Court Opinion

ID: 9481581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:24:35.298528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:26.188347
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree with most of what Judge Scirica says in the opinion of the court. However, I am not as certain as Judge Scirica that the language of the statute is “plain.” We do not read statutes in a vacuum. The critical statutory sentence that we must construe1 is grammatically awkward, is fairly opaque, and is freighted with references to instruments (PMESIs and conditional sales) generally considered to be limited to acquisition financing. Moreover, notwithstanding that non-acquisition sale-leaseback arrangements are technically “leases,” there is no denying that the word *295commonly connotes an acquisition device. In other words, although I concede that the language of the statute certainly is susceptible to the meaning that Judge Scirica attributes to it — and probably even means what he says it does — I am left with serious doubts.
On the other hand, when I go to the legislative history, which Continental touts as its forte in this case, and even when I acknowledge the frequent references to new acquisition in § 1110’s predecessor statutes, I nonetheless find Continental’s position underwhelming. That is because, as is referenced by Judge Scirica, the legislative history contains countervailing evidence: (1) that the sale-leaseback device had long been used for non-acquisition financing; 2 and (2) that Congress had long been concerned with the general cost of capital in various transportation industries and was not just focusing on acquisition financing. In other words, the legislative history seems to me to be a stand-off.
What is determinative for me is the fact, noted above, that Congress well knew the non-acquisition potential for sale-leaseback financing yet did not do what would have been so simple, i.e., to add the two little words “newly acquired” to the statute to avoid any question. Given this equivocal legislative history, it is my view that since the statute could very well mean what the lessors say it means,3 the factors noted above — the failure of Congress clearly to impose the acquisition limitation which Continental reads into the statute coupled with the fact that Congress had to know that it might be creating an ambiguity by leaving the limitation out — are fatal to Continental’s position. I therefore concur in the judgment of the court.

. The relevant sentence states:
(a) The right of a secured party with a purchase-money equipment security interest in, or of a lessor or conditional vendor of, whether as trustee or otherwise, aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, appliances, or spare parts ... that are subject to a purchase-money equipment security interest granted by, leased to, or conditionally sold to, a debtor that is an air carrier ..., to take possession of such equipment in compliance with the provisions of a purchase-money equipment security agreement, lease, or conditional sale contract, as the case may be, is not [unless otherwise provided] affected by section 362 or 363 of this title or by any power of the court to enjoin such taking of possession....
II U.S.C. § 1110 (1988).

. Amici also make a forceful argument in this regard that even conditional sales have been used for more than a century as a means of non-acquisition financing and that Congress was aware of this practice.

. Thus, this might be styled as a case of "somewhat plain meaning.”