Cite as: 526 U. S. 434 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
nate rights and interests of the stockholders are attempted to be secured at the expense of the prior rights of either class of creditors comes within judicial denunciation").
The second interpretive rule addressed the first. Its classic formulation occurred in Case v. Los Angeles Lumber Products Co., in which the Court spoke through Justice Douglas in this dictum:
"It is, of course, clear that there are circumstances under which stockholders may participate in a plan of reorganization of an insolvent debtor. . . . Where th[e] necessity [for new capital] exists and the old stockholders make a fresh contribution and receive in return a participation reasonably equivalent to their contribution, no objection can be made. . . . "[W]e believe that to accord 'the creditor his full right of priority against the corporate assets' where the debtor is insolvent, the stockholder's participation must be based on a contribution in money or in money's worth, reasonably equivalent in view of all the circumstances to the participation of the stockholder." 308 U. S., at 121-122.
Although counsel for one of the parties here has described the Case observation as " 'black-letter' principle," Brief for Respondent 38, it never rose above the technical level of dictum in any opinion of this Court, which last addressed it in Norwest Bank Worthington v. Ahlers, 485 U. S. 197 (1988), holding that a contribution of " 'labor, experience, and expertise' " by a junior interest holder was not in the " 'money's worth' " that the Case observation required. 485 U. S., at 203-205. See also Marine Harbor Properties, Inc. v. Manufacturers Trust Co., 317 U. S. 78, 85 (1942); Consolidated Rock Products Co. v. Du Bois, 312 U. S. 510, 529, n. 27 (1941). Nor, prior to the enactment of the current Bankruptcy Code,
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