Last year, the 112-year old retailer J.C. Penney was regularly in the news – and it was rarely good. The stock was in a free-fall, in the process of dropping from about $20 per share in May 2013 to a low of a little more than $6 dollars per share in late October. Media reports were grim, focusing on the attempt and failure of the former Apple executive Ron Johnson to turn the business around. But now, as we approach the critical holiday season, J.C.
In connection with a contentious restructuring, Judge Drain of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled recently that certain lenders to Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (Case No. 14-22503) had no enforceable claim to a so-called “make-whole” premium.
For some time, there has been a split among the circuit courts as to whether the Bankruptcy Code permits non-consensual releases of non-debtor entities under a plan of reorganization.
Under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act1, trustees have considerable discretion to administer a bankrupt’s estate in an expedient manner. However, the British Columbia Court of Appeal recently confirmed that trustees must exercise such discretion within the limits of relevant statutory provisions and common law principles.
Judge Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted class claim certification to a group of former MF Global employees seeking payment on account of unpaid accrued vacation time.
When a key customer files bankruptcy, one of the first questions you will face is whether to keep doing business or end the relationship. (Another key question is making sure your pre-bankruptcy claim gets on file or otherwise acknowledged.) Since companies in bankruptcy (called debtors or debtors in possession) usually cannot survive without trade support, they often reach out to suppliers to ask for trade terms, or at least a steady supply of goods, after a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy is filed.
As we noted last month, the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkison, Case No. 12-1200, 573 U.S. ___ (2014), affirmed the constitutional authority of bankruptcy courts to issue proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law to federal district courts in connection with “Stern claims”.
I. Introduction
Canadian restructuring and liquidation legislation provides struggling companies and bankruptcy trustees with powerful tools to restructure their affairs and maximize value for stakeholders. For example, in the right circumstances valuable contracts can be assigned, on notice to the counterparties, to buyers prepared to pay well for the rights conferred under the contracts. In such circumstances, the counterparty’s bargained for right to withhold its consent to an assignment can be effectively overridden by court order.
American Apparel has been on the watch-list for those who follow distressed retailers for quite a while. The company, known for its provocative advertising and American-made apparel, has approximately 249 retail stores in the U.S. and 19 other countries.