“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked” – Warren Buffet

The tide has gone out on the municipal finance market.

While much of the discussion about the financial fall-out of the COVID-19 virus has focused on the massive wealth destruction in stock markets and pressure on corporates around the world, the impact on the largest financial market in the world- the $3 trillion US municipal finance market- cannot be ignored. Simply put, the market is imploding.

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On December 20, 2019, Judge Marvin Isgur in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division) entered a memorandum opinion which held that debtors' midstream gathering agreements formed real property covenants "running with the land" under Oklahoma law - and such agreements could not be subject to rejection under section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code. See 11 U.S.C. section 365(a) (allowing a debtor-in-possession, "subject to the court's approval," to "assume or reject any executory contract.").

Withdrawal liability under ERISA can be a significant factor considered by private equity funds in making  investments in portfolio companies. And it becomes an even more significant factor if the private equity fund is  determined to be a member of the company’s “control group” in which case the fund (and perhaps its partners)  c

We have blogged several times about mass tort plaintiffs who failed to list their tort claims in prior bankruptcy proceedings, thereby stiffing their creditors. See here, for example. Do they get away with it? Usually not. Courts have routinely sent those tort plaintiffs packing, and two different theories call for that result: (1) lack of standing, and (2) judicial estoppel.

The new EU Directive on preventive restructuring frameworks¹ was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 26 June 2019 and entered into force on 16 July 2019. The objective of the Directive is to harmonize the laws and procedures of EU member states concerning preventive restructurings, insolvency and the discharge of debt.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that payments made by a debtor’s customers to its lender converting a pre-petition loan to a post-petition loan constituted disbursements for the purposes of calculating the statutory fees payable pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1930(a)(6). In re Cranberry Growers Coop., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 21121 (7th Cir. July 17, 2019). This decision, coupled with the increase in the quarterly fees for the U.S.

1. Background

The sauvegarde filing by Camaïeu’s holding company Modacin France SAS (Holdco) has been reported in the French press as one of the first cases where a safeguard proceeding has been opened by a company’s management in order to prevent its creditors from enforcing the fiducie previously granted to them over the shares of Holdco’s subsidiary as part of a court-approved restructuring proceeding (conciliation) of the group back in 2016.

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association, Inc.

Does termination of a contract before the works are complete impact an employer’s ability to recover liquidated damages? This question was recently considered by the English Court of Appeal. The answer? It depends on the terms of the contract. However, it seems that many liquidated damages provisions, including those in currently used standard form construction contracts, may not apply at all on termination of the contract, leaving employers to prove a claim for general damages for delays suffered both before and after termination.