The foundation of chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code and similar legislation enacted by other countries to govern cross-border bankruptcy cases is "comity" and cooperation among U.S. and foreign courts. The importance of these concepts was recently illustrated by a ruling handed down by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. In In re Varig Logistica S.A., 2021 WL 5045684 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. Oct.

Overview

Going, going, gone. Most people might associate those words with fine art, not bankruptcy. But in In re 388 Route 22 Readington Holdings, LLC, the question arose: is value reflected by an active, non-collusive auction, while not dispositive, strong evidence of fair value under section 363(b) of the Bankruptcy Code?

We’ve written extensively here, here, and

As cross-border restructurings proliferate, especially in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, companies with global assets and operations may utilize chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) to facilitate cooperation between U.S. and foreign bankruptcy courts and protect assets located in the U.S. One doctrine central to relief under chapter 15 is the principle of comity, which refers to the recognition one nation’s legal system accords to another nation’s judicial proceedings. In chapter 15 proceedings, U.S.

The Executive Summary provided a short version of the facts. The next few paragraphs provide a longer version, or you can skip to the next section.

Executive Summary

In In re Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, 12 F.4th 171 (2d Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revived litigation filed by the trustee administering the assets of defunct investment firm Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC ("MIS") seeking to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent transfers made to former MIS customers and certain other defendants as part of the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Whether the pre-Bankruptcy Code "solvent debtor exception" requiring the payment of postpetition interest to dissenting unsecured creditors under a chapter 11 plan survived the enactment of the Bankruptcy Code in 1978 has been the subject of a handful of recent court rulings. This is, perhaps, most notably true of the chapter 11 case of Ultra Petroleum Corp. in connection with a protracted battle over the debtor's obligation to pay make-whole premiums to unsecured noteholders.

In yet another chapter in the tortured saga of the fallout from the failed 2007 leveraged buyout ("LBO") of media giant The Tribune Co. ("Tribune") in a transaction orchestrated by real-estate mogul Sam Zell, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit largely upheld lower court dismissals of claims asserted by Tribune's chapter 11 liquidation trustee against various shareholders, officers, directors, employees, and financial advisors for, among other things, avoidance and recovery of fraudulent and preferential transfers, breach of fiduciary duties, and professional malpractice.