In re: Grede Foundries, Inc.

Bankruptcy Ct. did not err in granting debtor's motion to enforce automatic stay and to hold creditor-utility company in contempt for attempting (while stay was in force) to collect on $1.3 million in unpaid utility bills by sending delinquency notices and reporting delinquencies to City as part of first steps to obtain lien on debtor's property. Automatic stay provisions generally prohibit acts to either create liens or collect on claim during bankruptcy proceedings, and creditor's actions did not fall within any exception to stay provisions under section 546(b) of Bankruptcy Code. Moreover, Ct. found that creditor had not acquired any pre-petition interest in debtor's property by merely sending debtor utility bills and providing utility services, and that creditor's action in sending utility bill was not sufficiently akin to generating tax assessment or creating tax lien so as to qualify as exception to stay provisions.