Can Gathering Agreements Be Rejected as Executory Contracts?

Courts agree that bankruptcy trustees control bankrupt companies' attorney-client privilege. It is easy to underestimate this basic principle's strength.

In 2015, the energy sector accounted for more than one-half of all public company bankruptcy filings, including eight of the 10 largest filings. Current oil prices and bond values indicate that 2016 will be another active year. As of late January 2016, crude oil prices hovered around $30 per barrel. These low prices are reflected in the bond market, where in December 2015, approximately $80 billion in non-defaulted oil and gas debt was trading below 50 cents on the dollar.

On January 25, Lehman and JPMorgan announced a settlement to resolve several aspects of the contentious and multifaceted Lehman-JPMorgan dispute that has lingered throughout Lehman’s bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy court will hear a motion to approve the settlement on February 8.

Director of Corporate Enforcement -v- Walsh & ors [2016] IECA 2 concerned an appeal by the Director of Corporate Enforcement (the Director) against a decision of Barrett J declining to make a disqualification or restriction order against three directors.

The District Court for the Southern District of New York recently affirmed the Bankruptcy Court’s decision to approve the method used by trustee of the estate of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) to value the net equity of transfers between BLMIS accounts. See In re BLMIS (Melton Tr. v. Picard), Case No. 1:15-cv-01195-PAE (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 14, 2016).

Background

In Cahill -v- O'Brien & anor [2015] IEHC 817, the Court considered an application for the restriction of two directors pursuant to Section 150 of the Companies Act, 1990 together with an application extending the time for the making of the application.

Facts

Many courts recognize that a corporation's constituent (such as an audit committee or a group of independent directors) can own the privilege and work product protection covering the constituent's internal corporate investigation. Under this approach, the company's bankruptcy trustee cannot access or waive that privilege or work product protection. See, e.g., Ex parte Smith, 942 So. 2d 356 (Ala. 2006) (denying a bankruptcy trustee's attempt to access pre-bankruptcy communications between the company's independent directors and its Skadden Arps lawyers).

In its recent decision in the case of Perfect Pies Limited (in receivership) and Pearse Farrell v Chupn Limited [2015] 11 JIC 0607, the Commercial Court has considered the difficult question of the unreasonable withholding of consent to the assignment of a commercial lease. This case involved interesting issues, in particular around a landlord potentially seeking to use the opportunity of an application for consent to assignment to pursue "ulterior motives" – in this case, to obtain possession of the premises.

Background 

In this unusual case the High Court considered the enforceability of a contract for the sale of land to a construction company now in receivership, with much of the argument surrounding whether there was in fact a sufficient note or memorandum in writing for the purposes of the Statute of Frauds (Ireland) 1695.

Facts