As the Supreme Court recently reminded us in Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, not all orders in bankruptcy cases are immediately appealable as a matter of right. Only those orders deemed sufficiently “final” may be appealed without leave under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a).
Agriculture is a long-term business and most people within the sector are proud of its reputation for straight talking and fair dealing. Debt issues can arise at any stage, but there are particular cyclical problems at the moment which mean that there is more debt-chasing activity, as cashflow pressures intensify.
In 1571, Parliament enacted a law, sometimes known as the Statute of 13 Elizabeth, creating one of the greatest means of creditor protection – the proscription of fraudulent transfers.
Angel Group Ltd and others concerned a group of companies in Administration where the director asserted that the companies’ bank had “conspired to artificially distress the business”
The facts
In the case of Angel Group Ltd and others [2015] EWHC 3624, Administrators from KPMG were appointed to Angel Group Limited and to seven of its subsidiaries. The Bank of Scotland was the only secured creditor, and was owed a residual balance of £20 million.
The High Court has determined the circumstances in which sums drawn down under a self-investment personal pension scheme could be subject to an income payments order.
The background
So, a ruling came out in June that we in The Bankruptcy Cave have been dying to blog about (and not just so we can use the blog title above). Forgive the delay – heavy workloads and summer vacations often preclude timely blog posts. But this one is a doozy, better late than never on this blog post.
Two recent cases serve as reminders the devil is truly in the details.
Individual debtors with old tax debts relating to late-filed tax returns may be surprised to find that those tax debts may not be dischargeable under section 523(a) of the Bankruptcy Code due to the lateness of the tax filing. There is a current Circuit split regarding whether a late tax filing constitutes a “return” at all, which is critical to the dischargeability inquiry. The Ninth Circuit weighed in last week in In re Smith, 2016 WL 3749156 (9th Cir. July 13, 2016), further cementing the split.
On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA)[1] into law. A copy of the Act can be found here.
Remember Sabena, the ill-fated Belgian airline that declared bankruptcy in 2001? Well, to quote Ford Madox Ford, this is the saddest story I have ever heard.