Samar Fashions, Inc. v. Matisse International, Inc. (In Re Samar Fashions, Inc.)

109 B.R. 136, 1990 Bankr. LEXIS 5, 1990 WL 1245
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 9, 1990
Docket19-11568
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 109 B.R. 136 (Samar Fashions, Inc. v. Matisse International, Inc. (In Re Samar Fashions, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Samar Fashions, Inc. v. Matisse International, Inc. (In Re Samar Fashions, Inc.), 109 B.R. 136, 1990 Bankr. LEXIS 5, 1990 WL 1245 (Pa. 1990).

Opinion

DAVID A. SCHOLL, Bankruptcy Judge.

A. FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Debtor and Plaintiff, SAMAR FASHIONS, INC. (hereinafter “the Debt- or”), a retailer/wholesaler of women’s wear, filed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case underlying this proceeding on February 17, 1988. This proceeding was filed on August 18, 1989, and tried on December 6, 1989.

2. The Defendant MATISSE INTERNATIONAL, INC. (hereinafter “the Defendant”), requested permission to submit post-trial Briefs, and the parties were provided until December 29, 1989, to simultaneously do so. 1

3. The Debtor made three payments to the Defendant, which it now seeks to avoid as preferential, which the parties agree are properly characterized as follows:

Check No. Check date Payment date Check amount

24819 11/23/87 11/24/87 $34,972.50

24820 11/23/87 11/24/87 14,040.00

24821 11/30/87 12/11/87 12,227.50

*137 4.The aforesaid payments by the Debt- or were made to the Defendant in payment of the following invoices for goods, all of which designated the terms of payment as “Net 30:”

Invoice Number

Invoice Amount

Invoice Date

Payment date

27587 $ 7,780.50 9/18/87 11/24/87 (ck. 24819)

27606 12,558.00 9/18/87 11/24/87 (ck. 24819)

27607 14,634.00 9/19/87 11/24/87 (ck. 24819)

27639 7,104.00 9/22/87 11/24/87 (ck. 24820)

27640 6,936.00 9/22/87 11/24/87 (ck. 24821)

27834 7,515.00 9/25/87 12/11/87 (ck. 24821)

27835 4,512.00 9/25/87 12/11/87 (ck. 24821)

5. Richard N. First, the Debtor’s former Controller, credibly testified that he believed that checks number 24819, 24820, and 24821 were issued by the Debtor on October 7, 1987, rather than on the respective invoice dates, because the checks before and after those numbers in the Debt- or’s check registry were written on that date. We find that the checks were in fact written by the Debtor on October 7, 1987.

6. Between September 16, 1987, and October 27, 1987, the Defendant delivered additional goods to the Debtor valued at a total of $82,348.50, for which the Defendant has never been paid.

7. Vincent Anello, the Defendant’s President, credibly testified that he had been demanding checks post-dated about sixty days after shipment in payment of invoices from the Debtor for over a year prior to fall of 1987 because his factor would not allow the Defendant to give credit to the Debtor due to its slow payment record.

8. Anello further stated that he felt as secure in receiving post-dated checks from the Debtor as he would have in receiving cash from it because he believed that a drawer’s failure to make checks good would constitute a federal crime. It was because of this misplaced security which he felt from receiving post-dated cheeks that Anello agreed to make the September 16, 1987, and October 27, 1987, shipments to the Debtor. We question the credibility of Anello on this point, as we believe it unlikely that a sophisticated businessman such as he would have such serious misconceptions about the ramifications of passing a bad check.

9. There was no testimony that First or anyone associated with the Debtor shared similar misconceptions about the severity of the consequences of the failure to make post-dated checks good.

10. First also testified that the Debtor’s Petition and Schedules, listing assets of $2,507,650 and liabilities of $3,599,839, was accurate, and reflected the Debtor’s financial picture throughout the 90-day pre-fil-ing preference period.

B. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1. All of the elements of 11 U.S.C. § 547(b) were established to be present. The transfers were for the benefit of the Defendant on account of debts which were at least to some degree antecedent. The presumption of the Debtor’s insolvency at the time of the transfers, see 11 U.S.C. § 547(f), was not overcome. The payments were made within 90 days of the bankruptcy filing. The Defendant stipulated that the element of § 547(b)(5) was present, i.e., that the Defendant received more in the payments in issue than it would have received in a Chapter 7 liquidation of the Debtor.

2. The affirmative defenses advanced by the Defendant were based solely upon 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(1) and 547(c)(4). 2

*138 3. The Defendant’s § 547(c)(4) defense cannot be sustained.

In In re New York City Shoes, Inc., 880 F.2d 679 (3d Cir.1989) (hereinafter “NYC Shoes ”), the Court of Appeals considered the validity of a § 547(c)(4) defense in the context of a transaction in which a debtor gave a post-dated check for payment. In that matter, this court had found that the defendant had treated a post-dated check like a cash payment, causing it to make subsequent deliveries of merchandise on credit to the debtor solely because it had received a post-dated check from the debtor in payment of certain prior debts. Nevertheless, in NYC Shoes, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of this court and an affirmance by the district court in favor of the defendant and held that the transfer reflected by the post-dated check could be avoided as preferential.

Central to the result of NYC Shoes was the Court’s conclusion that a payment by a post-dated check cannot not generally be considered as the equivalent of a cash payment. 880 F.2d at 683-84. Therefore, it determined that “payment” via the debtor’s post-dated check did not occur on the date of the check’s delivery, 880 F.2d at 683-84, as in the case of a contemporaneously-dated check, see In re American International Airways, Inc., 68 B.R. 326, 336 (Bankr.E.D.Pa.1986), aff' d, C.A. No. 87-1287, 1987 WL 54484 (E.D.Pa. May 12, 1987). The Court stated that “postdating checks is not business as usual,” 880 F.2d at 683, and that a post-dated check could be considered like a cash payment only if (1) the check were merely slightly post-dated, (2) the insolvency of the debtor were patent, or (3) the parties explicitly treated the transaction like a cash transaction. Id. at 684.

None of these elements are present here. The check was dated over forty-five days (45) after it was given to the Defendant in payment. It was therefore not “slightly” post-dated; the gap between its delivery and its date was greater than the check in issue in NYC Shoes.

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109 B.R. 136, 1990 Bankr. LEXIS 5, 1990 WL 1245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/samar-fashions-inc-v-matisse-international-inc-in-re-samar-fashions-paeb-1990.