On June 29, 2015, Baha Mar Ltd, the development company behind a $3.5 billion Bahamian resort and its affiliated debtors, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the U.S. District Court of Delaware.  Attached here is a copy of the petition.  Debtors offer the declaration of Thomas M. Dunlap in support of their first day pleadings.

The Supreme Court has not handled its recent major bankruptcy decisions well. The jurisdictional confusion engendered by its 2011 decision in Stern v.

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its opinion in Baker Botts v. Asarco, holding that professionals retained in bankruptcy cases cannot receive compensation for the costs of defending their fee applications. Even if you aren’t a bankruptcy professional, there are two things to keep in mind about this opinion. First, it won’t stop us restructuring professionals from doing our jobs. Second, the reality of commercial bankruptcy practice is often at odds with the pure textual analysis favored by the Supreme Court.

In an opinion issued on June 1 in a case entitled Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, the United States Supreme Court answered a question that has split lower courts since the Supreme Court decided Dewsnup v. Timm in 1992. The question answered in Caulkett was whether a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case can “strip off” a lien on the debtor’s property if the bankruptcy court determines that the lien is worthless, leaving the former secured creditor with an unsecured claim that can be discharged. The Supreme Court’s answer is no.

Section 303 of the Bankruptcy Code provides creditors with a mechanism to force a recalcitrant debtor into bankruptcy through the filing of an involuntary petition for relief. Pursuant to this section, an involuntary bankruptcy case may be commenced only under Chapter 7 or 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, and may only be brought against a person otherwise qualified to file a voluntary petition. Where the purported debtor has fewer than 12 creditors, the involuntary petition need only be filed by a single creditor.

I want to share with you a recent development in California asbestos litigation concerning bankruptcy trust disclosures. More specifically, Judge Elias, the Los Angeles Asbestos Supervising Judge, recently issued an order relating to disclosures of bankruptcy trust information.

When a consumer debtor files a bankruptcy petition, a notice is mailed out by the court to all of the debtor’s scheduled creditors. In most bankruptcy courts, the notice contains the debtor’s filing date, case number, and other pertinent information meant to aid a creditor in identifying the debtor. In addition, the notice typically contains several important dates and deadlines.

What’s the News?

A US Bankruptcy Judge recently approved the sale of a package of RadioShack’s intellectual property assets—including consumer data obtained from RadioShack customers—to General Wireless Inc., the hedge fund affiliate that acquired over 1,700 RadioShack stores in February. The sale was not without controversy.

Current market conditions are straining business relationships in the oil and gas industry. In a growing number of cases, distressed companies are seeking chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In that event, a creditor-debtor relationship is formed between the bankrupt company and the performing partner. For example, in the context of a joint operating agreement, an operator (the performing partner) may seek to recapture drilling costs from a non-operator (the bankrupt company).

“In bankruptcy, as in life, timing can be everything” – the Fifth Circuit.