On Sunday, Citadel Broadcasting, the nation’s third largest radio station operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after reaching a pre-negotiated restructuring agreement with creditors that hold 60% of the company’s secured debt. Citadel owns and operates 224 AM and FM radio stations that include KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago, and WPLJ-FM in New York City. New York’s WABC-AM, which is owned by Citadel, is the home of ABC Radio News and also hosts several syndicated radio personalities, including Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh. In documents filed with the U.S.

Hedge funds and other investors in debt or equity securities often form unofficial “ad hoc” committees through which they actively participate in chapter 11 cases. Recent decisions affirm that such ad hoc committees must comply with the disclosure requirements of Bankruptcy Rule 2019 – including the nature and amounts of claims or interests held by members and other details. What about a “group” that says it’s a lot less than an ad hoc committee and therefore, outside the Rule?

Rather than immediately commencing foreclosure proceedings, lenders and servicers (acting on behalf of the lender) are seeking the judicial appointment of receivers with greater frequency when commercial real estate workout negotiations fail to produve the desired results and the borrower is not otherwise prepared to "turn over the keys."

Charter Communications stepped closer to emerging from Chapter 11 protection as a New York bankruptcy judge approved the company’s pre-arranged plan of reorganization on Tuesday. Based in St. Louis, Charter ranks as the nation’s fourth largest cable system operator with 4.9 million subscribers across 27 states. Straining under a debt load of $21.7 billion, Charter filed for bankruptcy protection in March after bondholders in possession of $8 billion of the company’s debt agreed to exchange their debt for equity in the reorganized entity. The plan endorsed by U.S.

In Dumont v. Ford Motor Credit Company, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the Bankruptcy Code does not protect a debtor’s personal property collateral if the debtor fails to commit to redeem, reaffirm or assume the underlying loan—even if the debtor continues timely to make loan payments.

Governors of three New England states have vowed to monitor Chapter 11 proceedings launched on Monday by Fairpoint Communications, which paid $2.3 billion last year to acquire New England fixed line telephone infrastructure owned previously by Verizon Communications.

The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has issued a decision concluding that company-paid medical coverage offered as part of an employee severance package is a “retiree benefit” that cannot be unilaterally modified by the company in bankruptcy, except as provided under Section 1114 of the Bankruptcy Code.

The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that an environmental clean-up obligation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) is not dischargeable in bankruptcy, even when the debtor no longer has any internal clean-up operations and would have to contract a third party to provide such services at significant cost.

On August 11, 2009, Judge Gropper of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York denied motions to dismiss bankruptcy petitions of several special-purpose entity subsidiaries (SPEs) of General Growth Properties, Inc. (GGP) that were solvent, financially healthy companies structured to be remote from the bankruptcy risks of GGP and its other affiliates.

Citing a slowdown in its business caused, in part, by the recent global credit crunch, Sea Launch has filed a petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Based in Long Beach, California, Sea Launch is owned by Boeing (40%) and by foreign partners that include RSC-Energia of Russia, Kvaener ASA of Norway, and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of the Ukraine. In addition to operating its seagoing launch platform in the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean, the company has started offering landbased launches from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan.