ML Media Partners, LP v. Century/ML Cable Venture (In re Adelphia Communications Corp.)

287 B.R. 605, 2003 Bankr. LEXIS 38
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 17, 2003
DocketBankruptcy No. 02-41729 (REG); Adversary No. 02-02544
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 287 B.R. 605 (ML Media Partners, LP v. Century/ML Cable Venture (In re Adelphia Communications Corp.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
ML Media Partners, LP v. Century/ML Cable Venture (In re Adelphia Communications Corp.), 287 B.R. 605, 2003 Bankr. LEXIS 38 (N.Y. 2003).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ROBERT E. GERBER, Bankruptcy Judge.

In this adversary proceeding under the umbrella of the jointly administered Adelphia Communications Corporation chapter 11 cases — brought by plaintiff ML Media Partners, L.P. (“ML Media”), against defendants Adelphia Communications Corp. (“Adelphia”), Century Communications Corp. (“Century”), Century/ML Cable Venture (“the Cable Venture”), and Highland Holdings . (“Highland”) — -the Court has before it cross-motions for summary judgment, based on conflicting interpretations of the Leveraged Recapitalization Agreement (the “Recap Agreement”) that those parties entered into in December 2001, which required, among other things, for the payment, subject to adjustments, of $275 million (the “Put Payment”) to ML Media to buy out ML Media’s share of the Cable Venture.1

[608]*608Plaintiff ML Media seeks a determination, as a matter of law, that the date for the payment by the Cable Venture of the Put Payment was accelerated from the September 30, 2002 date under which the Put Payment otherwise would be due (assuming that the Recap Agreement is enforceable, a matter that Adelphia, Century and the Cable Venture dispute, based on contentions that the Recap Agreement was a fraudulent conveyance) to one or another of June 7, 2002 or July 1, 2002,2 and that the date for payment by Adelphia and Highland of the Put Payment (which was due one business day after the due date for the Cable Venture, in the event the Cable Venture failed to make payment) was accelerated to June 10, 2002, or July 2, 2002, respectively. The defendants Adelphia, Century, Cable Venture and Highland seek a determination, as a matter of law, that the date was not accelerated.

For the reasons that follow, the Court determines that it cannot grant any of the motions as a matter of law, and that if these matters remain relevant,3 they can be determined only with the assistance of parol evidence and after trial. The Court can and does find, as a matter of law, that, assuming that the Recap Agreement is enforceable, payment by the -Cable Venture was due on September 30, 2002 (and payment by Adelphia, Century and Highland was due on October 1, 2002, one day later), and that, having failed to make payment, each of the Cable Venture, Adelphia, Century and Highland is now in default.4 The Court grants summary judgment to that extent, but only that extent; it is otherwise denied. The Court’s analysis in these respects follows.

Facts

The bulk of the facts underlying this controversy are not in dispute. However, for the reasons set forth in the discussion below, the Court does not regard those facts as determinative in either side’s favor. While the Court believes that ultimately the interpretation of the Recap Agreement requires resort to extrinsic evidence as to which there are disputed issues of fact, it first lays out the undisputed facts by way of background.

Parties

ML Media is a limited partnership that was organized as a joint venture between RP Media Management and ML Media Management, Inc.; it is the owner of a 50% interest in defendant Cable Venture, which is a joint venture and hence has the characteristics in law, at least in most respects, of a partnership. Century, which was acquired by Adelphia in 1999 and is now a wholly owned and controlled indirect subsidiary of Adelphia (the parent debtor in Adelphia’s jointly administered chapter 11 cases), is the owner of the other 50% interest in the Cable Venture. The Cable Venture, directly or through the ownership of stock, owns and operates two [609]*609cable television systems in Puerto Rico (the “Systems”). Adelphia has had management control over the Systems owned by the Cable Venture, and has received a management fee, pursuant to a management agreement, for its efforts; though ML Media contends that Adelphia forfeited its right to continue as manager, Adelphia has continued to serve as manager. Disputes arose between ML Media and Adelphia and Century with respect to the management of the Cable Venture, leading to the filing of two adversary proceedings that are now before this Court.

Highland is a general partnership composed of John Rigas and members of his family (together, the “Rigas Family”), who were (and so far as the record reveals, still are) major stockholders of Adelphia, and, until May 23, 2002; were officers and directors of Adelphia and many Adelphia subsidiaries.

The Removed Actions

Century, another of the Debtors in the Adelphia chapter 11 cases — in fact, the first of what are now the Adelphia debtors to file a petition in this Court — -removed this and another state court action from the commercial part of the Supreme Court of the State of New York (Hon. Ira Gammerman, J.S.C.) to this Court.

The first of the two removed actions (the “Initial Action”),5 which was commenced in March 2000, was brought by ML Media against Century, Adelphia, and Arahova Communications, Inc. (“Arahova”), another Adelphia subsidiary and another of the Debtors in these cases. The action that now comprises this adversary proceeding6 ■ — the second of the two removed actions, which involves an agreement under which claims in the Initial Action were settled— was initially brought by ML Media against the Cable Venture, Adelphia and Highland. Upon amendment of the complaint after removal to this Court, Century was named as a defendant in this action as well. As described above and below, this action involves the “Recap Agreement,” a “Leveraged Recapitalization Agreement,” dated December 13, 2001, which, if its terms had been fully performed, would have settled the Initial Action. This action (“the Recap Agreement Action”) was filed in state court on June 12, 2002, two days after Century filed its petition with this Court. The next day, June 13, 2002, Century removed both the Initial Action and the Recap Agreement Action to this Court.7 The Recap Agreement

The parties settled the Initial Action, in which a number of findings adverse to Adelphia had been made by Justice Gammerman, by executing the Recap Agreement. The parties to the Recap Agreement were ML Media, the Cable Venture, Century, Adelphia, and Highland.8

Under the terms of the Recap Agreement, the Cable Venture obligated itself to redeem ML Media’s share of the Cable Venture (the “ML Media Share”) on September 30, 2002 subject to acceleration (the “Closing Date”), as discussed below, for a price, subject to upward adjustments, of $275 million.9 Highland obligated itself [610]*610to arrange for the Cable Venture to obtain up to $300 million of debt financing in order to finance the redemption of the ML Media Share,10 with, Highland, Adelphia and Century jointly and severally liable to provide the Cable Venture with sufficient funds to pay interest on any indebtedness incurred in connection with the redemption financing.11

However, the Recap Agreement further provided that Adelphia was required to purchase the ML Media Share, on the next business day after the Closing Date if the Cable Venture failed to close on its obligation to buy out the ML Media Share for any reason.12

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Related

Rhee v. Sante Ventures
S.D. New York, 2023
In Re Century/ML Cable Venture
294 B.R. 9 (S.D. New York, 2003)
In Re Adelphia Communications Corp.
291 B.R. 283 (S.D. New York, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
287 B.R. 605, 2003 Bankr. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ml-media-partners-lp-v-centuryml-cable-venture-in-re-adelphia-nysb-2003.