Bank of America Nat. Trust and Sav. Assn. v. 203 North LaSalle Street Partnership, 526 U. S. 434 (1999)

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Cite as: 526 U. S. 434 (1999)

Opinion of the Court

ship of the debtor. Rather, he is allowed to participate in the reorganized entity 'on account of' a new, substantial, necessary and fair infusion of capital." 126 F. 3d, at 964.

In the dissent's contrary view, there is nothing ambiguous about the text: the "plain language of the absolute priority rule . . . does not include a new value exception." Id., at 970 (opinion of Kanne, J.). Since "[t]he Plan in this case gives [the Debtor's] partners the exclusive right to retain their ownership interest in the indebted property because of their status as . . . prior interest holder[s]," id., at 973, the dissent would have reversed confirmation of the plan.

We granted certiorari, 523 U. S. 1106 (1998), to resolve a Circuit split on the issue. The Seventh Circuit in this case joined the Ninth in relying on a new value corollary to the absolute priority rule to support confirmation of such plans. See In re Bonner Mall Partnership, 2 F. 3d 899, 910-916 (CA9 1993), cert. granted, 510 U. S. 1039, vacatur denied and appeal dism'd as moot, 513 U. S. 18 (1994). The Second and Fourth Circuits, by contrast, without explicitly rejecting the corollary, have disapproved plans similar to this one. See In re Coltex Loop Central Three Partners, L. P., 138 F. 3d 39, 44-45 (CA2 1998); In re Bryson Properties, XVIII, 961 F. 2d 496, 504 (CA4), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 866 (1992).15 We

do not decide whether the statute includes a new value corollary or exception, but hold that on any reading respondent's proposed plan fails to satisfy the statute, and accordingly reverse.

15 All four of these cases arose in the single-asset real estate context, the typical one in which new value plans are proposed. See 7 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 1129.04[4][c][ii][B], p. 1129-113 (rev. 15th ed. 1998). See also Strub, Competition, Bargaining, and Exclusivity under the New Value Rule: Applying the Single-Asset Paradigm of Bonner Mall, 111 Banking L. J. 228, 231 (1994) ("Most of the cases discussing the new value issue have done so in connection with an attempt by a single-asset debtor to reorganize under chapter 11").

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