Shoen

PER CURIAM Opinion; Dissent by Judge McKEOWN.

Edward J. Shoen, James P. Shoen, Aubrey K. Johnson, John M. Dodds, William E. Carty, and AMERCO (collectively the Edward Shoen Interests) appeal the bankruptcy court’s order which awarded post-petition interest to Samuel W. Shoen, Ka-tabasis International, Inc., Michael Shoen, Mickl, Inc., Katrina Shoen-Carlson, Katty-did, Inc., Cemar, Inc., and Cecilia M. Shoen-Hanlon (collectively the Samuel Shoen Interests). The Samuel Shoen Interests appeal the bankruptcy court’s order which determined that the post-petition interest at the Arizona judgment rate stopped running once the Edward Shoen Interests deposited the then accrued interest in an interest bearing Escrow Account under the auspices of the bankruptcy court. We affirm.

1. The post-petition interest problem arose because of a rather unusual judgment issued by the Arizona Superior Court in which the Samuel Shoen Interests were required to transfer all of their shares of AMERCO common stock to the Edward Shoen Interests once the latter paid $461,838,000 together with accrued interest at 10 percent per annum plus costs to the former. The Edward Shoen Interests promptly filed…

dissenting:

Because I find no magic in the nature of the Arizona judgment that removes it from the general rule disallowing postpetition interest on unsecured claims, I respectfully dissent.

I.

Nature of the Judgment

The majority takes a straightforward state court judgment for damages and transforms it into “a judicially prescribed sale of stock” that is impervious to the operation of federal bankruptcy law. As the majority acknowledges, this is an effort “to analytically place” the judgment into a category, even one that does not “comfortably fit.” The judgment calls for no such creativity on our part.

This is not a case, as the majority suggests, where one party has sought in bad faith to use bankruptcy proceedings in order to escape its rightful creditors and obtain a “free lunch.” The bankruptcy court expressly ruled to the contrary, finding “no evidence that the bankruptcies were filed with malice or ill-will” but rather that the debtors sought to “gain the beneficial ends intended by Congress.” In re Shoen, 193 B.R. 302, 312-13 (Bankr.D.Ariz.1996). The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) aptly described this appeal as “a $55 million mopping-up operation in a $1.5…