A secured lender had to “pay the [encumbered] Property’s maintenance expenses incurred while the [bankruptcy] trustee was trying to sell the Property,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Dec. 29, 2015. In re Domistyle, Inc., 2015 WL 9487732, at *1 (5th Cir. Dec. 29, 2015).

“Claims arising from securities of a debtor’s affiliate should be subordinated” to all other “senior or equal” claims in the debtor’s bankruptcy case, held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Dec. 14, 2015. In re Lehman Brothers Inc., 2015 WL 8593604, at *3 (2d Cir. Dec. 14, 2015).

Insider creditors “waived [the] right to charge default interest on” their claims and “failed to prove” their claim for non-default interest, held the U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Tenth Circuit (“BAP”) on Nov. 6, 2015. In re Autterson, 2015 WL 6789168, at *4 (10th Cir. BAP, Nov. 6, 2015).

An unsecured creditor had “adequately alleged a de facto merger” between a corporate defendant and a purported asset acquiror, held the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York when refusing to dismiss the defendants’ “alter ego and de facto merger claims.” John Deere Shared Services Inc. v. Success Apparel LLC, 2015 WL 6656932, at *5-7 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 30, 2015) (Furman, J.).

A “bankruptcy court has discretion to award the [bankruptcy] trustee the actual [fraudulently transferred] property or its pre-transfer value,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Oct. 23, 2015. Hebenstreit v. Kaur, 2015 WL 6445461, at *2 (7th Cir. Oct. 23, 2015).

“[B]ad faith provides an independent basis for dismissing an involuntary [bankruptcy] petition” despite the creditors’ having met all of the “statutory requirements,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Oct. 16, 2015. In re Forever Green Athletic Fields, Inc., 2015 WL 6080665, at *1 (3d Cir. Oct. 16, 2015). As the court stressed in this rarely litigated type of case, even when creditors file an otherwise valid petition, “that doesn’t mean the bankruptcy court can’t dismiss the case.” Id. at *4.

A terminated officer of a corporate debtor, who bargained for “18 months of severance ( … $375,000 … ) to ensure that his firing not disrupt [the debtor’s] negotiations for $80 million” of financing gave the debtor “reasonably equivalent value,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Oct. 15, 2015. In re Adam Aircraft Industries, Inc., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 17930, at *27 (10th Cir. Oct. 15, 2015).

So-called “red flags” were not “sufficient to impose a duty on [a gambling casino (‘Casino’)] to investigate” a Chapter 11 debtor’s pre-bankruptcy fraudulent transfers to its insiders who gambled at the Casino, held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Oct. 13, 2015. In re Equipment Acquisition Resources, Inc., 2015 WL 5936354, at *6 (7th Cir. Oct. 13, 2015).

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit stayed the part of a bankruptcy court’s sale order that would have “stripped” a commercial tenant’s lease from the casino property being sold to a third party. In re Revel AC, Inc., 2015 WL 5711358 (3d Cir. Sept. 30, 2015) (2-1).

An insolvent corporate subsidiary’s payment of its parent’s contractual obligations was not a fraudulent transfer when “the [subsidiary] Debtor received reasonably equivalent value in exchange for [its cash] transfers,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Sept. 4, 2015. In re PSN USA, Inc., 2015 WL 5167803, at *7 (11th Cir. Sept. 4, 2015) (per curiam).