Sportservice Corp. v. Northern Illinois Development Corp.

324 F.2d 104
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 17, 1963
DocketNos. 14292, 14293, 14316, 14317
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 324 F.2d 104 (Sportservice Corp. v. Northern Illinois Development Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sportservice Corp. v. Northern Illinois Development Corp., 324 F.2d 104 (7th Cir. 1963).

Opinion

CASTLE, Circuit Judge.

These appeals1 are prosecuted by the respective appellants from an order of the District Court which denied their petitions for review and affirmed, in all respects, orders of the Referee in Bankruptcy which denied objections filed to a Second Amended Plan of Arrangement submitted by Northern Illinois Development Corporation,2 debtor-appellee, and confirmed said arrangement.

Appellants’ claims of error upon which they predicate their request for reversal and for remand with directions to adjudicate the debtor a bankrupt and to liquidate its assets in a straight bankruptcy proceeding are reflected in their respective contentions which are summarized as follows:

In Appeal No. 14316 appellants Orville P. Fox and St. Charles National Bank, as Trustee under Trust No. 85, secured creditors, assail the arrangement on the ground that it exceeds the permissible scope of a Ch. XI arrangement and affects their rights as secured creditors in not providing for payment of interest accruing subsequent to November 14, 1961, on the secured indebtedness pursuant to the terms of the purchase contract creating the indebtedness.

In Appeal No. 14292 appellant Sportserviee Corporation, an unsecured creditor, contends (1) the arrangement is not authorized under Ch. XI of the Bankruptcy Act because it provides for the sale of all of the assets of NIDC3 and effects a liquidation of the corporation; (2) the value of the assets exceeds the $1,200,000.00 for which they are authorized to be sold at a private sale; and (3) the findings that the arrangement is feasible and workable, in the best interests of creditors, and proposed in good faith, are not supported by the record.

In Appeal No. 14317 appellant Charles P. McFarland, both an unsecured creditor and a shareholder of NIDC, makes contentions substantially the same as those advanced by Sportserviee and in addition [106]*106urges that the contemplated sale of assets violates a provision of Illinois law (Ill.Rev.Stat.1961, Ch. 32, § 157.72) under which a favorable vote of at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares entitled to vote is necessary.

In Appeal No. 14293 appellant J. C. Granata, a shareholder of NIDC, makes contentions similar to those advanced by Sportservice and McFarland.

The properties which are the subject of NIDC’s purchase agreement with Fox and the Bank are described in our opinion in In re Northern Illinois Development Corporation, 7 Cir., 309 F.2d 882, cert. den. April 15, 1963, Fox v. Northern Ill. Development, 372 U.S. 965, 83 S.Ct. 1090, 10 L.Ed.2d 129. Subsequent to our opinion in that appeal the contract there involved for the sale of these assets of NIDC, which contract had been approved subject to confirmation of the then proposed plan of arrangement, terminated under its time limitation provision without the sale having been effected. Titus Haifa, the prospective purchaser, then made an offer proposing a purchase price of $1,150,000.00 and increased his earnest money deposit to $150,000.00. On April 30, 1963, Haifa and NIDC entered into an amended agreement providing for a purchase price of $1,200,000.00. On May 9, 1963, the referee entered an order approving this contract for sale subject to confirmation of an amended plan of arrangement to be presented by NIDC. The arrangement submitted was accepted by a majority in number and in amount of all unsecured creditors.

We will not repeat here the additional factual background which is set forth in our previous opinion (309 F.2d 882) but inasmuch as the instant appeals are being considered on a short record we do accede to appellants’ requests that we take judicial notice of the record in the previous appeal in our consideration of the issues now presented.

From our review of the record we are convinced that the factual findings of the referee, left undisturbed .by the District Court, have substantial support in the record. And unless such findings are clearly erroneous we have no right to reject them. In re Rafdo Enterprises, Inc., 7 Cir., 297 F.2d 505, 507. Furthermore, we perceive no error of law in the District Court’s affirmance of the referee’s rejection of the objections urged and his confirmation of the arrangement.

The contention of appellants Fox and the Bank that the arrangement deprives them of interest due and payable subsequent to November 14, 1961, under the provisions of NIDC’s purchase agreement is without merit. The arrangement merely accepts and recognizes their secured claim in the status in which it finds it. It was the order of November 14, 1961, the District Court’s affirmance of which was sustained on the prior appeal (309 F.2d 882), which declared Fox’s attempted forfeiture unavailing, the NIDC purchase contract to be in full force and effect, and limited the payment of interest to November 14, 1961. The appellants made no contentions in their previous appeal with respect to the interest issue they now seek to raise. The record discloses nothing which has occurred since the affirmance of the November 14, 1961 order which would now afford a basis for modification of that order’s provision precluding the payment of interest beyond its date — and that order is not subject to relitigation in the instant appeal. The Second Amended Plan of Arrangement does not purport to alter appellants’ rights as secured creditors. It gives full recognition to the adjudicated status of their secured claim.

In support of their contention that the arrangement is not one authorized in a Ch. XI proceeding for the reason that the contemplated sale of assets and plan effect a liquidation of the corporation without compliance with the cited Illinois statutory provision, and affects their rights as shareholders, appellants McFarland and Granata rely on In re May Oil Burner Corporation, D.C.D. Md., 38 F.Supp. 516. But in that case there was an affirmative finding that the assets of the debtor-corporation exceeded its liabilities, and under the plan pro[107]*107posed the debtor was to become a holding company owning but 26 % of the stock of a new corporation to which its assets would be transferred with the consequent dilution of the shareholder’s right of control over corporate action, indirect loss of the shareholder’s pre-emptive right to maintain his proportional interest as a stockholder, and loss of a right to share in management by loss of the right to vote in the first instance for directors in the new corporation. These factors serve to distinguish the case and to make it inapposite here.

The plan of arrangement here under consideration provides for no adjustment or alteration of shareholders’ interests. Moreover, as we had occasion to observe in the previous appeal (309 F.2d 882

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324 F.2d 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sportservice-corp-v-northern-illinois-development-corp-ca7-1963.