Executive Summary
Temporary suspension of obligation to file for insolvency and of creditor’s right to request opening of insolvency proceedings
On 25 March 2020 the German parliament passed a bill “to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil, bankruptcy and criminal procedure law” (COVID-19 Bill) that aims at protecting companies that experience financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vorübergehende Aussetzung der Insolvenzantragspflicht und des Rechts des Gläubigers, die Eröffnung eines Insolvenzverfahrens zu beantragen
Am 25. März 2020 hat der Deutsche Bundestag ein Gesetz „zur Abmilderung der Folgen der COVID-19-Pandemie im Zivil-, Insolvenz- und Strafverfahrensrecht (COVID-19 Insolvenzgesetz) beschlossen, das darauf abzielt, Unternehmen zu schützen, die infolge der COVID-19-Pandemie in finanzielle Schwierigkeiten geraten.
Our lives have changed completely in a few days due to COVID-19 and the world’s response to it. Governments react with a multitude of regulations, which have a considerable influence on the economy especially for the Retail & Consumer sector. This affects very different areas of law. Our sector approach consists, among other things, of showing you the legal consequences in the most diverse legal areas and our contact persons for this.
When it comes to offsets, bankruptcy law provides for two distinct remedies: (1) setoff and (2) recoupment.
Setoff allows a creditor to reduce the amount of prepetition debt it owes a debtor with a corresponding reduction of that creditor’s prepetition claim against the debtor. The remedy of setoff is subject to the automatic stay, as well as various conditions under § 553 of the Bankruptcy Code — including that it does not apply if the debts arise on opposite sides of the date on which the debtor’s case was commenced.
On June 30, 2016, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law a new piece of federal legislation that will govern the restructuring of U.S. territories: Public Law No: 114-187. Although not limited to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, enactment of the new law, entitled the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act or “PROMESA,” represents a bipartisan achievement in the context of a worsening fiscal crisis in Puerto Rico.
In a recent decision, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas affirmed the bankruptcy court’s rejection of the cost methodology to value the right to use common amenities in a condominium development and, in the process, bolstered the notion that bankruptcy courts have discretion in determining what valuation methodologies are appropriate under the facts and circumstances of a particular case.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that numerous forbearances by a lender that allowed a single asset real estate borrower to stave off bankruptcy for four years provided value in the context of a constructive fraudulent transfer action. 1756 W. Lake St. LLC v. Am. Chartered Bank (In re 1756 W. Lake St. LLC), Case No. 14-1869 (7th Cir.
Undersecured creditors may breathe a little easier. In a recent decision, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied the debtors’ request to use an undersecured creditor’s cash collateral, in the form of postpetition rents, to pay estate professional fees, holding that the undersecured creditor was not adequately protected even though the value of its collateral was stable and possibly increasing.