Under Section 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor or trustee can sell estate assets “free and clear of any interest” in such assets. This short, simple string of six words represents one of the most powerful tools in the bankruptcy professional’s arsenal.

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On June 14, 2016, Judge Thuma of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico issued a memorandum opinion holding that a debtor could reject a prepetition settlement agreement that was determined to be executory in nature.

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Until recentlyIn re Atari, Inc. was a closed case, but, in a recent decision, the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York found that “other cause” existed to reopen the bankruptcy cases. 

Background

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Section 105(a) of the Bankruptcy Code acts as the Bankruptcy Code’s equitable backstop, empowering bankruptcy courts to “issue any order, process, or judgment that is necessary or appropriate to carry out [its] provisions” and to, “sua sponte, take[e] any action or mak[e] any determination necessary or appropriate to enforce or implement court orders or rules, or to prevent an abuse of process.” Does section 105(a), though, authorize

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On February 8, 2016 we reported on the decision of Judge Walrath of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in 

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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

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This is the third post in our series on Judge Sontchi’s postpetition interest decision in Energy Futures Holdings, issued on October 30, 2015. Our first post in this series analyzed Judge Sontchi’s ruling that postpetition interest on an unsecured claim does not constitute a part of the unsecured claim itself.

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It is often said that fools and their money are soon parted. In this regard, the former owners of a debtor who used the debtor’s funds to gamble at the Horseshoe Casino (the “Casino”), ultimately losing over $8 million dollars, could aptly be considered fools.

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