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In In re KB Toys,1 a recent decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the Court held that a claim that is disallowable under § 502(d)2 if held by the original claimant is also disallowable in the hands of a purchaser or subsequent transferee. In other words, if a creditor sells or assigns its claim to a claims trader and the creditor later becomes liable on a preference or fraudulent transfer,3 the claim may be disallowed in the hands of the claims trader if the creditor fails to pay the amount it owes to the estate.

In our last issue, we reported that the Supreme Court was poised to resolve a split between judicial circuits over the right of a secured creditor to credit bid in a Chapter 11 plan context. Specifically, the Third, Fifth and Seventh Circuits split on the issue of whether a Chapter 11 plan can be crammed down over the secured lender’s objection, where the plan provides for the sale or transfer of the secured lender’s collateral with the proceeds going to the secured lender without the secured lender having the right to credit bid for its collateral up to the full amount of its claim.

The Issue

The issue is whether a Chapter 11 plan can be crammed down over the secured lender’s objection where the plan provides for the sale or transfer of the secured lender’s collateral with the proceeds going to the secured lender without the secured lender having the right to credit bid for is collateral up to the full amount of its claim.  

Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn of the Northern District of Texas recently issued a noteworthy opinion in In re Village at Camp Bowie I, L.P. that addresses two important Chapter 11 confirmation issues. Judge Lynn determined that a plan that artificially impaired a class of claims in order to meet the requirements of section 1129(a)(10) had not been proposed in bad faith and did not violate the requirements of section 1129(a). In his ruling, Judge Lynn also applied the Supreme Court’s cram-down “interest”1 rate teachings in Till v.