Orchard Pecan Co. v. Albany Pecan Sales Co., Inc., A90A0165

• Decision Date: 25 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. A90A0165,A90A0165
• Citation: 395 S.E.2d 374,196 Ga.App. 120
• Parties: ORCHARD PECAN COMPANY v. ALBANY PECAN SALES COMPANY, INC. et al.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 374

395 S.E.2d 374

196 Ga.App. 120

ORCHARD PECAN COMPANY v. ALBANY PECAN SALES COMPANY, INC. et al.

No. A90A0165.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

June 25, 1990.

Burt & Burt, Hilliard P. Burt, Albany, for appellant.

H. Arnold Hammack, Albany, for appellees.

BANKE, Presiding Judge.

The four appellees herein filed separate suits against the appellant corporation for breach of a plan of reorganization which it had filed under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The appellant responded by counterclaiming for damages for abusive litigation. The actions were consolidated for trial without a jury; and after hearing evidence, the trial judge entered judgment in favor of each appellee for the amount claimed, plus interest and court costs. This appeal followed.

The appellees were unsecured creditors of the appellant at the time the bankruptcy proceeding was initiated. Under the appellant's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, which was approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court on July 28, 1983, the claims of such creditors were to be paid "one hundred cents on the dollar in six annual payments, to begin in the year following the date of affirmation [of the plan]." However, in order to allow the appellant "flexibility" in satisfying its obligations to its creditors, the amount of these annual repayments was not specified.

The appellant made payments to the appellees each year for the first three years following the confirmation of the plan but made no subsequent payments, thus prompting the appellees to file the present actions in May of 1988 to recover the balance owing on the debts. An evidentiary hearing was held in the case in December of 1988, following which the court apparently took the matter under advisement. Each appellee filed a "motion for judgment" on July 21, 1989; and on August 1, 1989, the trial court responded by entering the judgments from which the present appeal is taken. Held:

1. The appellant contends that it had no liability to the appellees at the time they filed the present actions because the six-year period afforded it by the bankruptcy plan to pay their claims had not yet expired at that time. However, the appellant's obligation to the appellees under the plan clearly had matured by the time the court entered its judgments; and at the hearing on the appellees' motions for entry of judgment, the appellant's counsel affirmatively represented to the trial court that the passage of time had rendered the maturity...