Court Opinion

ID: 9653060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:38:01.716858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:56.185058
License: Public Domain

FOSTER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The majority opinion apparently is based on the conclusion that, because the bankrupt was not doing a profitable business, it had ceased to be a going concern, and its plant and the stock of lumber on hand had no immediate market value, and therefore neither was to be considered an asset available for payment of its debts. I do not agree with this conclusion. The total liabilities as shown by the record amounted to $537,462.80. The value of the lumber at the lowest estimate shown, $20 per thousand feet, was $266,666.-66. The value of the plant and equipment, estimated on the basis of replacement cost, less depreciation, the method -almost universally adopted by the courts in estimating fair value in rate eases, was $519,652.24. A fair value given the mill site was $39,904.97. There was also cash on hand to the amount of $11,674.68. There were other assets listed amounting to over $100,000’. Leaving this last figure out of consideration entirely, and liberally discounting the estimate of the value of the lumber, mill sites, plant, and equipment, the bankrupt was solvent at the time the payment was made to appellee. The record also supports the conclusion that, in making the payment to appellee, the intention was to bring in new capital and to 'secure an extension of the bonded indebtedness, rather than to favor an insistent creditor. My conclusion is that the bankrupt was solvent at the time the payment attacked as a preference was made and the judgment of the District Court was right.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.