Sales of assets pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code or pursuant to a plan of reorganization provide a number of benefits to a purchaser, but they also present a number of potential impediments, particularly to purchasers who are not familiar with the bankruptcy sale process.
Reduced Liquidity—How Will Oil Companies Feel the Pinch?
In Beeman v. BGI Creditors’ Liquidating Trust (In re BGI, Inc.), 772 F.3d 102 (2d Cir. 2014), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit considered whether the doctrine of “equitable mootness” applied to the appeal of a confirmation order approving a liquidating chapter 11 plan. In a matter of first impression, the court ruled that the standards governing equitable mootness in an appeal of an order confirming a chapter 1 1 plan of reorganization also apply in the context of a chapter 11 liquidation.
In its first bankruptcy decision of 2014 (October Term, 2013), the U.S. Supreme Court held on March 4, 2014, in Law v. Siegel, 134 S. Ct. 1188 (2014), that a bankruptcy court cannot impose a surcharge on exempt property due to a chapter 7 debtor’s misconduct. In reversing a ruling by the Ninth Circuit, Law v. Siegel (In re Law), 2011 BL 148411 (9th Cir. June 6, 2011), cert. granted, 133 S. Ct.
NOTABLE BUSINESS BANKRUPTCY DECISIONS OF 2014
ALLOWANCE/DISALLOWANCE/PRIORITY/DISCHARGE OF CLAIMS
Protections added to the Bankruptcy Code in 1988 that give some intellectual property (“IP”) licensees the right to continued use of licensed property notwithstanding rejection of the underlying license agreement do not expressly apply to trademark licenses. As a consequence, a trademark licensee faces a great deal of uncertainty concerning its ability to continue using a licensed trademark if the licensor files for bankruptcy.
Compared to much of the rest of the world, the United States had the most positive economic, business, and financial news in 2014.
The composition of the Top 10 List of public bankruptcy filings for 2014 indicates that the U.S. has largely left behind the fraud, excess, abuse, and improvidence that dominated the bankruptcy landscape during the 2007–08 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. Continuing a trend that began in 2012, only a single representative from the banking and financial services industry made the cut.
After nearly three years of study and 16 public field hearings, a commission established by the American Bankruptcy Institute (the “ABI Commission”) to study the reform of chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code issued its Final Report and Recommendations on December 8, 2014 (the “Report”). The ABI Commission comprises nearly 130 corporate restructuring authorities serving on 13 advisory committees.