The English courts have been careful to control the circumstances in which a constructive trust will be declared.
Introduction
Mata, et al., v. Eclipse Aerospace, Inc. (In re AE Liquidation, Inc., et al.) Case No. 08-51891, 2011 BL 51047 (Bankr. D. Del. Feb. 28, 2011)
CASE SNAPSHOT
In In re Mississippi Valley Livestock, Inc., No. 13-1377 (7th Cir. Mar.
Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of recovering approximately $20 billion from the Madoff Ponzi scheme, may now seek claims against the wives of Bernard Madoff's two sons according to a recent court order. Judge Burton Lifland of the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has held that the bankruptcy court’s exclusive jurisdiction to dispose of estate property did not preclude the enforcement of an arbitration provision.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently held that insiders who control the operations of a debtor owe a duty, as fiduciaries, to refrain from self-dealing. In re Brook Valley VII, Joint Venture (Lange v. Schropp), 496 F.3d 892 (8th Cir. 2007). The controlling insiders of two Chapter 11 debtors had thus breached their fiduciary duties to the debtors when they caused the debtors to consent to a foreclosure sale of estate properties and then secretly purchased the properties for themselves at the sale.
Owners of bank loan participations take on two kinds of credit risk: (i) the borrower’s failure to pay the underlying bank loan, and (ii) the loan participation grantor’s bankruptcy. The first risk is well understood and carefully analyzed in each transaction. This memorandum focuses on the second kind of credit risk assumed by a participant -- grantor insolvency.
The “Ades” and “Berg” groups of investors (the “Ades Berg Group”), were parties who joined in the bankruptcy proceedings of the Bennett Funding Group, Inc. and related companies (the “Bennett Group”), based on claims that, among other things, the Bennett Group had defrauded them in an investment scheme. The Bennett Group was insured under a reinsurance contract issued by Sphere Drake Insurance PLC (“Sphere Drake”). A settlement was reached in the course of the bankruptcy proceedings between some groups of investors and Sphere Drake.
The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel has held that a finance company did not have a perfected security interest in equipment lease payment pools assigned to it because neither the assignee, nor the assignor with which it had contracted, filed the appropriate UCC financing statements.
In a case that has broad implications for trustees and taxing authorities embroiled in preference avoidance actions, the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri weighed in on the parameters of a trustee’s ability to avoid preferential sales and use tax payments under section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Overdue Tax Payments