06/06/2011 – Plaintiff’s Brief in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss filed in the AbitibiBowater~Inc. Adversary Proceedings by GL &V Beloit-Lenox Inc. et al before Judge Kevin J. Carey in the District of Delaware.
The Claims Agent for AbitibiBowater, Inc., et al., (the “Plaintiff”) urges Judge Kevin J. Carey to apply In re Valley Media, Inc., 288 B.R. 189, 192 (Bankr. D. Del. 2003) in light of the original complaint’s allegation regarding the relationship between the Debtors and the Defendants. If the original complaint actually had included allegations regarding this relationship, the Court might have had to address this new battle line question. In fact, the original complaint barely contains any allegation regarding the business relationship. Also, the Plaintiff already has filed an amended complaint meeting even the most stringent requirement for pleading the payment of antecedent debts. However, the response provides a fairly comprehensive summary of the authority in Delaware and in other jurisdictions supporting a lower pleading standard for bankruptcy preference complaints and for that reason the response is noteworthy.