Chapter 11 has long been used by companies to obtain relief from legacy tort liabilities. There has been a lingering question, however, as to whether chapter 11 can bar claims by tort litigants who were exposed to a hazardous material or defective product before bankruptcy but do not develop injuries until after the case is over. Some debtors have set up trusts and appointed representatives for so-called “future claimants”: this approach can be effective, but may add months or years to a bankruptcy case along with significant cost, business disruption and litigation.
On January 10, 2014, in a closely watched case, Judge George Hodges of the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled that Garlock Sealing Technologies, Inc.
In a recent opinion on an issue of first impression,1 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that foreign entities seeking recognition under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code must, in addition to satisfying the requirements for recognition set forth in that chapter, have a residence, domicile, place of business or assets in the United States.
In the first appellate court decision on the issue, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that trade claims subject to disallowance under section 502(d) of the Bankruptcy Code are disallowable “no matter who holds them.”1 In In re KB Toys Inc., the Third Circuit affirmed Bankruptcy and District Court decisions holding that trade claims subject to disallowance in the hands of an original claimant remain disallowable in the hands of a subsequent transferee.
On November 15, 2013, Judge Martin Glenn of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that original issue discount (“OID”) created in a prepetition “fair market value” debt exchange is not disallowable in bankruptcy.1 This noteworthy ruling provides important and long-awaited guidance for the investing community on the question left open by the Second Circuit’s 1992 ruling in LTV Corp. v. Valley Fidelity Bank & Trust Co. (In re Chateaugay Corp.).2
BACKGROUND
Recent heeft het Hof van Cassatie de deur iets wijder opengezet voor schuldeisers van een failliete vennootschap om, hangende het faillissement, een individuele vordering in te stellen tegen de bestuurders van de gefailleerde (Cass. 5 september 2013, A.R. nr. C.12.0445.N,www.juridat.be). Concreet mocht de fiscus de niet-betaalde bedrijfsvoorheffing, die opgenomen was in het passief van het faillissement, de facto integraal verhalen op de bestuurders, op grond van foutaansprakelijkheid.
On 9 July 2013 a new law amending the Code of Commerce was enacted in Luxembourg (the “Law”). The Law introduces the right for a depositor to claim the recovery of intangible and non-fungible (i.e., identifiable and separable) goods from a bankrupt company. The parliamentary file aims clearly at including data from a bankrupt cloud computing service provider. The Law sets forth the different conditions to be fulfilled for the entitlement to claim intangible and non-fungible goods from a bankrupt company:
On September 12, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that American Airlines, Inc. (“American”) had the right to repay $1.3 billion in debt (“Notes”) without payment of a make-whole amount.1 The Second Circuit dismissed all of the arguments raised by U.S. Bank Trust National Association (“U.S.
After a company has been declared bankrupt, the liquidator in charge of the bankrupt estate will process personal data on that bankrupt company’s behalf. The liquidator would then be considered a so-called data controller within the meaning of the Dutch Data Protection Act (DDPA).
A Dutch Court of Appeal recently upheld a lower court’s decision that a liquidator has the right to access data concerning the administration of a bankrupt company, the data of which are kept by a third party. It also held that this right, however, does not imply that the third party must provide the data in an orderly manner without being adequately compensated for it.