In re Seatrade Corporation

• Decision Date: 17 May 1965
• Docket Number: No. 441,Docket 29506.,441
• Parties: In the Matter of SEATRADE CORPORATION et al., Debtors. TURNER & BLANCHARD, INC., Petitioner-Appellant, v. Theodore W. KHEEL and Raymond J. Skully, Trustees, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

345 F.2d 785 (1965)

In the Matter of SEATRADE CORPORATION et al., Debtors.

TURNER & BLANCHARD, INC., Petitioner-Appellant, v. Theodore W. KHEEL and Raymond J. Skully, Trustees, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 441, Docket 29506.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 21, 1965.

Decided May 17, 1965.

Julius L. Goldstein, New York City, for petitioner-appellant.

Carolinda Waters, of Webster, Sheffield, Fleischmann, Hitchcock & Chrystie, New York City, for respondents-appellees.

Before KAUFMAN, HAYS and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Turner & Blanchard, Inc. ("T&B"), appeals from a District Court order affirming the denial, by a Referee in Bankruptcy, of its claim against the trustees of A. H. Bull Steamship Co., Inc. ("Debtor"), for $58,935.38. The sum, sought as an expense of administration, 11 U.S.C. § 104, sub. a(1), represents the reasonable rental value of certain pier space used to store Debtor's property during the one-year period following its bankruptcy. In March 1962, T&B, a stevedoring contractor, became the sublessee of a portion of the Bull Line Terminal, Pier 21, in Brooklyn, N. Y. — owned by one subsidiary of Debtor and leased to another subsidiary. Simultaneously, T&B became the exclusive stevedoring contractors for Debtor's enterprises, giving birth to a cooperative venture in connection with the use of the Terminal. Thus, when T&B took possession, part of the pier contained some of Debtor's equipment used in the berthing, loading, and discharging of vessels, and that space continued to be used during the period of this dispute to store this property.

Although the joint enterprise terminated when Debtor ceased operations in December 1962 and, on March 19, 1963, filed a petition under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act, the stevedore neither notified Debtor's trustees that they would be liable for the rental value of the pier space used for the storage nor billed them for the use of the space until October 1963. The trustees refused to satisfy this bill, contending that Debtor and its subsidiaries never agreed to pay the stevedores rent for the area occupied by their equipment; they interposed the same defense when T&B unsuccessfully sought relief from the Referee. With full support in the record, the Referee found no landlord-tenant relationship between T&B and Debtor; furthermore, he found that no damages had been suffered by T&B because there was no evidence that it intended to put the space to any profitable use and the stored property at no time impeded its...