Earlier this month, the Chapter 7 Trustee for the Rehrig International bankruptcy estate filed several preference actions against various defendants. As set forth in the complaints, the Trustee seeks to avoid and recover payments which he contends are preferential transfers, fraudulent conveyances and/or postpetition transfers. Rehrig filed for bankruptcy on September 5, 2008. Less than four months later, Rehrig’s Chapter 11 proceedings were converted to cases under chapter 7. Soon after the conversion to Chapter 7, the Office of the United States Trustee appointed George L.
Introduction
In my May 26th post, I raised several questions that unsecured creditors in any Chapter 11 case should know the answers to and take action where appropriate. One of those questions is “Am I entitled to priority payment?” This is also important to answer in a Chapter 7 case.
The United States Supreme Court recently narrowed the scope of the authority of bankruptcy courts, with potential far-reaching implications on past, present and future bankruptcy matters. The case, Stern v. Marshall, 131 S.Ct. 2594 (2011), began as a dispute between Anna Nicole Smith and the son of her late husband. After several years of litigation and one previous trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court ruled bankruptcy courts lack the authority to enter judgments on counterclaims against a debtor that are based on state law.
Summary
In an opinion published May 20, 2011, Judge Walsh held that a settlement agreement which is rejected in a bankruptcy proceeding is “Core” and will be decided by the Bankruptcy Court, even when it contains a jurisdictional clause that requires the agreement to be interpreted according to the laws of New York. Judge Walsh’s opinion is available here (the “Opinion”).
Background
Introduction
The Chapter 7 Trustees in the Pope & Talbot and Specialty Motors bankruptcies recently filed hundreds of complaints in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. George Miller is the Chapter 7 Trustee in the Pope & Talbot bankruptcy while Jeoffrey Burtch is the Trustee in the Specialty Motors (aka "Von Weise Inc.") bankruptcy. Both groups of complaints seek the avoidance and recovery of alleged preferential transfers from various creditors of the debtors.
A recent decision by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas in In re Sanjel (USA) Inc.,et al., Case No. 16-50778-CAG (Bankr. W.D. Tex. July 29, 2016) explains that in a Chapter 15 case, the U.S. bankruptcy court will not always apply the law of the foreign jurisdiction to U.S. creditors and U.S.-based claims.
This Installment will address the potential legal disabilities that exist under the New York Debtor and Creditor Law for the Wilpon/Katz families, the owners of the New York Mets (collectively, the “Wilpon Interests”), in their effort to sell a minority interest(s) in the Mets, in light of the existence of the lawsuit against them (the “Wilpon Case”) by Irving Picard, the Trustee in the Bernard L. Madoff bankruptcy.
Judge Walsh released an amended Opinion in the NEC Holdings Corp. case on May 18, 2011. His previous opinion had an incomplete citation of 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2). It shows just how serious our judges are about the Bankruptcy Code.
In an effort to keep followers of this blog fully apprised of every opinion released by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, I have linked to Judge Walsh’s newly corrected opinion here.