Affiliated Lender Provisions and Debt Buybacks - Unenforceability of Bankruptcy Voting Proxies Expose Flaws in “Market Standard” Provisions
As electronic discovery has become more prevalent and voluminous, national standards for the preservation of evidence have evolved dramatically in the past decade. Through a proliferation of electronic discovery orders involving discovery compliance, courts have addressed when the duty to preserve evidence arises, signifying a party’s duty to issue a “litigation hold.” Courts have not answered, however, whether a party can withhold documents generated before issuing a litigation hold on the basis of work product protection.
On April 15, Freddie Mac issued Bulletin Number 2013-6, which announces numerous revisions to servicing requirements. The bulletin updates the allowable amounts for attorney fees for default-related legal services and details changes to the reimbursement process for such fees. Freddie Mac also reminds servicers about changes to foreclosure sale bidding on first lien mortgages.
On April 19, the Second Circuit ruled that a lawsuit brought by American International Group (AIG) against several Bank of America entities involving alleged fraud in connection with $28 billion in RMBS had been improperly removed from state to federal court.
Last year in this space we reported on a pair of Michigan court decisions (51382 Gratiot Avenue Holdings, Inc. v. Chesterfield Development Company (Chesterfield) and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v.
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware recently upheld a secured lender’s claim for a $23.5 million “makewhole” premium (the “Makewhole Claim”) over the heavily litigated objection raised by the unsecured creditors’ committee in In re School Specialty, Inc., No. 13-10125 (KJC) (Apr. 22, 2013).
On April 15 the Federal Reserve Board (Board) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced the release of additional guidance, clarification and direction for the first group of institutions filing their resolution plans pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These 11 institutions filed their initial resolution plans with the Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC in 2012.
On April 15, 2013, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued additional guidance (Guidance) with respect to the 2013 resolution plan submissions of the U.S. and foreign banking organizations that filed their initial resolution plans on July 1, 2012 (First-Round Filers).
Firms offering comprehensive financial services scored a significant victory on April 9, 2013, when Judge Robert Sweet of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed Capmark Financial Group Inc.’s (“Capmark”) insider preference action against four lender affiliates of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“Goldman Sachs”), which arose out of Capmark’s 2009 bankruptcy.1 Davis Polk represented the Goldman Sachs lender affiliates and advanced the arguments adopted by Judge Sweet.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) for the Eighth Circuit held on March 25, 2013, that a lender “lost its possessory lien when it turned the Debtor’s account funds over to the Trustee without first seeking adequate protection.” In re WEB2B Payment Solutions, Inc., _____ B.R. 2013 _____, 2013WL 1188041, *5 (8th Cir. B.A.P. March 25, 2013) (emphasis added).