In Re Western Real Estate Fund, Inc.

75 B.R. 580, 17 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 577, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 1034
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJune 30, 1987
Docket19-10725
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 75 B.R. 580 (In Re Western Real Estate Fund, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Western Real Estate Fund, Inc., 75 B.R. 580, 17 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 577, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 1034 (Okla. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

PAUL B. LINDSEY, Bankruptcy Judge.

The instant proceedings were initiated by these debtors in possession by the filing for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq. These cases have been consolidated for administrative purposes. The debtors in possession have submitted plans of reorganization. 1 After notice and a hearing on the confirmation of these proposed plans, the court finds as follows.

Those debtors in possession which the court will denominate as the Western Real Estate Fund, Inc. (“WREF”) debtors, were formed with the intention of investing in income-producing properties located in markets in the Southwest and Western United States. The initial objectives consisted of appreciation in the value of acquired properties and the distribution of cash. The debtors expected to pay cash distributions to investors from the operation of the properties and from the proceeds from the sale of the properties.

The objectives of those debtors which the court will denominate as the LDP II debtors differed somewhat from those of the WREF debtors. However, they too sought to invest in properties in the Southwest and Western United States. The objectives of the LDP II debtors consisted of the preservation of invested capital, capital appreciation through the value added to properties, tax losses to offset taxable income from other sources, and the distribution of cash in the later years of operation.

The debtors are engaged in the ownership and/or management of various commercial and multi-unit residential properties located in Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado. The commercial properties include office buildings, shopping centers and office/industrial complexes. The debtors also own agricultural property located in California.

The hearing on the confirmation of these proposed plans proceeded in a bifurcated manner. The first week of the hearing was devoted to valuation of the respective properties pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 506 and to determining the plan rate of interest. At the conclusion of that hearing the court determined the value of those properties the value of which had not been stipulated to by the parties and ruled that the appropriate plan rate of interest would be nine percent.

The second phase of the confirmation hearing dealt with the requirements of 11 U.S.C. § 1129. The court notes that prior to, during and to an extent following the conclusion of the confirmation proceedings, a substantial number of the secured creditors reached accommodations with the debtors and withdrew their opposition to confirmation of the respective plans.

With respect to the requirements of § 1129, the court was provided a wide variety of expert testimony, all of which was of a high caliber. The manners in which the parties presented their positions may be rather simplistically characterized as following one of two approaches. The debtors’ witnesses, generally speaking, approached the plans of reorganization in a broad, macroeconomic sense. This is not to say that they failed to address themselves to the specific proeprties. However, the debtors’ witnesses concentrated on long-range economic forecasts and trends, not only for the communities, states and regions in which the properties were located but for the country as a whole. The testimony offered on behalf of the objecting *583 secured creditors may be characterized, once again rather simplistically, as offering a microeconomic perspective. These witnesses concentrated on the specific properties, while addressing to a lesser degree, factors of local, regional and national concern.

During the course of the hearing the court was inundated with charts, graphs, computer print-outs and expert opinions related to economic forecasts, projections, models and the like, related to micro- and macroeconomic trends and cycles, interest, discount and capitalization rates, occupancy and growth rates, inflation rates, and other complex technical subjects and concepts. Not surprisingly, the projections of the debtors’ witnesses supported the proposed plans of reorganization, while the objecting secured creditors’ witnesses found such projections, and hence the proposed plans, to be at best unrealistic.

Application and interpretation of the law is an art, not a science. The donning of a judicial robe confers authority and responsibility, not omniscience. This court can no more see into and predict the future with absolute certainty than can any of the parties or their expert witnesses. The Bankruptcy Code, however, favors providing debtors an opportunity to reorganize, to be given a fresh start, and unless the court can say with a greater degree of certainty than is possible here, that debtors’ projections are unreasonable and cannot be met, these debtors should be afforded that opportunity.

In discussing economic projections with respect to a confirmation hearing concerning a farming operation, a business fraught with uncertainty, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has stated: “Projecting future income of, and expenses of, an extensive farming operation such as debtors’ cannot be an exact science.” Prudential Insurance Company of America v. Monnier (In re Monnier Bros.), 755 F.2d 1336, 1341 (8th Cir.1985). That statement has equal applicability here, where there are involved multiple parcels of improved real property of various types in diverse geographic locations.

The court must first find whether the plans comply with the requirements of § 1129(a).

The first two requirements of subsection (a) are that the plan and its proponent comply with the applicable provisions of title 11. The objecting secured creditors contend that the plans do not so comply, the basis of their argument being the provisions for the post-confirmation sale of the properties subject to § 363(k) of the Code. They contend that, since the plans do not provide for the continuation, post-confirmation, of debtor-in-possession status for the debtors, under § 1141(b) the properties will no longer be “property of the estate” and § 363 will thus no longer be available to govern their sale. This contention, and its implications will be discussed hereafter in the context of § 1129(b). At this juncture, however, the court declines to find the plans to be violative of the provisions of the Code. Thus, this court finds that the requirements of §§ 1129(a)(1) and (2) are met as to each of the plans in question here.

Section 1129(a)(3) requires that the plans must have been proposed in good faith and not by any means forbidden by law. The Tenth Circuit has had occasion to address this issue. In Travelers Insurance Company v. Pikes Peak Water Company (In re Pikes Peak Water Co.), 779 F.2d 1456, 1459 (10th Cir.1985), the court said:

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Bluebook (online)
75 B.R. 580, 17 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 577, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 1034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-western-real-estate-fund-inc-okwb-1987.