The Bottom Line

The recent decision of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in In re AAGS Holdings LLC, Case No. 19-13029 (SMB) (Bankr. D. Del. Nov. 12, 2019), underscores the ability of debtors — and specifically, for purposes of this Client Alert, parties to real property purchase contracts — to take advantage of the Bankruptcy Code’s 60-day tolling period to get more time to close on a purchase despite a “time of the essence” ("TOE") closing deadline.

On June 6, 2016, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) issued a new proposed rule clarifying the agency’s authority to facilitate the merger of multiemployer pension plans. The rule would implement some of the statutory changes made by the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (“MPRA”).

Background

In a decision that comes as welcome news to some employers, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that an employer that incurred withdrawal liability to a multiemployer pension plan had not become a plan fiduciary by failing to pay the withdrawal liability, and could discharge that liability in bankruptcy.