Matter of Lockspur, Inc.

82 B.R. 37, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 2253, 1987 WL 35256
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedApril 9, 1987
Docket19-10545
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 82 B.R. 37 (Matter of Lockspur, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy 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
Matter of Lockspur, Inc., 82 B.R. 37, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 2253, 1987 WL 35256 (La. 1987).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

THOMAS M. BRAHNEY, III, Chief Judge.

Airline Reporting Corporation’s (ARC) Motion for Relief from Automatic Stay or, in the Alternative, Adequate Protection, came on for hearing on December 16, 1986. After consideration of the Motion, the evidence introduced during the hearing, the memoranda, briefs and other supporting documentation submitted, and the records and files of this case, this Court makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, pursuant to Rule 7052 of the Bankruptcy Rules and Rule 52 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Effective February 3,1986, ARC and Lockspur, Inc., dba Bon Voyage Travel Service (Debtor), executed the ARC Agent Reporting Agreement (ARC Agreement).

*38 2. Pursuant to the ARC Agreement and according to the testimony of Lloyd South, Assistant Manager of Financial Recovery for ARC, ARC agreed to entrust the Debt- or with traffic documents (i.e., blank, standard form airline tickets and other valuable, blank, standard form accountable documents) for use by the Debtor in the issuance of airline tickets and other instruments of value. Traffic documents are unique, multi-coupon, serially numbered forms.

3. Individual airlines, in their discretion, entrust travel agents, such as the Debtor, with airline identification plates which are small, flat, rectangular, metal items, each of which is embossed with the trade name, logo and three-digit identification code number of the airline to which the plate belongs.

4. An identification plate is used in a validation machine (similar to that often used by merchants in recording credit card transactions) to imprint the embossed information on a traffic document and turn it into a particular airline ticket or other instrument of value for issuance to the Debt- or’s customers.

5. When a traffic document is issued as an airline ticket or an instrument of value, it becomes a contract between the customer and the airline and is valued at the dollar amount indicated on the face of the ticket or instrument.

6. Traffic documents are similar to blank checks in that the face amount of the traffic document will vary depending on the cost of the airline transportation or ancillary services requested by the customer.

7. Irrespective of whether an agent, such as the Debtor, received payment from the customer or whether the agent pays ARC or the airlines, the airlines must hon- or the customer’s airline ticket.

8. When the Debtor sells air transportation and issues a traffic document in connection therewith, the Debtor is paid by cash or a credit card. The ARC Agreement requires the Debtor to designate a bank account for the deposit of proceeds for such sales, and authorizes ARC to draft that account to obtain the money.

9. The proceeds of the sales, less commissions, are held in trust by the agent for the airlines.

10. The ARC Agreement requires the Debtor to give to ARC each week a complete and accurate report of all sales on which traffic documents are issued, and it is on the basis of this report that ARC determines the amount to be drafted from the agent’s account.

11. Pursuant to the ARC Agreement, ARC cannot draft the Debtor’s bank account until the tenth day after the close of the weekly sales period. Lloyd South testified that it generally takes three or four additional days before ARC is notified that the check was honored or dishonored.

12. During this approximately three-week period (i.e., from the first day of a weekly reporting period to the date ARC is notified that the draft was honored or dishonored), the Debtor is permitted to issue other traffic documents, and the individual airlines are required to honor those traffic documents.

13. The ARC Agreement does not require the Debtor to maintain a segregated bank account for the deposit of proceeds from the sale of travel documents. Accordingly, the Debtor is permitted to withdraw funds from its bank account at any time.

14. The Debtor is indebted to ARC for pre-petition claims in the amount of $68,-461.81, said sum representing the proceeds of sales, less commissions, for the weeks ending October 12, 1986, October 19, 1986, October 26, 1986 and November 2, 1986.

15. Mr. South testified that based on its overall gross cash sales, the debtor , was required under the Contract to provide to ARC a $50,000.00 surety bond or letter of credit. The Debtor only provided ARC with a $10,000.00 letter of credit. Thus, the indebtedness owed to ARC in the amount of $68,461.81 exceeds the maximum limit of liability under the $10,000.00 letter of credit.

*39 16. Pursuant to the ARC Agreement, if a travel agent, such as the Debtor, is in default, he may only purchase pre-paid special value tickets, and in lieu of surrendering the traffic documents and airline identification plates, he must provide a separate bond valued at the amount of the average value of ARC traffic documents previously issued by the agent, times the number of documents to be retained. For example, if $200.00 is the average value of the traffic documents previously issued to the Debtor, and the Debtor will be in need of 500 traffic documents a week, the Debtor will be required to post a $100,000.00 bond.

17. When Mr. Schrimsher, the Debtor’s representative, was asked whether the Debtor would be able to post a bond, he responded “it would be difficult.”

18. Based on the testimony of Mr. South and the language or the ARC Agreement, this Court finds that the ARC Agreement is a contract to extend financial accommodations to the Debtor.

19. This Court also finds that the Debt- or will be unable to post the surety bond required under the ARC Agreement; thus the Debtor cannot provide adequate assurance of future performance under the contract.

20. This Court further finds that the Debtor will be unable to promptly cure the pre-petition default in the amount of $68,-461.81.

21. To the extent any of the following Conclusions of Law constitute Findings of Fact, they are hereby adopted as Findings of Fact.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1. To the extent any of the above Findings of Fact constitute Conclusions of Law, they are hereby adopted as Conclusions of Law.

2. 11 U.S.C. § 365(c)(2) provides that an executory contract cannot be assumed if “such contract is a contract to make a loan, or extend other debt financing or financial accommodations, to or for the benefit of the Debtor, or to issue a security of the Debtor.”

3. The ARC Agreement is an exec-utory contract to extend financial accommodations to the Debtor and, thus, it cannot be assumed by the Debtor.

4. Even if the ARC Agreement could be assumed, 11 U.S.C. § 365

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 B.R. 37, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 2253, 1987 WL 35256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matter-of-lockspur-inc-laeb-1987.