On June 6, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the consolidated cases of Becerra v. San Carlos Apache Tribe (No. 23-250) and Becerra v. Northern Arapaho Tribe (No. 23-253)....more
You ship goods to a customer that is having financial difficulties. The customer sends you a check for the goods. What do you do?...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 assets outside the ordinary course of the...more
A typical challenge encountered by estates of varying sizes and complexities is the lack of liquidity to cover the costs of estate administration. These expenses may satisfy just debts to creditors or estate tax payments. ...more
This post is about a junkyard, hogs getting slaughtered, and a bankruptcy judge poised to sanction a creditor and her counsel. The message from the case to would-be claimants in other cases is simple: do not “overreach.” In...more
Although the deadline for “incurring” CARES Act funds has passed, Alaska Native Corporations can still use CARES Act funds to pay for administrative and compliance related expenditures in 2022, including staff time spent...more
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
In In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., 990 F.3d 728 (3d Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that even though a "stalking horse" bidder failed to obtain necessary regulatory approvals to close an...more
On March 2, 2021, stationery and gift retailer Paper Source filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating in court filings that effects of the COVID-19 pandemic damaged its finances and operations. Paper Source stated that in...more
Nothing is more frustrating to a trade creditor holding a large unpaid balance owed by a debtor in bankruptcy than the risk that payments the trade creditor received before the debtor filed bankruptcy may be clawed back by...more
To encourage creditors, equity interest holders, indenture trustees, and unofficial committees to take actions that benefit a chapter 9 or chapter 11 estate, the Bankruptcy Code confers administrative expense status on claims...more
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas recently clarified the administrative expense standard applicable to indenture trustees by holding that they can recover fees and expenses as...more
A basic tenet of bankruptcy law, premised on the legal separateness of a debtor prior to filing for bankruptcy and the estate created upon a bankruptcy filing, is that prepetition debts are generally treated differently than...more
In this series, we look at how various payment rights are treated in bankruptcy. A summary like this could not possibly address every right that might arise in any given bankruptcy case. We have omitted several of the...more
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware held that corporate income tax liability attributable to transactions before the filing of a bankruptcy petition are nevertheless administrative expenses because the...more
It is no secret that business bankruptcies are surging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, chapter 11 filings increased 26% in the first half of 2020, and some expect the number of cases to increase even more in...more
This post provides a quick primer on the administrative expense claims. These claims are entitled to priority for actual and necessary goods and services supplied to a debtor in bankruptcy. For a claim to qualify for...more
Skanska USA Building, Inc. v. J.D. Long Masonry, Inc., No. 1:16-cv-00933, 2019 BL 336852, (D. Md. Sept. 9, 2019) - On September 9, 2019, a Maryland federal court awarded Skanska USA Building, Inc. (“Skanska”) compensatory...more
In the past week, our firm has had several clients receive in the mail, and fortunately ask us about, a form titled “2019 – Period Report Instruction Form (Colorado LLCs)”. This form purports to advise the client that the...more
Last week, in LeadingAge New York, Inc. v. Shah, the New York Court of Appeals addressed Department of Health regulations limiting executive compensation and administrative expenditures by healthcare providers receiving state...more
The Third Circuit denied a $275 million break-up fee to a bidder that was unsuccessful in its attempt to buy the crown-jewel assets in the high-profile EFH bankruptcy case. In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., No 18-1109, 2018...more
The Bankruptcy Court in Delaware recently denied a request for an administrative expense claim to an entity that tried but failed to buy a debtor’s key assets. The decision arises out of the first of three attempts by...more
On May 1, 2017, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) announced a new procedure under the AAA’s Arbitration Rules aimed at lowering the administrative cost of arbitrations involving three-arbitrator panels. Originally...more