The United States Supreme Court declined to review a Second Circuit decision wherein a bankruptcy trust fund established to reimburse asbestos victims while barring them from future lawsuits against insurers was held to not apply to Chubb Indemnity Insurance Co. In the underlying matter, Chubb sought contribution for asbestos injury claims from The Travelers Indemnity Co. The trust was established in 1986 by a bankruptcy court and funded with hundreds of millions of dollars from insurers for the benefit of asbestos claimants and their families.

The treatment of derivatives, or “qualified financial contracts”, under state insurance insolvency laws has received increased attention since the financial crisis. Four states passed laws in 2010 that allow for the exercise of certain netting collateral and termination provisions in an insurance insolvency without regard to the automatic stay mechanism and similar laws are anticipated in other states in 2011. Federal laws provide a level of certainty with respect to the treatment of certain swap agreement provisions in a general corporate bankruptcy. The U.S.

Introduction

Earlier this month, the chapter 11 trustee (the "Trustee") in the DBSI bankruptcy began filing adversary actions seeking the avoidance and recovery of alleged fraudulent transfers. The Trustee filed the adversary actions against various defendants, some of whom the Trustee identifies as "John Doe 1 -10." This post will look briefly at the DBSI bankruptcy proceeding, why DBSI filed for bankruptcy, as well as some of the events that have transpired since the compnay filed for bankruptcy.

Background

As we first covered here, Ambac Financial Group Inc., the parent of the ailing Wisconsin-domiciled bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief with United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on November 8, 2010.

As previously discussed here, Ambac Financial Group Inc. has filed for bankruptcy for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief with United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Immediately following its bankruptcy filing, Ambac sued the United States to block the Internal Revenue Service from placing a lien on its assets in an attempt to recover an estimated $700 million in tax refunds that the agency believes it may be owed.

In re Leslie Controls, Inc., (Bankr. D. Del., Case No. 10-12199, 2010)

CASE SNAPSHOT

In the Matter of TCI 2 Holdings, LLC, 428 B.R. 117 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2010)

CASE SNAPSHOT

Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors v Credit Suisse (In re Champion Enterprises, Inc.), 2010 WL 3522132 (Bankr. D. Del. 2010)

CASE SNAPSHOT

Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of TOUSA, Inc. v. Technical Olympic, S.A. (In re TOUSA, Inc.), 2010 WL 3835829 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2010)

CASE SNAPSHOT

Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. v. Tucker, No. 09-5867 (6th Cir. 2010)

CASE SNAPSHOT

In resolving a conflict within the Sixth Circuit, the Court of Appeals has held that chapter 13 debtors who propose in their plan of reorganization to cure the arrearage on their mortgage loan are required to pay all fees and costs required by the mortgage and non-bankruptcy law, even if the mortgage lender is undersecured. Put another way, mortgage lenders may include such fees and costs in their proofs of claim.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND