On October 17, Fannie Mae issued Servicing Guide Announcement SVC-2013-21, which revises servicers’ responsibilities in finalizing standard deed-in-lieu of foreclosures (DILs).

On July 24, 2013 the First Circuit Court of Appeals, applying an “investment plus” test, concluded that a Sun Capital private equity investment fund was engaged in a “trade or business” for purposes of determining whether the fund could be jointly and severally liable under ERISA for the unfunded pension withdrawal liability of the portfolio company.¹ Two Sun Capital investment funds, conveniently named Sun Capital Partners III, LP (“Fund III”) and Sun Capital Partners IV, LP, (“Fund IV”) (the “Sun Funds”) collectively owned 100 percent of Scott Brass, Inc.

In the last two weeks, the Honorable Steven W. Rhodes of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held two important in hearings in the City of Detroit's chapter 9 case, the largest in history.

Several insurers in liquidation proceedings have upcoming claims bar dates:

On July 22, a Connecticut bankruptcy attorney and a firm with whom the attorney contracts for legal support services filed a lawsuit charging the CFPB with “grossly overreaching its authority” in requesting “sensitive and privileged information” about thousands of consumers and challenging the constitutionality of the Bureau itself.

On July 18, the City of Detroit filed for protection under chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, making Detroit the largest municipality to file for chapter 9 relief in United States history. Detroit is seeking to restructure approximately $18 billion in accrued obligations, consisting of approximately $11.9 billion in unsecured obligations and $6.4 billion in secured obligations. Prior to the bankruptcy filing, the City offered to pay unsecured creditors a pro rata distribution of $2 billion in principal amount of interest-only, limited recourse participation notes.

On July 11, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 233, the Fair Debt Buyers Practices Act, which establishes numerous new rules related to the purchase and collection of consumer debts, including five key protections for debtors.

On July 9, the joint official liquidators of Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. filed suit against three rating agencies – Standard & Poors, Moody's and Fitch – in New York state court over the agencies' allegedly fraudulent investment ratings of RMBS and CDOs. The plaintiffs allege that the defendant rating agencies knowingly misrepresented information as to the independence and accuracy of their ratings, while purposefully omitting material information from their credit rating analyses.

The absolute priority rule ordinarily prevents a Chapter 11 debtor from distributing any money or property to junior creditors and old equity investors unless all senior creditors have first been paid in full. See 11 U.S.C. § 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii). Nevertheless, old equity investors may attempt to receive new equity in the reorganized debtor in consideration for providing new (post-bankruptcy) investments in the debtor.

On June 11, Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the complaint of the Trustee for the SemGroup estate seeking to avoid a novation made to Barclays pre-bankruptcy under a swap agreement. The Court held that the pre-bankruptcy transaction constituted a safe harbored transfer made in connection with a swap agreement and thus could not be avoided by the estate. This case is one of a number in recent years that treats the safe harbors, and particularly the section 546 safe harbors, as broadly protective of non-debtor transferees in financial transactions.