Case Name: In the Matter of CONTINENTAL VENDING MACHINE CORP. and Continental Apco, Inc., Debtors. JAMES TALCOTT, INC., Appellant, v. Irving L. WHARTON, Trustee, Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1975-06-05
Citations: 517 F.2d 997
Docket Number: No. 542, Docket 74-2233
Parties: In the Matter of CONTINENTAL VENDING MACHINE CORP. and Continental Apco, Inc., Debtors. JAMES TALCOTT, INC., Appellant, v. Irving L. WHARTON, Trustee, Appellee.
Judges: Before ANDERSON, MANSFIELD and OAKES, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 517
Pages: 997–1006

Head Matter:
In the Matter of CONTINENTAL VENDING MACHINE CORP. and Continental Apco, Inc., Debtors. JAMES TALCOTT, INC., Appellant, v. Irving L. WHARTON, Trustee, Appellee.
No. 542, Docket 74-2233.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued April 1, 1975.
Decided June 5, 1975.
J. Jacob Hahn, Hahn, Hessen, Margolis & Ryan, New York City (Julius J. Abe-son, New York City, of counsel), for appellant.
Charles Seligson, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York City (Joseph J. Marcheso, Gen. Counsel for Continental Vending Machine Corp., New York City, of counsel), for appellee.
Amicus brief filed by the SEC, David Ferber, Sol., SEC (Marvin E. Jacob, As sociate Regional Administrator, New York Regional Office, SEC).
Before ANDERSON, MANSFIELD and OAKES, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
OAKES, Circuit Judge:
This appeal is by a secured creditor, James Talcott, Inc. (Talcott), in a Chapter X bankruptcy proceeding, 11 U.S.C. § 501 et seq., involving a parent corporation, Continental Vending Machine Corp. (Continental), and its subsidiary, Continental Apeo, Inc. (Apeo). Talcott objects to an approved amended plan of reorganization for the two corporations because, while the plan calls for consolidation of the proceedings and treats the properties of the two debtors on the basis of a merger or consolidation of the two corporate entities, it provides that no secured creditor's claim shall be elevated or improved as a result of the consolidation. We are in short asked to determine whether it is "fair and equitable" under § 221 of the Bankruptcy Act (Act), 11 U.S.C. § 621, to disregard corporate lines and to consolidate or pool assets and liabilities for purposes of dealing with unsecured claims but not to do so for purposes of dealing with secured claims. We agree with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Jacob Mishler, Chief Judge, that the amended plan is "fair and equitable" since the absolute priority of Talcott to the specific assets pledged to it in connection with loans made to both the parent and subsidiary corporations has been preserved and that the Act does not require consolidation to be complete for all purposes. Accordingly, we affirm Judge Mishler's order approving the trustee's amended plan.
Continental is a publicly owned Indiana corporation which at one time had a number of subsidiaries but for present purposes had only one of note, Apeo, which it wholly owned. Apeo was principally the sales arm for and Continental was the manufacturer of vending machines. Talcott financed each corporation, receiving mortgages of machines and other security devices from Continental covering its indebtedness, and assignments of accounts receivable and assorted other liens from Apeo covering its indebtedness. The security agreements with each contained no cross-collateralization agreement, i. e., no provision allowing Talcott to set off the obligations of one corporation against the collateral which it held to secure the debts of the related corporation, nor was there any guaranty by either Apeo or Continental of the other's indebtedness. While the exact amounts are not yet ascertained, it appears that the liquidation of Talcott's security in Apeo will leave at least a $380,000 surplus while the sale of the Continental security will result in a $820,000 deficit. Talcott, needless to say, would like to see its Apeo lien apply to secure the Continental deficit. We point out that there is no evidence in the record that there were any intercompany transfers to the detriment of secured creditors, of which Talcott is now the only one remaining.
Appellant makes essentially two major points and a minor one. The first major one is that since improvement of some creditors' position is inherent in a consolidation it would be unfair and inequitable to permit the unsecured creditors to improve their position but to deny the secured creditor such improvement. The second major point is that the broad language of each of the security agreements giving Talcott a lien for "any and all obligations no matter how or when arising and whether under this or any agreement or otherwise . applied to permit the Apeo lien to cover the Continental deficit. The minor point, which was raised "with reservations," was that the plan was accepted by creditors holding 71.8 per cent of the total amount of claims filed and allowed. Appellant maintains that the amount required under § 179 of the Act, 11 U.S.C. § 579, is 75 per cent; that section, however, requires acceptance by creditors "holding two-thirds in amount" of the claims filed and allowed as to each class, so that we fail to see any merit whatsoever to this argument. We take up the major points in reverse order.
Talcott had no lien on the Apeo surplus for the Continental deficiency under any of its security agreements. The language of the Apeo agreement, while broad, did not go so far as to cover the debts of Continental. There is nothing to indicate that the debt of Continental was the debt of Apeo. It may be true that if the parties agree, the validity of a lien does not depend upon the existence of a contemporaneous debt. In re Cichanowicz, 226 F.Supp. 288 (E.D.N.Y.1964) (secured notes paid down to zero, subsequent advances held covered by original security). But this does not mean that the Apeo lien would somehow remain attached to Apeo surplus after application of the Apeo collateral to satisfy its debt to Talcott. On the contrary, once that Talcott debt was satisfied, no further lien on Apeo property could exist, because the obligation of Apeo was paid in full. As was stated in United States v. Phillips, 267 F.2d 374, 377 (5th Cir. 1959), "In the absence of an obligation to be secured there can be no lien."
We turn then to the question, one really of first impression, whether differentiation of secured from unsecured creditors in a consolidation upon reorganization is proper under the Act. The power to consolidate is one arising out of equity, enabling a bankruptcy court to disregard separate corporate entities, to pierce their corporate veils in the usual metaphor, in order to reach assets for the satisfaction of debts of a related corporation. Soviero v. Franklin National Bank of Long Island, 328 F.2d 446 (2d Cir. 1964); In re Cintra Realty Corp., 413 F.2d 302 (2d Cir. 1969); Stone v. Eacho (In re Tip Top Tailors, Inc.), 127 F.2d 284, 288-89 (4th Cir.), rehearing denied, 128 F.2d 16, cert. denied, 317 U.S. 635, 63 S.Ct. 54, 87 L.Ed. 512 (1942); Hillebrand v. Sav-Co, 353 F.Supp. 19, 21 (E.D.Ill.1972). While it does not require that the creditors knowingly deal with the corporations as a unit, Chemical Bank New York Trust Co. v. Kheel, 369 F.2d 845, 847 (2d Cir. 1966), it should nevertheless be "used sparingly" because of the possibility of unfair treatment of creditors who have dealt solely with the corporation having a surplus as opposed to those who have dealt with the related entities with deficiencies. Id.
Appellant argues that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander; it would, however, swallow the sauce by improving its status from that of a now unsecured creditor of Continental to that of a secured creditor of Apeo. It cites Chemical Bank, supra, as requiring this improvement or elevation, since there the consolidation that was ordered benefited the United States as a tax lienor. But Chemical Bank did not deal with consensual liens as here; it dealt with the statutory priority. Nothing in Chemical Bank suggests that the priority of the United States rested on a lien which attached to the consolidated assets; rather, combining the assets of the related companies simply made more money available for the estate, as to which, to be sure, there was a substantial priority claim. In Chemical Bank there was, moreover, every reason to believe that the Government as an unsecured creditor had, along with other unsecured creditors, suffered loss because of the indiscriminate shifting of assets between corporations. Here, as a secured creditor in both parent and subsidiary, Talcott's liens were in no way diminished or lien property transferred by virtue of intercorporate dealings. In the end, Talcott will obtain under the amended plan exactly what it bargained for with each in terms of security.
We have made it very plain that because consolidation in bankruptcy is "a measure vitally affecting substantive rights," the inequities it involves must be heavily outweighed by practical considerations such as the accounting difficulties (and expense) which may occur where the interrelationships of the corporate group are highly complex, or perhaps untraceable. See In re Flora Mir Candy Corp., 432 F.2d 1060, 1062-63 (2d Cir. 1970). Thus, there is nothing to say for the proposition that in the exercise of the bankruptcy court's equity powers, Local Loan Co. v. Hunt, 292 U.S. 234, 240, 54 S.Ct. 695, 78 L.Ed. 1230 (1934), it cannot treat unsecured claims as consolidated and secured claims as not. See In re Pittsburgh Railways Co., 155 F.2d 477, 484 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 329 U.S. 731, 67 S.Ct. 89, 91 L.Ed. 632 (1946). Nor is there anything in the Act itself requiring the symmetry on which appellant insists. As we have pointed out, note 2 supra, as a secured creditor of Apeo, Talcott is not "affected" by the amended plan within the meaning of § 107 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C. § 507, because its interests are not materially or adversely affected by the plan. In the allowance or disallowance of claims, the court has the equitable power under § 2(a)(2) of the Act, 11 U.S.C. § 11(a)(2), to make certain that injustice or unfairness does not occur. Pepper v. Litton, 308 U.S. 295, 308, 60 S.Ct. 238, 84 L.Ed. 281 (1939). Again, "The power of the bankruptcy court to subordinate claims or to adjudicate equities arising out of the relationship between the several creditors is complete." Sampsell v. Imperial Paper & Color Corp., 313 U.S. 215, 219, 61 S.Ct. 904, 907, 85 L.Ed. 1293 (1941). See also Vanston B ndholders Protective Committee v. Green, 329 U.S. 156, 67 S.Ct. 237, 91 L.Ed. 162 (1946) (disallowing interest on interest as inequitable).
Finally it is suggested that the "absolute priority" rule, Case v. Los Angeles Lumber Products Co., 308 U.S. 106, 60 S.Ct. 1, 84 L.Ed. 110 (1939), requires that Talcott, as a secured creditor of Continental, also be treated as a secured creditor of Apeo to the extent of the Apeo surplus. We recognize that that rule makes a reorganization plan fair and equitable if and only if it provides participation for claims and interests in complete recognition of their strict priorities. 6A Collier, Bankruptcy If 11.06 at 613 (14th ed. 1970). But, as we have said, Taleott is obtaining under the amended plan exactly what it bargained for: secured creditor status to the extent that its collateral was adequate. As to the balance of its claim it participates as an unsecured creditor with all the rights of such to the consolidated assets, i. e.*, it is entitled to go against the Apeo surplus as an unsecured creditor of Continental, along with all other unsecured group creditors. The absolute priority rule, as we see it, has therefore been followed.
Judgment affirmed.
. As a statutory party, 11 U.S.C. § 572-73, 608, the Securities and Exchange Commission participated in the action below and supports the judgment.
. Appellant also argues that the "cram down" provisions of § 216(7) of the Act, 11 U.S.C. § 616(7), are applicable to the present case. This section of the Act sets out a procedure to be followed to effectuate the conformation of a reorganization plan even if the plan is not accepted by a class of creditors.
A plan of reorganization under this chapter—
(7) shall provide for any class of creditors which is affected by and does not accept the plan by the two-thirds majority in amount required under this chapter, adequate protection for the realization by them of the value of their claims against the property dealt with by the plan and affected by such claims, either as provided in the plan or in the order confirming the plan, (a) by the transfer or sale, or by the retention by the debtor, of such property subject to such claims; or (b) by a sale of such property free of such claims, at not less than a fair upset price, and the transfer of such claims to the proceeds of such sale; or (c) by appraisal and payment in cash of the value of such claims; or (d) by such method as will, under and consistent with the circumstances of the particular case, equitably and fairly provide such protection .
In the present case, however, this provision is inapplicable. As a secured creditor, Talcott is not "affected" by the amended plan within the meaning of the Act since its interests are not materially and adversely affected by the plan. As an unsecured creditor of Continental, Talcott is affected by the plan, but two-thirds of the class of unsecured creditors have accepted the plan and thus § 616(7) does not apply.
. There is no question that there is such differentiation under the amended plan. Article I thereof defines claims to include all claims against both Continental and Apeo "which, except for the Claims of Secured Creditors, are treated herein on a consolidated basis." Article II provides that their properties will be dealt with "on the basis of a merger or consolidation thereof, without prejudice to the rights of Secured Creditors with respect to specific collateral securing indebtedness." Article IV, after providing that to the extent a secured creditor's claims are not satisfied by the sale of specific lien property the creditor is treated as an unsecured creditor, expressly precludes "elevation or improvement of the status" of a secured creditor's claim "as a result of the consolidation of the Debtor's Estates."