A recent decision of the New York Court of Appeals, Sutton v. Pilevsky held that federal bankruptcy law does not preempt state law tortious interference claims against non-debtors who participated in a scheme that caused a debtor—in this case a bankruptcy remote special purpose entity—to breach contractual obligations intended to ensure that the entity remains a Special Purpose Entity (SPE) and to facilitate the lenders’ enforcement of remedies upon a future bankruptcy filing, if any.

As reported earlier, a new corporate restructuring law will be enacted in Germany. The new law's centerpiece will be the so-called stabilization and restructuring framework ("SRF"). The German Parliament (the Bundestag) passed the law on 17 December 2020. On 18 December 2020 the law was also accepted by the Federal Council (the Bundesrat). It will come into force on 1 January 2021, already.

Wie bereits berichtet erhält Deutschland ein neues Restrukturierungsrecht für Unternehmen, dessen Herzstück der sogenannte Stabilisierungs- und Restrukturierungsrahmen („SRR“) ist. Der Bundestag hat das entsprechende Gesetz am 17. Dezember 2020 verabschiedet. Am 18. Dezember 2020 wurde das Gesetz auch durch den Bundesrat gebilligt. Es wird bereits am 1. Januar 2021 in Kraft treten.

Germany's new restructuring regime is expected to come into force 0n 1 January 2021. At the heart of the new regulation is the introduction of a so-called stabilization and restructuring framework (“SRF”) for companies. In a sea change to the traditional approach, the SRF enables a company to be restructured before insolvency proceedings have to be initiated. It is therefore expected that this new regime will have a major impact on German restructuring practice.

Introduction of a Preventive Restructuring Framework

Deutschland erhält ein neues Restrukturierungsrecht, und zwar voraussichtlich ab 1. Januar 2021. Herzstück der im aktuellen Gesetzesentwurf vorgesehenen Neuregelungen ist die Schaffung des sogenannten Stabilisierungs- und Restrukturierungsrahmens („SRR“) für Unternehmen. Der SRR soll die Restrukturierung eines Unternehmens ermöglichen, bevor ein Insolvenzverfahren eingeleitet werden muss. Die Gesetzesänderung wird daher einen großen Einfluss auf die Restrukturierungspraxis haben.

Dischargeable Claims

On September 29, 2020, the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary advanced a Democrat-backed bill to the full chamber that seeks to address perceived shortcomings in the Bankruptcy Code’s protections for employee and retiree benefits and to curtail the use of bonuses and special compensation arrangements for executives in bankruptcy cases.

Recently, in In re Tribune Company, the Third Circuit affirmed that the Bankruptcy Code means exactly what it says and that the enforcement of subordination agreements can be abridged when cramming down confirmation of a chapter 11 plan over a rejecting class entitled to the benefit of the subordination agreement, so long as doing so does not “unfairly discriminate” against the rejecting class (and the other requirements for a cramdown are satisfied).

Analyzing the inner workings of the elements required for the securities contract “safe harbor” protection under Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, the Bankruptcy Court for the SDNY dismissed a complaint seeking to recover approximately US$1 billion in allegedly fraudulent transfers brought against various transferees as part of the Boston Generating Chapter 11 case.

No, says the Delaware Bankruptcy Court in In re Maxus Energy Corp. In Maxus, the defendant, Vista Analytical Laboratory, Inc. (“Vista” or the “Defendant”), a designated critical vendor, sought summary judgement dismissing the preference complaint. The Court denied summary judgement finding that the critical vendor status did not per se insulate Vista from preference actions.

Background