On December 13, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that the operator of a computer-financing scheme cannot use his bankruptcy to discharge a $13.4 million judgment entered in 2016 for violating a 2008 FTC order.
In 2018 the Supreme Court delivered its much-awaited decision in the case of SPV OSUS Ltd v HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) Ltd & Ors where it confirmed that the assignment of a claim is unenforceable in Irish law unless the assignment is ancillary to a bona fide transaction or the assignee has a genuine commercial interest in the assignment.
Overall 2018 has produced a number of positive judgments from the perspective of lenders and insolvency practitioners.
In particular, the courts delivered many useful judgments disposing of numerous challenges to the enforceability of loans and security and, also, restricting abuse of the courts’ processes.
Contemptuous McKenzie Friends
On October 26, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denied a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and instead entered judgement in favor of two creditors and two consumer reporting agencies (collectively, “defendants”), holding that the debtor failed to show a factual inaccuracy in the credit reporting of a debt.
On November 8, a federal jury for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota awarded the ResCap Liquidating Trust, the post-bankruptcy successor-in-interest to Residential Funding Company, LLC (RFC), a $27.8 million verdict in an indemnity case against a correspondent lender.
Many of the statistics reflecting trends in Irish economic activity have remained constant over the past few years. GDP has been rising, unemployment has been falling and inflation has remained fairly static. The recent publication of the Courts Service Annual Report 2017 confirms a similar consistent pattern in creditor litigation and enforcement, for the calendar year 2017.
Default judgments
Must the legal owner of securitised debt and related security disclose in proceedings it brings that it is a bare trustee for the beneficial owner? In addition, is that trustee obliged to join the beneficial owner as a party to those proceedings?
On July 27, the U.S.
On June 29, the FDIC and Federal Reserve issued (here and here) a joint request for public comment on proposed revisions to resolution plan guidance for the eight largest and most complex U.S. banks.
On May 17, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that an attorney fees award imposed under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) is a civil penalty and is not dischargeable under the Bankruptcy Code.