In the July/August 2019 issue of the Business Restructuring Review, we discussed a landmark decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in In re Ultra Petroleum Corp., 913 F.3d 533(5th Cir. 2019) ("Ultra I")....more
In McKillen v. Wallace (In re Irish Bank Resolution Corp. Ltd.), 2019 WL 4740249 (D. Del. Sept. 27, 2019), the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware had an opportunity to consider, as an apparent matter of first...more
2/27/2020
/ Adversary Proceedings ,
Appeals ,
Automatic Stay ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Barton Doctrine ,
Breach of Duty ,
Chapter 15 ,
Court-Appointed Receivers ,
Debtors-in-Possession ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Personal Liability ,
Trustees
Except for disastrous fires that sparked the largest bankruptcy filing of the year, liabilities arising from the opioid crisis, the fallout from price-fixing, and corporate restructuring shenanigans, economic, market, and...more
2/26/2020
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 15 ,
Chapter 9 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Restructuring ,
Debtor-Creditor ,
FERC ,
Foreign Bankruptcies ,
Fraudulent Conveyance ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Non-Consensual Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
PG&E ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Section 363 ,
Section 365 ,
Third-Party Release Agrements
Under the "single-satisfaction rule," although a bankruptcy trustee or a chapter 11 debtor-in-possession ("DIP") may seek to avoid and recover avoidable transfers of a debtor's property from more than one transferee, the...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
On August 23, 2019, President Trump signed into law four pieces of bankruptcy legislation designed to help financially distressed small businesses, disabled veterans, National Guard and reservists, and family farmers. Those...more
9/26/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Plans ,
Bankruptcy Reform ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 12 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
National Guard ,
NDAA ,
New Legislation ,
Small Business ,
Trump Administration ,
Veterans ,
Veterans Administration
The Bankruptcy Code creates a rebuttable presumption that a proof of claim is prima facie evidence of the claim's validity and amount. Courts disagree, however, over whether that presumption also applies in a proceeding to...more
9/25/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bifurcation ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 13 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure ,
Personal Property ,
Proof of Claims ,
Rebuttable Presumptions ,
Section 502
In In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., 2019 WL 2535700 (3d Cir. June 19, 2019), a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that adequate protection payments made during a bankruptcy case and...more
In This Issue:
Washington District Court Overturns Approval of Third-Party Releases in a Settlement Agreement and Related Free-and-Clear Sale -
In In re Fraser’s Boiler Serv., Inc., 2019 WL 1099713 (D. Wash. Mar. 18,...more
8/21/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bankruptcy Discharge Order ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 15 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debt Collection ,
FERC ,
Foreign Debt ,
PG&E ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Taggart v Lorenzen
The recent chapter 11 filings by PG&E Corp. and its Pacific Gas & Electric Co. utility subsidiary (collectively, "PG&E") and FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. have reignited the debate over the power of a U.S. bankruptcy court to...more
8/21/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Debtors-in-Possession ,
Energy Contracts ,
Federal Power Act ,
FERC ,
Filed-Rate Doctrine ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
PG&E ,
Popular ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Section 365
In In re Ultra Petroleum Corp., 913 F.3d 533(5th Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that a "make-whole," or "prepayment," premium owed on unsecured notes issued by a chapter 11 debtor...more
In Trinity 83 Dev., LLC v. ColFin Midwest Funding, LLC, 917 F.3d 599 (7th Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code does not moot an appeal involving a...more
8/20/2019
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Asset Purchaser ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Equitable Mootness ,
Equitable Relief ,
Mootness ,
Sale of Assets ,
Section 363 ,
Standing
In In re O’Reilly, 598 B.R. 784 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2019), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied the petition of a foreign bankruptcy trustee for recognition under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy...more
In Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, 139 S. Ct. 652, 2019 WL 2166392 (U.S. May 20, 2019), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rejection in bankruptcy of a trademark license agreement, which constitutes a...more
8/20/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Debtors-in-Possession ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
For nearly 25 years, courts in the Ninth Circuit have consistently refused to sanction nonconsensual third-party releases as part of chapter 11 plans. A ruling recently handed down by the U.S. District Court for the District...more
8/20/2019
/ Asbestos Litigation ,
Asbestos Trust Claims ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Debtors-in-Possession ,
Reorganizations ,
Section 363 ,
Successor Liability ,
Third-Party Relationships ,
Third-Party Release Agrements
U.S. courts have a long-standing tradition of recognizing or enforcing the laws and court rulings of other nations as an exercise of international "comity." Since chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code was enacted in 2005, it has...more
In In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Conveyance Litig., 2019 WL 1771786 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 23, 2019), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a litigation trustee’s motion to amend a complaint seeking to...more
6/19/2019
/ Avoidance ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Financial Institutions ,
Fraudulent Transfers ,
Intermediaries ,
Leveraged Buyout ,
Merit Management Group v FTI Consulting ,
Safe Harbors ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 546(e) ,
Split of Authority ,
Trustees
The ability of a bankruptcy trustee to avoid fraudulent or preferential transfers is a fundamental part of U.S. bankruptcy law. However, when an otherwise avoidable transfer by a U.S. entity takes place outside the U.S. to a...more
6/19/2019
/ Avoidance ,
Bankrtupcy Code Section 550 ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Debtors ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Jurisdictions ,
Fraudulent Transfers ,
Fraudulent Wire Transfers ,
Jurisdiction ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
Preferential Transfers ,
SIPA
For more than a century, courts in England and Wales have refused to recognize or enforce foreign court judgments or proceedings that discharge or compromise debts governed by English law. In accordance with a rule (the...more
On September 18, 2018, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") published its final version of the new Model Law on the Recognition and Enforcement of Insolvency-Related Judgments (the "IRJ Model...more
In Tanguy v. West (In re Davis), 2018 WL 4232063 (5th Cir. Sept. 5, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revisited the circumstances under which section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code moots an appeal of a...more
U.S. courts have a long-standing tradition of recognizing or enforcing the laws and court rulings of other nations as an exercise of international "comity." Prior to the enactment of chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code in 2005,...more
Rumors of another recession multiplied as the tumultuous second year of the Trump administration came to a close. Highlights of 2018 included a simmering trade war with China; political upheaval after the House of...more
In Bennett v. Jefferson County, Alabama, 899 F.3d 1240 (11th Cir. 2018), a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled as a matter of first impression that the doctrine of equitable mootness applies in...more
12/24/2018
/ Article III ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 9 ,
Due Process ,
Equitable Mootness ,
Jurisdiction ,
Municipal Bankruptcy ,
Reorganizations ,
Standing ,
State Constitutions ,
State Sovereignty
On August 20, 2018, the National Bankruptcy Conference (the "NBC") submitted a letter (the "Letter") to representatives of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and the House Committee on the Judiciary that proposed...more
12/21/2018
/ Avoidance ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 15 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Cross-Border ,
Foreign Debt ,
Insolvency ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Safe Harbors ,
UK ,
UNCITRAL