The U.S. Supreme Court handed down three bankruptcy rulings to finish the current Term. The decisions address the validity of nonconsensual third-party releases in chapter 11 plans, the standing of insurance companies to...more
8/6/2024
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bankruptcy Trustees ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debt Restructuring ,
Debtors ,
Trustees ,
U.S. Treasury
To encourage vendors and other creditors to continue doing business with financially distressed entities, the Bankruptcy Code includes various defenses to litigation brought by a bankruptcy trustee or chapter 11...more
Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code’s “safe harbor” preventing avoidance in bankruptcy of certain securities, commodity, or forward-contract payments has long been a magnet for controversy. Several noteworthy court rulings...more
10/3/2023
/ Article III ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Restructuring ,
Fraudulent Transfers ,
Safe Harbors ,
Securities Contracts ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
Standing
Federal appellate courts have traditionally applied a "person aggrieved" standard to determine whether a party has standing to appeal a bankruptcy court order or judgment. However, this standard, which requires a direct,...more
There is longstanding controversy concerning the validity of third-party release provisions in non-asbestos trust chapter 11 plans that limit the potential exposure of various nondebtor parties involved in the process of...more
7/28/2023
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bankruptcy Preferences ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 13 ,
Chapter 15 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Restructuring ,
SCOTUS
There is longstanding controversy concerning the validity of third-party release provisions in non-asbestos trust chapter 11 plans that limit the potential exposure of various non-debtor parties involved in the process of...more
Federal district courts, with the consent of the parties, are authorized by statute to refer "civil matter[s]" to magistrate judges for the purpose of conducting all proceedings and entering a judgment in the litigation. In...more
Bankruptcy and appellate courts disagree over the standard that should apply to a request for payment of a break-up fee or expense reimbursement to the losing bidder in a sale of the debtor’s assets outside the ordinary...more
Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down 2017 U.S. Trustee Fee Hike as Unconstitutional -
On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a much-awaited decision, Siegel v. Fitzgerald, No. 21-441, __. U.S. __, 2022 WL...more
MODIFICATION OF SECURED LOAN UNDER CRAMDOWN CHAPTER 11 PLAN WARRANTED DUE TO PLAN FEASIBILITY THREAT -
Many recent court rulings concerning the treatment of secured creditors under a chapter 11 plan have focused on...more
3/31/2022
/ Absolute Priority Rule ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Certiorari ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 15 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Cramdown ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Foreign Bankruptcies ,
Hertz ,
Make-Whole Premium ,
Reorganizations ,
SCOTUS
This Term, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted certiorari in Siegel v. Fitzgerald (In re Circuit City Stores, Inc.), 996 F.3d 156 (4th Cir. 2021), cert. granted, No. 21-441 (U.S. Jan. 10, 2022), in order to resolve the growing...more
Secured Lender’s Credit Bid Right In Bankruptcy Sale Denied -
A secured creditor’s right to “credit bid” the amount of its allowed claim in a bankruptcy sale of its collateral is an important creditor protection codified...more
A secured creditor's right to "credit bid" the amount of its allowed claim in a bankruptcy sale of its collateral is an important creditor protection codified in section 363(k) of the Bankruptcy Code. Even so, a ruling...more
The Situation: In a sharply divided 4-3 decision, CNH Diversified Opportunities Master Account, L.P., et al. v. Cleveland Unlimited, Inc. et al., Case No. 42 (Oct. 22, 2020), the New York Court of Appeals reversed the courts...more
Chapter 11 Plan Distributions Are Not Collateral Covered by Intercreditor Agreement's Waterfall Provision -
In In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., 2019 WL 2535700 (3d Cir. June 19, 2019), a panel of the U.S. Court of...more
9/26/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Reform ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 15 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Restructuring ,
Cross-Border ,
Debt Restructuring ,
Debtors ,
Financial Institutions ,
Insolvency ,
Trump Administration
The scope of discovery available in a bankruptcy case concerning a debtor's conduct, property, financial condition, and related matters is so broad that it has sometimes been likened to a permissible "fishing expedition."...more
In the service of the Bankruptcy Code’s goals of giving debtors a "fresh start" and ensuring that estate assets are fairly and equally distributed among similarly situated creditors, the Bankruptcy Code contains an array of...more
Courts disagree as to whether the amount that a bankruptcy trustee or chapter 11 debtor-in-possession ("DIP") can recover in fraudulent transfer avoidance litigation should be capped at the total amount of unsecured claims...more
2/5/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Bankrtupcy Code Section 550 ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Commercial Real Estate Contracts ,
Debtor-Creditor ,
Debtors-in-Possession ,
Fraudulent Transfers ,
Mergers ,
Trustees ,
UFTA
In Beem v. Ferguson (In re Ferguson), 2017 BL 101650 (11th Cir. Mar. 30, 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed the distinction between constitutional mootness (a jurisdictional issue that...more