ABI-Live: A Case Study on Hot Topics in Preference Litigation
Hosted by ABI's Unsecured Trade Creditors Committee
This mock mediation, based on the Southern District of New York’s (SDNY's) recent preference decision in The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. bankruptcy cases involving McKesson Corp., will demonstrate how plaintiff, defendant and mediator analyze risk and preference exposure when trying to reach a mediated settlement. The SDNY’s decision followed two summary-judgment motions filed by McKesson, but this webinar will assume that this is a pre-summary-judgment mediation. The panelists will discuss the three issues decided by the court: (1) whether McKesson could include paid new value as part of its new value defense (i.e., whether the subsequent advance vs. remains-unpaid approach is appropriate); (2) whether McKesson could set off its § 503(b)(9) claim (i.e., its 20-day claim) against preference liability (i.e., mutuality as to when a § 503(b)(9) claim and preference claim arise); and (3) whether the amounts in McKesson’s § 502(h) claim, which paid invoices for 20-day § 503(b)(9) goods, should be a general unsecured claim that recovers $0, or a higher priority § 503(b)(9) claim, which could theoretically recover 100% if a plan was confirmed, but would recover much less here, as the cases were administratively insolvent and structurally dismissed. A fourth issue that the SDNY implicitly addressed was whether there is improper double-dipping where there is an allowed § 503(b)(9) claim (either paid or reserved for) that a claimant seeks to also include as part of its new value calculations (i.e., Auriga Polymers and, analogously, Friedmans).