Callahan v. Petro Stopping Center 72 (In re Lambert Oil Co.)

OPINION

JONES, Chief Judge.

In these consolidated bankruptcy appeals, a bankruptcy trustee seeks to avoid as preferential certain prepetition transfers by the debtor. The primary issues on appeal are (1) whether the portions of the transfers ultimately destined to pay the Virginia fuel tax and petroleum storage tank fund fee meet the antecedent debt requirement of the Bankruptcy Code and (2) whether the transfers in general are excepted from avoidance as (a) contemporaneous exchanges for new value or (b) debts incurred in the ordinary course of business.

*175I first hold that the bankruptcy court’s…