GST Autoleather, Inc., a manufacturer of leather interior products for automobiles based in Southfield, Michigan, along with five of its subsidiaries and affiliates, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 17-12100).

On September 27, 2017, the Senate passed the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017. The Senate’s bill is intended to ease the burden on certain overworked bankruptcy courts and also increase bankruptcy fees in larger cases. The House of Representatives passed a different version of the bill earlier in the year.

On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court decided Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corp., holding that a bankruptcy court may not approve a structured dismissal of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case if the order does not comply with the priority rules of the Bankruptcy Code. 580 U.S. __ (2017).

In many decisions involving US chapter 15 cases, the bankruptcy court’s principal focus will be on what is the debtor’s center of main interests (COMI). An ancillary issue is whether it is appropriate to create COMI to obtain the benefit of a more favorable jurisdiction to restructure a company’s debt (otherwise known as “COMI shifting”).

Introduction

Exelco North America, Inc., a diamond wholesaler based in Wilmington, DE, along with three affiliates, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 17-12029).

On September 18, in an en banc review, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overruled, in part, seminal casesBarger v. City of Cartersville, 348 F.3d 1289 (11th Cir. 2003) and Burnes v. Pemco Aeroplex, Inc., 291 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir. 2002), adopting a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis when facing questions of judicial estoppel.

In recent years, courts have become increasingly critical of the doctrine of equitable mootness, a judicially created abstention doctrine that allows appellate courts to dismiss appeals from a bankruptcy court’s confirmation order in certain circumstances. Although the doctrine is meant to be applied only sparingly, to avoid unscrambling complex reorganizations on appeal, it has been invoked in noncomplex cases or where limited relief is practicable. As a result, some circuit courts have urged a more limited application of the doctrine.

Vitamin World, Inc., along with eight of its affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 17-11933). In the Petition, Vitamin World reports $50 million to $100 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a decision in July, 2017 that holds banks liable for diversion of funds in violation of New York’s lien law, when it should have known of the trust nature of the funds it receives. In Delco Electrical Corp. v. Wells Fargo Capital Finance, Inc., 2017 WL 3311224 (E.D.N.Y. July 31, 2017), Teltronics, Inc. (“Teltronics”) contracted with the New York City Department of Education to make telecommunications-related improvements at public schools from 2007-2011.