In an opinion issued on Sept. 20 by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico, Judge David T. Thuma held that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not prevent a bankruptcy court from determining whether the automatic stay applies to pending state court litigation. See In re Shook, Case No. 24-10724-t7 (Bankr. N.M. Sept. 20, 2024) [ECF No. 54].
对于陷入困境的企业,可以通过与债权人之间以协议的方式,对企业进行债务调整和资产重构,以实现企业复兴和债务清偿。而债务重组中债权人最关注的即是如何有效地实现债权退出,不同类型的债权人、不同的债权情况所涉的债权人诉求均可能存在差异,提供多样化的债权退出路径可以更有效地促进困境企业债务重组成功。根据实践经验,我们总结出多种卓有成效的债权退出路径,包括但不限于直接参与留债重组、债权转股权、债权转让、资产证券化等等。
一、直接参与留债重组
对于债务人陷入流动性危机,但本身资质良好,给予一定的时间可度过困境恢复清偿能力的,债权人往往愿意与债务人就还款金额、还款方式、还款时间等债权债务问题达成新的协议,通过优化该类企业的资产负债结构、盘活企业不良资产,帮助企业渡过财务危机,最终实现债权受偿。
在留债重组的方式下,债权人亦可以有多种具体的债权退出路径,包括但不限于资产出售及资产盘活偿债、以资产或信托受益权等财产权抵债、以企业经营收益现金受偿、企业恢复良性负债率后融资还债等等。特殊情况下,如相关债权涉及企业继续经营所必需,还可以采取“类共益债”的形式,由全体债权人表决引入投资人协助原债权人退出。
(一)以部分资产出售偿债退出
In Matter of Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corp., 84 F.4th 264 (5th Cir. 2023), the Fifth Circuit was asked to address whether 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a) – the federal statute providing for post-judgment interest – applies in adversary proceedings even though 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a) doesn’t explicitly refer to bankruptcy courts.
In earlier posts, the Red Zone has discussed the Supreme Court’s ruling in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, 142 S. Ct. 1770 (2022), which held that increased U.S.
In Matter of Texxon Petrochemicals, L.L.C., 67 F.4th 259 (5th Cir. 2023), the Fifth Circuit held that even if an appeal is equitably moot, the appellate court nonetheless has appellate jurisdiction to consider the merits of the appeal, without reaching the issue of equitable mootness.
Section 503(b)(9) Overview
On April 17, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Matter of RE Palm Springs II, L.L.C., 2023 WL 2966520 (5th Cir. April 17, 2023), held that a senior lender who uses economic leverage and asserts its legal rights to squeeze out a junior lender remains a good faith purchaser entitled to declare an appeal moot based on a sale under section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code. Key to the Fifth Circuit’s opinion was the fact that the actions in question were disclosed to the bankruptcy court in advance of it making the section 363(m) finding.
Facts
In a previous blog post from June 2022, we discussed the Tenth Circuit’s post-Sigel decision in John Q. Hammons Fall 2006 LLC v. U.S. Trustee (In re John Q. Hammons Fall 2006 LLC), 15 F.4th 1011 (10th Cir. Oct. 5, 2021), which held that the government must pay a refund to a Chapter 11 debtor based on what the debtor would have paid over the same time were the case in a Bankruptcy Administrator district.
Two recent decisions from circuit courts of appeal – the Fifth and Ninth – have addressed a question that does not arise often: in a solvent-debtor chapter 11 case, is the debtor required to pay post-petition interest (commonly referred to as “pendency interest”) to unsecured creditors in order to render such claims unimpaired? And, if so, what is the applicable rate of interest to use? Additionally, a subsequent decision from the Second Circuit, while not ultimately reaching the issue, favorably cited the recent Fifth and Ninth Circuit decisions.
In a recent decision by the Tenth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, the court held that a chapter 7 trustee could not sell an LLC membership interest pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code because of a transfer restriction within the LLC operating agreement. Malloy v. Trak-1 Technology Inc.(In re Kramer), No. 21-005, 2022 WL 17176411 (B.A.P. 10th Cir. Nov. 23, 2022).