In a decision approved for publication, addressing the intersection of New Jersey Court Rule 4:5-4 and 11 U.S.C. 524(a), the New Jersey Appellate Division recently held that a bankruptcy discharge precluded a creditor from obtaining a judgment of personal liability and debtor’s failure to plead that defense did not waive it. Vadim Chepovetsky and Svetlana Nashtatik v. Louis Civello, Jr. , No. A-0476-21 (App. Div. Jun. 16, 2022).
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York recently upheld the findings of a Bankruptcy Court, which held that the in rem tax foreclosure of the subject property was a fraudulent conveyance. SeeDuvall v. Cty. of Ont., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 216970 (W.D.N.Y. 2021). The matter arose from the tax foreclosure of property (the “Property”) for the non-payment of taxes arising in 2015. In October 2016, the County issued a foreclosure petition and notices, advising that interested parties had the right to redeem the Property on or before January 13, 2017.
In a split decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently determined that the Bank of New York Mellon (the “Bank”), as first deed of trust lienholder, could challenge a homeowner’s association’s (“HOA”) sale of a property as a violation of an automatic bankruptcy stay, giving the Bank superior title. SeeBank of New York Mellon as Tr. for Certificateholders of CWALT, Inc., Alternative Loan Tr. 2005-54CB, Mortg. Pass-Through Certificates Series 2005-54CB v. Enchantment at Sunset Bay Condo. Ass’n, 2 F.4th 1229 (9th Cir. 2021).
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a Bankruptcy Court and held that dismissal of an underlying bankruptcy case did not divest the Bankruptcy Court of jurisdiction in related quiet title action. In re Lindsey, 2021 WL 1140661 (11th Cir. 2021). In 2015, the plaintiff filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 13 bankruptcy relief. In his schedule of assets, the plaintiff listed a fee simple interest in a commercial multi-tenant building and an adjacent vacant lot.
The Fifth Circuit recently affirmed a Bankruptcy Court’s order, finding that a bank's properly perfected security interest in a debtor’s assets had priority over oil producers’ unfiled, unperfected security interests in oil proceeds, but did not have priority over a statutory lien granted to certain producers under the Oklahoma Lien Act. SeeMatter of First River Energy, L.L.C., 986 F.3d 914 (5th Cir. 2021). In the case, First River Energy, LLC (the “Debtor”), a Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Texas, filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In bankruptcy as in federal jurisprudence generally, to characterize something with the near-epithet of “federal common law” virtually dooms it to rejection.
In January 2020 we reported that, after the reconsideration suggested by two Supreme Court justices and revisions to account for the Supreme Court’s Merit Management decision,[1] the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stood by its origina
It seems to be a common misunderstanding, even among lawyers who are not bankruptcy lawyers, that litigation in federal bankruptcy court consists largely or even exclusively of disputes about the avoidance of transactions as preferential or fraudulent, the allowance of claims and the confirmation of plans of reorganization. However, with a jurisdictional reach that encompasses “all civil proceedings . . .
I don’t know if Congress foresaw, when it enacted new Subchapter V of Chapter 11 of the Code[1] in the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (“SBRA”), that debtors in pending cases would seek to convert or redesignate their cases as Subchapter V cases when SBRA became effective on February 19, 2020, but it was foreseeable.
Our February 26 post [1] reported on the first case dealing with the question whether a debtor in a pending Chapter 11 case may redesignate it as a case under Subchapter V, [2] the new subchapter of Chapter 11 adopted by the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (“SBRA”), which became effective on February 19.