president granting a security interest in all equipment, furniture, fixtures, accounts, contract rights, general intangibles, instruments, chattel paper, and inventory then owned or after acquired by the debtor. *499 These security interests were perfected by Commerce on April 28, 1980 when it filed a financing statement (UCC-1 form) with the Kansas Secretary of State pursuant to K.S.A. § 84-9-401(l)(e) (Supp.1980), containing the same recitation of collateral. Thus, for the purpose of this opinion, Commerce was both secured and perfected as to the debtor’s inventory, accounts and general intangibles.

In addition, the security agreements granted a security interest in proceeds generated by the collateral. Of course, under the 1972 revised Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.) as adopted in Kansas, it is no longer necessary to claim proceeds as part of the collateral, and therefore Commerce had a security interest in the proceeds whether or not it expressly listed proceeds in its security agreement or financing statements. K.S.A. § 84-9-306(2)(3) (Supp. 1980); J. White & R. Summers, Uniform Commercial Code § 23-9, at 933 (2nd Ed. 1980).

With these preliminary matters out of the way, the Court now turns to the real issues at hand. The Court must decide if Commerce is secured and perfected as to the credit memo, received by the debtor from its book supplier, when the debtor returned unsold inventory to its supplier before filing for an order for relief.

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15 B.R. 496, 32 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1631, 5 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 806, 1981 Bankr. LEXIS 2548, 8 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-sms-inc-ksb-1981.