Section 510(b) of the Bankruptcy Code provides a mechanism designed to preserve the creditor/shareholder risk allocation paradigm by categorically subordinating most types of claims asserted against a debtor by equityholders in respect of their equity holdings. However, courts do not always agree on the scope of this provision in attempting to implement its underlying policy objectives. In In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 2017 WL 1718438 (2d Cir.

When lenders take an aggressive approach to a financially troubled borrower that ultimately files for bankruptcy protection, stakeholders in the case, including chapter 11 debtors, trustees, committees, and even individual creditors or shareholders, frequently pursue causes of action against the lenders in an effort to augment or create recoveries.

In a recent decision enforcing the discharge injunction under Section 1107(d)(1)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania blocked a creditor from asserting a claim against the debtor after confirmation of the plan. The case of In re Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park, Inc.), No. 14-11277, 2018 Bankr. LEXIS 1447 (JAD) (Bankr. W.D. Pa.

Although our Blog focuses more on corporate restructuring issues than individual bankruptcies, the discharge of student loan debt is a topic that seems to be an exception to that rule (see The Eternal Pursuit to Collect: Due Process Rights and Actions to Collect on a Debtor’s Defaulted Student Loans,

Section 363(k) of the Bankruptcy Code grants secured creditors the right to credit bid up to the full amount of their claim as a form of currency to bid to purchase assets securing their claim from a debtor in connection with a stand-alone sale of assets under section 363(b). In a recent opinion from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, In re Aerogroup International, Inc., Judge Kevin J.

Until recently, In re Atari, Inc. was a closed case, but, in a recent decision, the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York found that “other cause” existed to reopen the bankruptcy cases. 

Background

A fundamental tenet of chapter 11 bankruptcies is the absolute priority rule. Initially a judge-created doctrine, the absolute priority rule was partially codified in section 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii) of the Bankruptcy Code. Under section 1129, plans must be “fair and equitable” in order to be confirmed.

Funds passing through a correspondent bank account in New York can create personal jurisdiction over the funds’ recipient, ruled the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  In Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Arcapita Bank B.S.C. v.

In Momentive Performance Materials, the Second Circuit declined to dismiss as equitably moot the appeals of certain noteholders.

The recent decision from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, ECP Commercial II LLC v. Town Center Flats, LLC (In re Town Center Flats, LLC), gives us at the Weil Bankruptcy Blog a reason to revisit the issue of “absolute” assignments of rent.