December 22, 2020 – The Debtors’ claims agent notified the Court of Plan voting results [Docket No. 543], and the Debtors filed an Emergency Motion to Allow Objections to Claims for Purposes of Voting Procedures [Docket No. 542], which, if approved, would result in elimination of eight rejecting votes and acceptance of the Debtor's Plan, a reversal from the current rejected status.

At the start of what was originally supposed to be the Plan confirmation hearing and a hearing on consideration of the emergency motion on December 23rd, Judge Marvin Isgur indicated that he was not willing to rule on an emergency motion that could have such an impact on the voting results just one day after the emergency motion was filed. As a result, the Court continued both hearings to December 30, 2020 [Audio recording of hearing available at Docket No. 552].

In the emergency motion, the Debtors explain, "On November 25, 2020, the Court entered the Conditional Approval Order [Docket No. 480]. The Conditional Approval Order approved the Debtors’ Solicitation and Voting Procedures. The Solicitation and Voting Procedures control who is entitled to vote on the Debtors’ Plan. Holders of Claims that are the subject of a pending objection filed within seven (7) days of entry of the Conditional Approval Order (or by December 2, 2020) are not entitled to vote. On December 3, 2020, due to miscalendaring the December 2, 2020 deadline, the Debtors filed their Objections to the Claims.

Since December 3, 2020, the Debtors have been in contact with the attorney for the claimants that filed the Claims. By email, the attorney indicated that he is not opposed to the Debtors’ Objections but that he would not sign a stip. See Emails attached as Exhibit A. As stated in the Objections, the Claims are for unliquidated tort claims. There is no question, and it seems the claimants agree in the Emails, that the Claims should be contingent and unliquidated claims. Right now, because each states a $6,700,000 amount, they control the Debtors’ general unsecured class.

Allowing the Objections for purposes of voting will not prejudice the claimants — they have emailed that they are not opposed to the Objections — but it will prejudice other general unsecured creditors since the Claims swamp the general unsecured class. The Debtors request leave from the Conditional Approval Order to allow the Debtors’ Objection as if they were filed by the December 2, 2020 deadline."

Voting Results

The results submitted by the Debtors' claims agent [Docket No. 543] were as follows:

• Class 3 (“General Unsecured Claims”) 15 claim holders, representing $597,109.88 (1.10%) in amount and 60% in number, voted in favor of the Plan. 10 claims holders, representing $53,633.987.56 (98.90%) in amount and 40% in number, rejected the Plan.

If the Court approves the Debtors’ emergency motion, pursuant to the terms of the conditional approval order and the solicitation and voting procedures, the claims agent said the votes of each Holder of a Disputed Litigation Claim will not be counted. Here is an alternate tabulation of the votes under this scenario:

• Class 3 (“General Unsecured Claims”) 15 claim holders, representing $597,109.88 (94.61%) in amount and 88.24% in number, will have voted in favor of the Plan. 2 claims holders, representing $33,995.56 (5.39%) in amount and 11.76% in number, will have rejected the Plan.

About the Debtors

According to the Debtors: “Benevis is a comprehensive dental practice support services company focused on improving access to dentistry by providing the highest quality non-clinical practice support services to some of the nation’s leading dental practices.

The Company affiliates with top dentists throughout the country by providing support services that help dentists better manage and grow their practices and allow dentists to focus on providing high-quality care to their patients.”

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