European Union

Since 2011, there have been an increasing number of restructurings in higher education.  What may have started with the foreclosure and sale of ATI Schools and Colleges has continued this year with last month’s 

On March 27, 2020, Congress enacted, and President Trump signed into law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide financial relief to individuals and small business harmed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The CARES Act included an initial allocation of $349 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a convertible loan program under Section 7 of the Small Business Act (SBA).

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware recently issued an opinion that could mean that directors and officers of insolvent entities face liability for damages caused by the failure to timely file for bankruptcy protection.

Over the last several years, a wide range of healthcare companies, among them hospitals, home health agencies and continuing care facilities, have faced financial distress as a result of declining revenues, high operating costs, reduction in reimbursements rates and increasing competition.  Seeking relief, many hospitals and other healthcare companies are commencing chapter 11 cases and selling their assets to third parties in order to shed liabilities and facilitate an orderly transfer of their assets.  Fairmont General Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital, Natchez Regional Medical C

A bankruptcy court gave “unnecessary and unlikely incorrect” reasoning to support its “excessively broad proposition that sales free and clear under [Bankruptcy Code (“Code”)] Section 363 override, and essentially render nugatory, the critical lessee protections against a debtor-lessor under [Code] 365(h),” said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Feb. 16, 2022. In re Royal Bistro, LLC, 2022 WL 499938, *1-*2 (5th Cir. Feb. 16, 2022).

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative recently filed for Chapter 11 relief in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, weeks after the February ice storm severely disrupted Texas’s electricity supply and prices. Brazos filed for bankruptcy in part to shield its member cooperatives and consumers from liability for invoices totaling over $2.1 billion from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

A credit-bidding lender (“Lender”) acquired a debtor’s assets “in ‘good faith’ and ‘without collusion,’ the purchase price ‘was not controlled by any agreement among potential bidders,’ and [Lender] had not ‘engaged in any conduct that would cause or permit the Purchase Agreement to be avoided or costs and damages to be imposed under section 363(n) of the Bankruptcy Code,’” held the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Sept. 10, 2019. In re Waypoint Leasing Holdings, Ltd., 2019 WL 4273889, *11 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2019).

A license agreement “deemed rejected by operation of law” could not be acquired under a court-approved asset purchase agreement, held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Oct. 29, 2018. In re Provider Meds LLC, 2018 WL 5317445, *2 (5th Cir. Oct. 29, 2018). Although the acquirer claimed “that it purchased a patent license from [the] debtors in bankruptcy sales of their estates,” the court explained that “a rejected executory contract … could not have been transferred by the bankruptcy sales in question … .” Id., at *1.

“[T]he largely debt-financed purchase of a family-owned [business] was not a fraudulent [transfer] and did not amount to a violation of the fiduciary duty of the company’s directors,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Dec. 4, 2017. In re Irving Tanning Co., 2017 W.L. 5988834, *1 (1st Cir. Dec. 4, 2017).