1 In the 2 United States Court of Appeals 3 for the Second Circuit 4 5 6 August Term, 2022 7 8 No. 21-2050-bk 9 10 IN RE: GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE BUS STATION DEVELOPMENT VENTURE LLC, 11 12 Debtor. 13 14 TUTOR PERINI BUILDING CORP., 15 16 Plaintiff-Appellant, 17 v. 18 19 NEW YORK CITY REGIONAL CENTER GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE BUS STATION 20 AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT FUND, LLC, PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK 21 AND NEW JERSEY, GSNMF SUBCDE 12 LLC, UPPER MANHATTAN EMPOWERMENT 22 ZONE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, DVCI CDE XIII, LLC, LIIF SUBCDE XXVI, 23 LLC, GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE BUS STATION DEVELOPMENT VENTURE LLC, 24 25 Defendants-Appellees, 26 27 KENNETH P. SILVERMAN, Chapter 7 Trustee of the Bankruptcy Estate of George 28 Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture LLC, 29 30 Trustee-Appellee. 31 32 1 Appeal from the United States District Court 2 for the Southern District of New York 3 No. 20-cv-7433 4 5 (Argued October 27, 2022; Decided April 10, 2023) 6 7 Before: WALKER, LEE, and ROBINSON, Circuit Judges. 8 9 Plaintiff-Appellant Tutor Perini Building Corp. appeals from an order of the 10 United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Rakoff, J.) 11 affirming an order of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District 12 of New York (Chapman, Bankr. J.), which held that Plaintiff-Appellant may not 13 use 11 U.S.C. § 365(b)(1)(A) to assert a “cure claim” against the Trustee-Appellee 14 for the Trustee-Appellee’s assumption of an unexpired lease to which Plaintiff- 15 Appellant was neither a party nor a third-party beneficiary. We hold that a 16 creditor who seeks to assert a “cure claim” under § 365(b)(1)(A) must have a 17 contractual right to payment under the assumed executory contract or unexpired 18 lease in question, and we agree that Plaintiff-Appellant is not a third-party 19 beneficiary of the assumed lease. We therefore AFFIRM. 20 JEFFREY K. GARFINKLE, Buchalter, 21 P.C., Irvine, California (Robert Nida, 22 Nida & Romyn, P.C., Los Angeles, 23 California, on the brief), for Plaintiff- 24 Appellant Tutor Perini Building Corp. 25 26 ANTHONY C. ACAMPORA, Silverman 27 Acampora LLP, Jericho, New York, 28 for Trustee-Appellee Kenneth P. 29 Silverman.

2 1 EUNICE C. LEE, Circuit Judge:

2 Generally, when a debtor declares bankruptcy, the debtor’s creditors line up

3 to be paid in the order of priority provided by the Bankruptcy Code—for example,

4 secured creditors are normally paid in full before unsecured creditors have any

5 right to payment. See 11 U.S.C. § 1129(b). Thus, if a general contractor seeks

6 unpaid fees from a bankrupt real estate developer, but his contract with the

7 developer renders him an unsecured creditor, then the general contractor only gets

8 paid to the extent that there is money left after all creditors with higher