CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT

No. 02-1016. Argued December 2, 2003--Decided May 17, 2004

Under the so-called "cram down option" permitted by the Bankruptcy Code, a Chapter 13 debtor's proposed debt adjustment plan must provide each allowed, secured creditor both a lien securing the claim and a promise of future property disbursements whose total value, as of the plan's date, "is not less than the [claim's] allowed amount," 11 U. S. C. §1325(a)(5)(B)(ii). When such plans provide for installment payments, each installment must be calibrated to ensure that the creditor receives disbursements whose total present value equals or exceeds that of the allowed claim. Respondent's retail installment contract on petitioners' truck had a secured value of $4,000 at the time petitioners filed a Chapter 13 petition. Petitioners' proposed debt adjustment plan provided the amount that would be distributed to creditors each month and that petitioners would pay an annual 9.5% interest rate on respondent's secured claim. This "prime-plus" or "formula rate" was reached by augmenting the national prime rate of 8% to account for the nonpayment risk posed by borrowers in petitioners' financial position. In confirming the plan, the Bankruptcy Court overruled respondent's objection that it was entitled to its contract interest rate of 21%. The District Court reversed, ruling that the 21% "coerced loan rate" was appropriate because cram down rates must be set at the level the creditor could have obtained had it foreclosed on the loan, sold the collateral, and reinvested the proceeds in equivalent loans. The Seventh Circuit modified that approach, holding that the original contract rate was a "presumptive rate" that could be challenged with evidence that a higher or lower rate should apply, and remanding the case to the Bankruptcy Court to afford the parties an opportunity to rebut the presumptive 21% rate. The dissent proposed a "cost of funds rate" that would simply ask what it would cost the creditor to obtain the cash equivalent of the collateral from another source.

Held: The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded.

Full Text of Opinion