The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed judgment against a borrower for quiet title claims brought against the owner and servicer of her mortgage loan, and entered judgment of foreclosure in the loan owner and servicer’s favor on their counterclaims for foreclosure against the borrower.

In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently held that “filing a proof of claim in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy based on a debt that is time-barred does not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when the statute of limitations does not extinguish the debt.”

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey recently dismissed a debtor's claims for violations of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the New Jersey Truth in Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA), holding the debtor's failure to schedule his lawsuit as an asset of his bankruptcy estate deprived him of standing to later assert the claims.

A copy of the opinion is available at: Link to Opinion

La Dirección General de Tributos examina, en un contexto de consolidación fiscal, las consecuencias fiscales de una operación en virtud de la cual la entidad dominante condona los créditos que tiene sobre sus filiales, derechos adquiridos previamente por medio de una operación de reestructuración empresarial no acogida al régimen de neutralidad fiscal y registrados por un valor inferior a su nominal.

Article 93(2)(3) of the Spanish Insolvency Act¹ (abbrev. LC) states that companies that belong to the same group of companies as the insolvent debtor shall be regarded as parties related to such debtor.

Privilege bestowed on (syndicated) creditors instigating the insolvency proceedings against the debtor

Preamble

Equality among all creditors (the so-called par conditio creditorum) is a basic principle under Spanish insolvency rules. Only specific exceptions envisaged in the Spanish insolvency law allow for a particular creditor to take precedence over others in the recovery of its claims against the debtor.

Generally speaking, the following ranking applies to insolvency claims (excluding predeductible claims):

It is known to everyone operating in the Spanish restructuring market that taking security to secure pre-existing indebtedness of a particular borrower is not a risk-free matter.

Our legislation prohibits (as unconscionable) clauses that, while not negotiated with consumers, require “collateral disproportionate to the risk assumed” (art. 88(1) of the Spanish Consumer and User Protection Act). Note that this rule has not been the subject of any case law development and that the clause that paradoxically could yield to art.

The rule

The Portuguese Official Journal (Diário da República) published last 30 May Act no. 32/2014, approving the new pre-enforcement out-of-court procedure.

The above referred procedure will come into force on 1st September 2014 and will be available to creditors with enforceable instruments that may be relied on in summary enforcement proceedings (judgments, orders for payment and extrajudicial instruments regarding overdue pecuniary obligations).