Kundrat v. BMC Industries, Inc. (In re BMC Industries Inc.)

359 B.R. 725, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 132, 47 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 197
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 22, 2007
DocketBankruptcy Nos. 04-43515, 04-43516, 04-43517; Adversary No. 05-404
StatusPublished

This text of 359 B.R. 725 (Kundrat v. BMC Industries, Inc. (In re BMC Industries Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kundrat v. BMC Industries, Inc. (In re BMC Industries Inc.), 359 B.R. 725, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 132, 47 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 197 (Minn. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

ROBERT J. KRESSEL, Bankruptcy Judge.

This proceeding came for hearing on November 30, 2006 pursuant to the district court’s order reversing the judgment entered on August 23, 2005 and remanding for further proceedings. James Ruben-stein and Doug Elsass appeared for the plaintiffs. Kenneth Corey-Edstrom appeared for The BMC Liquidating Trust, and Shannon Kelly appeared for defendant Deutsche Bank Trust Company. There were no appearances for defendants BMC Industries, Inc. and Vision-Ease Lens, Inc. The court has jurisdiction over this proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(1) and 1334 and Local Rule 1070-1. This is a core proceeding within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(A), (B), (K), (O).

FACTS

Plaintiff Gerald Becker was an employee of Vision-Ease Lens, Inc., a subsidiary of BMC Industries, Inc. On December 5, 2002, he commenced an employment discrimination suit against Vision-Ease and retained Frank Kundrat to represent him. The parties settled the lawsuit on April 4, 2004 and Vision-Ease agreed to pay [728]*728$125,000 in exchange for a release of Becker’s claims. The settlement was made up of three separate payments: 1) Becker in the amount of $37,500 from which BMC was to deduct withholding taxes, 2) Becker in the amount of $37,500 and, 3) Kundrat in the amount of $50,000.

On June 2, 2004, Vision-Ease’s insurance carrier issued a check to BMC for $100,000 which was identified as “Payment for Gerald Becker.” BMC deposited the insurance check into BMC Account No. 0791877, the “lockbox account,” on June 8, 2004.On June 9, 2004, Becker and Kund-rat executed the settlement agreement, and the funds from the insurance check were transferred to BMC Account No. 59-49599, the “concentration account.” The next day BMC issued three settlement checks for $50,000 to Kundrat and $18,961.94 and $37,500 to Becker. On June 15, 2004 Vision-Ease executed the settlement agreement and BMC sent the settlement checks to Kundrat. The parties’ stipulation for dismissal in the employment lawsuit was filed with the court a week later on June 22, 2004. On June 23, 2004, BMC and Vision-Ease filed Chapter 11 petitions. At that time, none of the checks from BMC to the plaintiffs had been honored. The checks were presented to the debtors’ bank after the case was filed but were dishonored.

The debtors made a motion to use cash collateral and obtain secured financing on June 23, 2004. The plaintiffs did not object to the motion. On July 20, 2004, I entered an order 1) authorizing the debtors to obtain postpetition financing and use cash collateral, 2) granting liens and su-perpriority administrative expense status to secure postpetition financing obligations, and 3) granting adequate protection to the prepetition lenders, which include Bank One NA, Wells Fargo Bank National Association, Harris Trust and Savings Bank, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Wachovia Bank National Association, Union Bank of California, N.A., U.S. Bank National Association, and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. As part of that order, the postpetition lenders received a first security interest in all of the debtors’ unencumbered property and a junior security interest on all other pre-petition and post-petition property of the debtors.

Eight months later, on February 17, 2005, Kundrat and Becker initiated this adversary proceeding and sought a declaration that the $100,000 check from the insurance company was not property of the bankruptcy estate. They also sought the imposition of a constructive or resulting trust on those funds. They did not seek any preliminary relief to maintain the status quo. Following a trial, I entered an order on August 23, 2005 which held that the plaintiffs’ failure to prove that the money in the concentration account was traceable to the funds from the insurance check meant that the plaintiffs did not meet the burden of proof necessary for the imposition of a constructive or resulting trust. See Kundrat v. BMC Industries, Inc. (In re BMC Industries, Inc.), 328 B.R. 792 (Bankr.D.Minn.2005). The plaintiffs appealed the decision not to impose a constructive trust to the district court. They did not appeal the decision as to the resulting trust. Again the plaintiffs did not seek an order from me or the district court to maintain the status quo pending the appeal.

On February 3, 2006, the debtors filed their Joint Plan of Liquidation and an accompanying disclosure statement. The plaintiffs did not object to the plan or the disclosure statement, but on March 2, 2006, the U.S. Trustee objected to the disclosure statement because, inter alia, it failed to describe the status of the plaintiffs’ claims.

Around May 8, 2006 the debtors began to receive funds from various preference [729]*729actions which they had initiated. These funds were deposited into the BMC Preference Account. The account was separate from all other accounts held by the debtors.

In response to the objections to their plan, the debtors filed an amended plan on June 21, 2006. They filed the accompanying disclosure statement on June 26, 2006. The debtors’ amended plan makes no provision for the payment of the plaintiffs’ claims, except to the extent of any allowed unsecured claims. The Second Amended Disclosure Statement states that, “Oral argument with respect to the appeal was heard on March 15, 2006. If Becker and Kundrat are ultimately successful, the Debtors will be required to pay Becker and Kundrat a total of $100,000 from their available assets. Any remaining claims of Becker and Kundrat will constitute only general unsecured claims (emphasis added).” However, there is no plan provision for the repayment of those claims if the plaintiffs are successful. The plaintiffs did not object to the amended plan or the amended disclosure statement.

On August 9, 2006, there was a hearing on confirmation of the debtors’ amended plan. The plaintiffs did not appear. On August 10, 2006, I confirmed the debtors’ Amended Plan of Liquidation. On August 21, 2006, the debtors approved the Liquidating Trust Agreement, which created The BMC Liquidating Trust. The Trust was created in order to distribute funds to the creditors of all three debtors in accordance with the amended plan and the Liquidating Trust Agreement. The debtors then transferred $1,035,256 from the concentration account to Insight Equity on August 22, 2006. The next day, August 23, the debtors transferred $48,409.24 from the concentration account to Insight Equity. After the transfers, the balance in the concentration account was $5,670.93.

On August 29, 2006, the district court entered its order. The district court did not rule for the plaintiffs on the merits but did hold that because the concentration account had been in the exclusive control of the debtors over the relevant period, they had the burden of producing evidence that the concentration account no longer contained the money from the insurance checks. This shifted the burden of production from the plaintiffs to the defendants. The district court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion. The liquidating trust now stipulates that the concentration account balance did not drop below $100,000 prior to trial. However, after August 23, shortly before the district court’s decision, the account contained only $5,670.93.

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Bluebook (online)
359 B.R. 725, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 132, 47 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kundrat-v-bmc-industries-inc-in-re-bmc-industries-inc-mnb-2007.