Cite as: 526 U. S. 434 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
plan on a consensual basis. See § 1129(a)(8).12 The Debtor, however, took the alternate route to confirmation of a reorganization plan, forthrightly known as the judicial "cram-down" process for imposing a plan on a dissenting class. § 1129(b). See generally Klee, All You Ever Wanted to Know About Cram Down Under the New Bankruptcy Code, 53 Am. Bankr. L. J. 133 (1979).
There are two conditions for a cramdown. First, all requirements of § 1129(a) must be met (save for the plan's acceptance by each impaired class of claims or interests, see § 1129(a)(8)). Critical among them are the conditions that the plan be accepted by at least one class of impaired creditors, see § 1129(a)(10), and satisfy the "best-interest-of-creditors" test, see § 1129(a)(7).13 Here, the class of trade creditors with impaired unsecured claims voted for the plan,14 126 F. 3d, at 959, and there was no issue of best interest. Second, the objection of an impaired creditor class may be overridden only if "the plan does not discriminate unfairly, and is fair and equitable, with respect to each class of claims or interests that is impaired under, and has not accepted, the plan." § 1129(b)(1). As to a dissenting class of impaired unsecured creditors, such a plan may be found to be "fair and equitable" only if the allowed value of the claim is to be paid in full, § 1129(b)(2)(B)(i), or, in the alternative,
12 A class of creditors accepts if a majority of the creditors and those holding two-thirds of the total dollar amount of the claims within that class vote to approve the plan. § 1126(c).
13 Section 1129(a)(7) provides that if the holder of a claim impaired under a plan of reorganization has not accepted the plan, then such holder must "receive . . . on account of such claim . . . property of a value, as of the effective date of the plan, that is not less than the amount that such holder would so receive . . . if the debtor were liquidated under chapter 7 . . . on such date." The "best interests" test applies to individual creditors holding impaired claims, even if the class as a whole votes to accept the plan.
14 Claims are unimpaired if they retain all of their prepetition legal, equitable, and contractual rights against the debtor. § 1124.
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