Opinion ID: 743551
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Voting.

Text: 20 Figter's fallback position is that even if Teachers did act in good faith, it must be limited to one vote for its twenty-one claims. That assertion is answered by the language of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that: 21 A class of claims has accepted a plan if such plan has been accepted by creditors ... that hold at least two-thirds in amount and more than one-half in number of the allowed claims of such class held by creditors ... that have accepted or rejected such plan. 22 11 U.S.C. § 1126(c) (emphasis added). That language was interpreted in Gilbert, 104 B.R. at 211, where the court reasoned: 23 The formula contained in Section 1126(c) speaks in terms of the number of claims, not the number of creditors, that actually vote for or against the plan.... Each claim arose out of a separate transaction, evidencing separate obligations for which separate proofs of claim were filed. Votes of acceptance ... are to be computed only on the basis of filed and allowed proofs of claim.... [The creditor] is entitled to one vote for each of his unsecured Class X claims. 24 That same view was iterated in Concord Square Apartments of Wood Cty, Ltd. v. Ottawa Properties, Inc. (In re Concord Square Apartments of Wood Cty., Ltd.), 174 B.R. 71, 74 (Bankr.S.D.Ohio 1994), where the court held that a creditor with multiple claims, has a voting right for each claim it holds. We agree. It would not make much sense to require a vote by creditors who held more than one-half in number of the allowed claims while at the same time limiting a creditor who held two or more of those claims to only one vote. If allowed claims are to be counted, they must be counted regardless of whose hands they happen to be in. 25 Figter seeks some succor from the Supreme Court's indication in Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 419-20, 112 S.Ct. 773, 779, 116 L.Ed.2d 903 (1992), that ambiguous language in the Code should not be taken to effect a sea change in pre-Code practice. However, that does not help Figter's cause. In the first place, as we have indicated, the present language is not ambiguous. In the second place, the old law to which Figter refers relied upon a code section which required voting approval by a majority in number of all creditors whose claims have been allowed. Bankruptcy Act of 1898, ch. 541, § 12, 30 Stat. 544, 549-50 (repealed 1938); see In re Messengill, 113 F. 366 (E.D.N.C.1902). It is pellucid that a majority in number of all creditors is not at all like more than one-half in number of all claims. The former focuses on claimants; the latter on claims. 26 Nor is our conclusion affected by cases where other sections of the bankruptcy code, or other acts by creditors, were involved. For example, the predecessor to 11 U.S.C. § 702 indicated that a creditor could vote for the trustee. In In re Latham Lithographic Corp., 107 F.2d 749 (2d Cir.1939), there was an attempt to split a single claim into multiple claims for the purpose of creating multiple creditors who could vote in a trustee election. It is not surprising that the court did not permit that. See id. at 751. And in In re Gilbert, 115 B.R. 458, 461 (Bankr.S.D.N.Y.1990), the court held that an involuntary petition in bankruptcy must be filed by three creditors, and a single creditor with three separate claims is still one creditor. See also In re Averil, 33 B.R. 562, 563 (Bankr.S.D.Fla.1983). In fact, the involuntary petition section actually requires that there be three or more entities. See 11 U.S.C. § 303(b). Certainly, a creditor with three claims is still a single entity. 27 Of course, that is not to say that a creditor can get away with splitting one claim into many, but that is not what happened here. Teachers purchased a number of separately incurred and separately approved claims (each of which carried one vote) from different creditors. There simply is no reason to hold that those separate votes suddenly became one vote, a result which would be exactly the opposite of claim splitting. 28 Therefore, the bankruptcy court did not err.