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On May 4, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the order of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissing the appeal of chapter 13 debtor Luis Bullard for lack of jurisdiction.1 The Court held that the order of the Bankruptcy Court denying confirmation of Bullard’s proposed chapter 13 plan was not a final order from which Bullard could immediately appeal as of right.2 The Court reasoned that, while confirmation of a plan can be said to fix the rights and obligations of the parties in a way that alters the status quo, d

Extra Extra Read All About It. It was a cataclysmic weekend in college football for the Big 12 conference. The college football playoff committee elevated the one-loss Ohio State Buckeyes (Big 10) into the fourth and final slot in the inaugural College Football Playoff, taming a one-loss Baylor Bears (Big 12) sloth and a one-loss TCU Horned Frogs (Big 12) colony in the process. Some naysayers may look to the Big 12′s soft schedules and the absence of a league tiebreaker game as drivers of the committee’s decision.

On October 29, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the decision of the District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing as equitably moot appeals filed by three individuals (the “Appellants”) in the chapter 11 case of In re BGI Inc. f/k/a Borders Group, Inc.

On September 30, 2014, in In re SemCrude, L.P.,1 the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, affirming the Bankruptcy Court’s decision, held that direct partnership distributions by debtor SemGroup, L.P. (the “Debtor”) and indirect partnership distributions by its general partner, SemGroup G.P., L.L.C., to certain limited and general partners could not be avoided as constructive fraudulent transfers.

In Quadrant Structured Products Company, Ltd. v. Vertin (October 1, 2014), Vice Chancellor Laster clarified the Delaware Chancery Court’s approach to breach of fiduciary duty derivative actions brought by creditors against the directors of an insolvent corporation.

On September 26, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, overturning decisions by the Bankruptcy Court and the District Court for the Southern District of New York, held that the Bankruptcy Court was required to review under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code the transfer of a claim by a chapter 15 debtor with a recognized foreign main proceeding pending in the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”).1     In a case under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code in which a foreign main proceeding has been recognized, section 1520(a)(2) of the Bankr

On August 26, 2014, the Honorable Robert D. Drain, Bankruptcy Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, issued several bench rulings (the “Bench Rulings”) in connection with confirmation of a plan of reorganization in the chapter 11 cases of MPM Silicones, LLC, et al.

If you’re a secured lender, news of a Chapter 11 filing by your borrower can be unsettling. The commencement of a Chapter 11 case triggers an “automatic stay” which, with certain exceptions, operates as an injunction against all actions affecting the debtor or its property.3 Under the automatic stay, a secured lender holding a security interest in the debtor’s property may not repossess or foreclose on that property without the permission of the bankruptcy court.

On June 27, 2014, in National Heritage Foundation, Inc. v. Highbourne Foundation, 1 the United States  Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, agreeing with decisions by the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern  District of Virginia and the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which were issued upon  remand from a prior appeal, held that the third-party non-debtor release provision in the chapter 11 plan  of reorganization of National Heritage Foundation, Inc.  was invalid.