In re Castle Home Builders, Inc., 520 B.R. 98 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2014) –

The debtors obtained confirmation of plans of reorganization that restructured prepetition mortgage loans.  When the servicer for some of the loans continued to ignore the terms of the plans, the reorganized debtors sought enforcement of the court’s confirmation order and sanctions.

Great Plains Royalty Corp. v. Earl Schwartz Co. (In re Great Plains Royalty Corp.), 520 B.R. 292 (Bankr. D. N.D. 2014) –

In re Flex Fin. Holding Co., 518 B.R. 891 (Bankr. D. Kan. 2014) –

Ring v. First Niagara Bank, N.A. (In re Sterling United, Inc.), 519 B.R. 586 (Bankr. W.D.N.Y. 2014) –

A chapter 7 trustee sought to recover as preferences payments made by the debtor to a lender and proceeds of collateral liquidation received by the lender based on arguments regarding whether UCC financing statements adequately perfected the lender’s security interests.

In re Triple A & R Inv., Inc., 519 B.R. 581 (Bankr. D. P.R. 2014) –

A mortgagee moved for relief from the automatic stay based on the debtor’s prepetition consent to stay relief.  The debtor argued that a prepetition waiver was unenforceable.

A recent decision by a New Jersey bankruptcy court scrambles the law regarding rejected trademark licenses.¹ Crumbs was a multi-location bakery that also licensed its trademarks and trade secrets to third parties. In July of 2014 Crumbs filed a Chapter 11 reorganization case and in August of 2014 the court entered an order selling substantially all of the assets of Crumbs to LFAC² free and clear of liens, claims, encumbrances, and interests.

In re Killmer, 513 B.R. 41 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2014) –

After reopening a bankruptcy case, a mortgagee moved for a determination that a post-petition delinquent property tax sale was void because it was held in violation of the automatic stay.  In response, the tax authority requested retroactive annulment of the stay.

In a case that should cause lenders heartburn, the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina recently ruled that common provisions in a Chapter 11 plan prevented the debtor’s lender from executing on a judgment against the non-debtor owner of the debtor.¹ Biltmore is a corporation² that operates manufactured home parks and sells and rents manufactured homes. McGee is the president and controlling shareholder of Biltmore. Biltmore filed Chapter 11 in January of 2011, and TD Bank was Biltmore’s largest secured creditor.

Waldschmidt v. Singletary Construction LLC (In re Tackett), 516 B.R. 498 (Bankr. M.D. Tenn. 2014) –

A bankruptcy trustee sought turnover of profits from the sale of homes constructed by a contractor.  The trustee contended that there were contracts between the debtor and the contractor pursuant to which the debtor agreed to reimburse the contractor for its costs plus pay a $15,000 contractor’s fee for each home.

Weiss v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (In re Thibault), 518 B.R. 635 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2014) –

A chapter 7 trustee sought to avoid a mortgage using his “strong­arm” powers on the basis that it was not properly recorded because the spelling of the debtor’s last name in the mortgage was not the “correct” spelling.