On September 21, 2011, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director David Vladeck sent a letter to the court appointed consumer privacy ombudsman in the Borders Group, Inc. (Borders) bankruptcy proceeding advising against the sale of Border's customer information absent customer consent or significant restrictions on the transfer and use of the information.

The scenario has become all too familiar in recent years: a borrower defaults on a loan and, when the lender pursues the loan collateral through foreclosure or other proceedings, the borrower files for bankruptcy protection. More often than not, when the lender appears in bankruptcy court to pursue its interest in the collateral, the borrower counterattacks with a host of state law lender liability claims.

Avondale Gateway Center Entitlement, LLC v. National Bank of Arizona, et al. (In re Avondale Gateway Center Entitlement, LLC), 2011 WL 1376997 (D. Ariz. Apr. 12, 2011)

CASE SNAPSHOT

Geltzer v. Mooney (In re MacMenamin’s Grill Ltd.), Adv. Case. No. 09-8266, Bankr. Case No. 08-23660, 2011 WL 1549056 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Apr. 21, 2011)

CASE SNAPSHOT

Lehman Brothers Special Financing, Inc. v. Ballyrock ABS-CDO 2007-1 Limited (In re Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.) No. 09-01032 (JMP) (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. May 12, 2011)  

CASE SNAPSHOT

Last week’s Chapter 11 filing by NewPage Corporation, a company with assets and liabilities in the billions of dollars, stands as a relative rarity in the current restructuring environment.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, applying federal law, has held that certain lawsuits brought by a bankruptcy trustee were related claims, even though they alleged unique causes of action, because they were based upon the same course of conduct.  The court also found that the trustee was pursuing claims both on behalf of the policyholder-debtor and its subsidiaries, and therefore the application of the insured versus insured exclusion was “unclear.”  Nonetheless, the court found that the individual insureds were entitled to 100% of their defense cos

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California recently held that the filing of a bankruptcy petition by a borrower can void a trustee sale even where the petition is filed after the trustee sale, so long as the borrower files the petition before the execution of the trustee's deed upon sale. In re: Gonzales 2011 WL3328508 (Bkrtcy. C.D.Cal. August 1, 2011).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that prematurity redemptions of commercial paper made by Enron Corp. shortly before it filed for bankruptcy were protected from avoidance by 11 U.S.C. § 546(e)’s safe harbor for securities transaction settlement payments. In re Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. v. Alfa., No. 09-5122-bk (2d Cir. June 28, 2011). In so doing, the Second Circuit resolved a clash between the Bankruptcy Code’s interest in avoiding preferential debt repayment and the securities industry’s interest in preserving transaction finality.

In re XMH Corp., Nos. 10-2596, 10-2597, 10- 2598 and 10-2599 (7th Cir. July 26, 2011)  

CASE SNAPSHOT

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently answered the following questions: (a) whether, under the Bankruptcy Code, a trademark license is assignable (that is, salable) without the licensor’s permission, in the absence of a clause in the agreement stating that it is assignable (NO); and (b) whether a trademark license can be “implied” in an agreement that does not say it’s a trademark license (NO).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND