15 B 35358, 17 A 00390
The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Committee”) of LB Steel, LLC (the “Debtor”) filed an adversary complaint against Steelcast Limited (“Steelcast”) under 11 U.S.C. §§ 547(b), 550(a), and 502(d), seeking avoidance and recovery of $252,393 in payments made by the Debtor to Steelcast in the ninety days leading up to the bankruptcy filing (the “preference period”), as well as disallowance of any claims that Steelcast may file against the Debtor unless or until those payments are returned to the Debtor’s estate. A three-day trial was held in December 2020, at which the only issue in dispute was the Debtor’s solvency during the preference period. Based on the documentary and testimonial evidence presented at the trial, the Court concluded that the Debtor was insolvent at the time the relevant payments were made. As such, the Court held that the Committee could avoid and recover the payments made by the Debtor to Steelcast during the preference period. The Court also found that the Committee’s disallowance claim was moot, because Steelcast did not file any claims—either pre- or post-petition—in the Debtor’s bankruptcy case, and the claims bar date for filing non-governmental claims had long passed.