At approximately 10:15 this morning, Judge Walrath of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court made an oral ruling confirming Washington Mutual's chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
Over the last three and one-half years, hundreds of attorneys and other professionals have worked thousands of hours in an effort to help WAMU obtain a measure of relief from its debts so that it could emerge from bankruptcy protection with the ability to continue to operate. What has emerged from the process is a smaller, leaner company with a greatly reduced debt load.
Introduction
On February 10th, electricity operator LSP Energy LP ("LSP") filed chapter 11 petitions for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. As stated in court filings, LSP owns and operates an electricity plant located in Batesville, Mississippi. Aside from its gas-fired electric generation facility, LSP's assets consist primarily of 58 acres of land in which it operates its facility. See Declaration of LSP's President in Support of First Day Motions (the "Declaration" or "Decl.").
Introduction
Many experienced business people are now familiar with the process by which their valid and successful debt collection efforts result in liability under the preference provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.
New amendments to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 2019 were recently adopted in an attempt to clarify requirements surrounding file 2019 statements in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.
Prior to the amendments, which were adopted Dec. 1, 2011, Rule 2019 was often applied in an inconsistent haphazard manner resulting in a great deal of uncertainty regarding who was required to file the statement and under what circumstances that statement was required to be filed.
The Original Rule 2019
If you are a creditor of a Delaware limited liability company and wish to pursue derivative claims on behalf of an insolvent company against the company’s present or former managers based on breaches of fiduciary duties, you may be out of luck. The Delaware Supreme Court recently decided in CML V LLC v. Bax, 2011 Del. LEXIS 480 (Sept. 2, 2011), that creditors’ rights against limited liability companies differ from those against corporations.
Introduction
When talking about mergers, acquisitions and maybe even liquidations, retirement plans can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Asset purchases that result in the liquidation of the seller company, or acquisitions of assets by buyers, can create problems over legacy retirement plans. These "orphan" plans just don't disappear and they have to be dealt with properly.
When a tenant under a commercial lease defaults and the landlord wishes to exercise a right to terminate the lease and evict the tenant, the landlord must comply with the terms of the lease and the applicable law regarding termination and eviction. This issue was addressed in a September 8, 2011, decision by the U.S.