2020年の初めに新型コロナウイルス感染症（COVID-19）パンデミックが広がり始めてから、その拡散を抑えるために全米の州知事が事業の閉鎖を命じる行政命令を出しました。多くの事業主が、事業閉鎖期間の賃料の支払義務から逃れるための救済手段を探ろうとして賃貸借契約書、特にその不可抗力(force majeure)条項を調べました。事業体やその弁護士は、今まで経験したことのない性質のパンデミックと相次ぐ事業閉鎖を目の当たりにしていますが、そのような重要事項の指針となる判例はわずかしかありませんでした。しかし、イリノイ州J.B.プリツカー知事がCOVID-19危機の対応策として、レストランに対して同施設で食事をする客に料理を出す(on-premises consumption)ことを禁じる行政命令を出した結果1、 Hitz Restaurant Group事件において、イリノイ州北部地区連邦破産裁判所は、近時、賃貸借契約書に含まれる不可抗力条項に基づき、テナント（賃借人）‐債務者の賃料支払義務は一部免除されると判示しました。

On October 25, commercial real estate financing company Capmark Financial Group Inc., together with over 40 of its affiliates, filed a voluntary petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The debtors cite among the reasons for their filing the declined values of their loan portfolio, tightening of credit markets and a heavy debt burden. Capmark, formerly a part of GMAC's residential mortgage business until 2006, listed $20.1 billion in assets and $21 billion in liabilities on its petition.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved debtor Magna Entertainment Corp.’s proposed bidding procedures for the sale of Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course, home to the Preakness Stakes, and Laurel Park race course over the objections from former owners and state authorities. The former owners, together with Baltimore’s mayor and city council and the state of Maryland, objected to the expedited time frame, arguing that the debtor failed to provide parties in interest with sufficient time to respond to the proposed procedures.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has granted debtors Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s request to pursue a plan for developer SunCal Co., which is subject to a pending bankruptcy case in the Central District of California. Prior to LBHI’s bankruptcy filing, the debtors had provided SunCal with funding in an amount of approximately $2.2 billion. In January, SunCal commenced an adversary proceeding in its own bankruptcy case seeking to have LBHI’s claims subordinated. SunCal opposes LBHI’s filing a plan and has put forth its own plan in the case.

On October 2, the official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Lyondell Chemical Co. filed a motion for the appointment of an examiner in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The committee asserts that an examiner is needed to investigate allegations of a conflicted rights offering sponsor, the debtors’ refusal to refinance the debtor-in-possession credit facility, and the debtors’ refusal to formulate a plan of reorganization with an appropriate reserve for unsecured creditors pending resolution of the committee’s adversary proceeding.