The Bankruptcy Code contains a safe harbor for transactions that a debtor enters into after an involuntary petition is filed against it, but before an order for relief on the petition is entered. See 11 U.S.C.
We know that our readers are busy during this time of year with vacation travel, holiday parties, and deals closing before year end. And we know that it’s easy to fall behind on your essential bankruptcy reading. Our gift to you this holiday season is this look back at our last six weeks of Weil Bankruptcy Blog posts, wrapped up into three neat little packages (or posts, that is). So grab your glass of eggnog, and put your feet up, as we recap what you may have missed.
Insiders: A Perennial Favorite
What better time than the holiday season to discuss “gifting” in the context of chapter 11 cases. “Gifting” commonly refers to the situation where a senior creditor pays (or allocates a portion of its collateral for the benefit of) one or more junior claimholders. Gifting is often employed as a tool to resolve the opposition of a junior class of creditors, who are typically out-of-the-money, to the manner in which the bankruptcy case is being administered. For instance, creditors’ committees may seek gifts from senior creditors to guarantee a recovery for general unsecured
In this second installment of the Lookback Period – Six Weeks, we take brief holiday trips internationally, with two posts on eligibility for chapter 15 recognition and service of claim objections by U.S. mail to foreign claimants, and domestically to Delaware, with a series on Judge Sontchi’s decision on postpetition interest, as well as a post about a decision from the Court of Chancery of Delaware on the interpretation of indentures.
Chapter 15 Eligibility
More than three dozen US energy industry companies (E&Ps) filed for chapter 11 this year, with three more – New Gulf Resources LLC, Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., and Cubic Energy Inc. – filing just this third week of December. According to BloombergBriefs.com, even before these most recent filings. energy sector filings accounted for 26% of all chapter 11 filings in 2015, which is the largest share of filings for any sector. Just when the industry thought oil prices could not go any lower, they have.
In a case addressing what it means to "surrender" property under the Bankruptcy Code, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently held that a Chapter 7 trustee's abandonment of real property only restores legal title to the debtors as if no bankruptcy petition had been filed, and does not also give the debtors the right to contest the mortgagee's foreclosure if the debtors elected to surrender the property.
Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split on Interpretation of Discharge Exception
“Desperate times call for desperate measures” is often a rallying cry to justify harsh actions taken during times of panic and uncertainty which, in retrospect, are regrettable. To protect against such adverse consequences in bankruptcy, there are and should be safeguards in place to prevent creditors from imposing unreasonable restrictions on a debtor at the immediate onset of an involuntary case. In
Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code was introduced more than ten years ago to “to provide effective mechanisms for dealing with cases of cross-border insolvency.” It incorporates the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (the “Model Law”) promulgated by the
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey recently dismissed a debtor's claims for violations of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the New Jersey Truth in Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA), holding the debtor's failure to schedule his lawsuit as an asset of his bankruptcy estate deprived him of standing to later assert the claims.
A copy of the opinion is available at: Link to Opinion