Recently secured parties, including some indenture trustees, have found the priority, scope, validity and enforceability of seemingly properly perfected security interests in Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) licenses, authorizations and permits, and any proceeds or value derived therefrom, challenged by creditors in bankruptcy proceedings.

Imagine a scenario in which you have a long standing relationship with an important customer and you learn that this customer is running into financial difficulties. In the current economic cycle, this is probably not a hypothetical, but, rather, an everyday reality. During the course of the relationship, this important customer has from time to time fallen behind in paying invoices and has even reached or exceeded the credit limits your company has imposed on this customer.

DBSD Case Upholds Designation of Votes Cast By a Claims Purchaser

A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York concluded that a landlord
who obtains a judgment of possession and warrant of
eviction prepetition, yet is stayed from executing on the
warrant due to the debtor’s bankruptcy filing, may not be
entitled to post-petition rent as an administrative expense.
In In re Association of Graphic Communications, Inc., No. 07-
10278 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. July 13, 2010), the court decided
that, under New York law, the prepetition warrant of

On June 23, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, that a Bankruptcy Judge lacked constitutional authority to issue a final ruling on state law counterclaims by a debtor against a claimant. This is the latest round of a well-known case involving the estate of former model Anna Nicole Smith and the estate of her late husband, wealthy oil magnate J. Howard Marshall.  

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a proposed “gifting” plan distributing value from the second lien lenders to the prepetition equity holder violated the absolute priority rule and was confirmed in error.2 This decision, by a 2-1 panel vote,3 reversed the decisions of the Bankruptcy and District Courts for the Southern District of New York. The Second Circuit also affirmed unanimously the designation of the vote of an indirect competitor of the debtor that held no claims prior to the petition date.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware recently dismissed equitable subordination and fraudulent transfer claims filed by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Champion Enterprises, Inc.

In two recent decisions, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has interpreted narrowly certain of the Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor provisions.  

Introduction

On February 16, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that a discounted cash flow analysis constituted “a commercially reasonable determinant[] of value” for purposes of section 562(a) of the United States Bankruptcy Code.1 In so doing, the court upheld the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware decision sustaining the objection of American Home Mortgage Holdings, Inc.