AGG’s Restructuring Roundup newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to commercial litigation and bankruptcy. The newsletter is a curation of published articles and news, and contains...more
On March 25, 2022, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware dismissed a complaint filed against a lender and other entities. An individual (and others) formerly in control of the bankrupt companies sued...more
It is generally recognized that a bankruptcy court has the power—either equitable or statutory—to recharacterize a purported debt as equity if the substance of the transaction belies the labels the parties have given it. A...more
The practice of conferring "derivative standing" on official creditors' committees to assert claims on behalf of a bankruptcy estate in cases where the debtor or a bankruptcy trustee is unwilling or unable to do so is a...more
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina recently added some weight to the majority rule on an issue that has long divided bankruptcy and appellate courts. In In re Southern Produce Distributors,...more
In In re Rogers Morris, 2020 WL 1321894 (Bankr. N.D. Miss. Mar. 16, 2020), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi contributed to an existing split among the courts by joining the majority view in...more
Canada’s two main insolvency and restructuring statutes, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) were recently amended to include a new duty of good faith on the part of all...more
Amid the explosion of trading in claims against distressed and bankrupt entities, courts in recent years have issued numerous rulings of interest to both buyers and sellers. Notable decisions have addressed, among other...more
In In re SGK Ventures, LLC, Case No. 15 C 11224, 2017 WL 2683686 (N.D. Ill. June 20, 2017), Judge Durkin of the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois sets out a thorough analysis for addressing...more
Equitable subordination in bankruptcy can be a powerful tool, providing a court with considerable latitude to set things right insofar as the estates of the penniless and the rights of their creditors are concerned. But...more
For a distressed company running low on capital, an investment from insiders may represent a last best hope for survival. Insiders may be willing to risk throwing good money after bad for a chance to save the company even...more
In SGK Ventures, LLC, the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered that the secured claims of two entities controlled by insiders of the debtor be equitably subordinated to the claims of unsecured...more
On Oct. 7, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated a plan injunction that had been approved by the Bankruptcy Court in the Chapter 11 cases of LightSquared and certain of its affiliates...more
Venture capitalists (“VCs”) often provide needed debt financing such as bridge loans to emerging companies in financial distress. However, given their insider status with these companies, VCs may encounter issues with such...more
For those of us who commonly represent lenders, there is nothing more unsettling than hearing the words “course and pattern of conduct” or “dominion and control” or some variation of the same. Any suit where someone seeks to...more
The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently held that a lienholder’s ability to obtain equitable subordination of a prior mortgage was not precluded by its agent’s knowledge that the prior mortgage had not been satisfied. In...more
Atlantic Builders Group, Inc. v. Old Line Bank (In re Prince Frederick Inv., LLC), 516 B.R. 778 (Bankr. D. Md. 2014) – A construction contractor contended that the claim of the debtor’s construction lender should be...more
Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC v. Summit Bank, N.A. (In re Francis), 750 F.3d 754 (8th Cir. 2014) – A lender that attached the wrong legal description to its recorded mortgage sought equitable subrogation and/or reformation...more
In that case, Walnut Creek Mining Company (“Walnut Creek”), the debtor Optim Energy’s largest unsecured creditor, sought standing to pursue recharacterization, equitable subordination, and fiduciary duty claims on behalf of...more
On November 30, 2013, the Spanish legislator approved a recent amendment to Spanish insolvency law, introduced in March 2013, to clarify that a claim transferred to Spanish “bad bank” Sareb, and subsequently sold by Sareb to...more