What do you get when you combine a 20+ year old bankruptcy, a contaminated landfill, and a state regulatory agency that moves at a glacial pace? The answer: In re Solitron Devices, Inc., a recent decision from the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. filed a prepackaged ("pre-pack") chapter 11 in April 2014 seeking a complete restructuring and quick-exit from bankruptcy, aiming to be in and out of bankruptcy in under 11 months. In May 2014, the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware confirmed the prepackaged disclosure statement and reorganization plan of Quiznos, and on May 23, 2014, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a $570 million loan in the Momentive Performance Materials prepack bankruptcy.

In Executive Benefits Insurance Agency, petitioner vs.  Peter H. Arkison, Chapter 7 Trustee, Case No. 12-1200, 573 U.S. __(2014) the United States Supreme Court  ( Court) delivered its opinion as a follow up to its landmark decision in Stern v. Marshall.  In Stern v.

Lenders and their attorneys are conditioned to believe that being over-secured is as good as life gets for a creditor.  Lenders want to secure repayment with collateral that is valuable and liquid, while their attorneys ensure that the security interest is properly perfected.  But, post-closing confidence in a job well done can quickly evaporate if the borrower files a bankruptcy case intending to sell the collateral. 

Secured creditors naturally want to be repaid. Sometimes secured creditors go as far as asking a debtor to waive its right to seek bankruptcy protection. Although such clauses are frequently held to be unenforceable, we previously have discussed exceptions for LLCs.

Since 1988, section 365(n) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code has protected licensees of intellectual property from having their licenses rejected by an insolvent licensor.  While this statute addresses certain contingencies and exceptions, the basic rule is that an insolvent licensor is not free to terminate (or ‘reject’) an intellectual property license the way it is free to shed itself of other contracts.

An executive’s right to severance payments isn’t always written in stone, even if his employer agrees to provide them.  In this post, we described how one exec lost his severance pay after the Federal Reserve decided that his employer, a bank, was in a “troubled condition” at the time.

The staff of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection recently sent a letter to the court handling ConnectEdu’s bankruptcy proceedings and sale of assets, which may include their customer’s personal information.

Earlier this week, the Third Circuit affirmed a federal bankruptcy court’s dismissal of a mesothelioma claim against a bankrupt oil company that arose as an adversary proceeding fifteen years after the bankruptcy plan was confirmed and discharged all outstanding claims.  The Circuit held that because the parties conceded the claim arose at the time of the victim’s asbestos exposure, which pre-dated the defendant’s bankruptcy, a

Recent Developments in Bankruptcy and Restructuring
Volume 13 l No. 3 l May–June 2014 JONES DAY
Business
Restructuring
Review
Eighth Circuit Expands Subsequent New Value
Preference Defense in Cases Involving Three-Party
Relationships
Charles M Oellermann and Mark G. Douglas
A bankruptcy trustee or chapter 11 debtor-in-possession has the power under section
547 of the Bankruptcy Code to avoid a transfer made immediately prior to
bankruptcy if the transfer unfairly prefers one or more creditors over the rest of