The Bottom Line:

The U.S. Constitution enjoins each state to accord “full faith and credit” to “the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State”. U.S. Const. Art. IV, § 1. However, a judgment creditor can’t directly enforce a judgment obtained in another state in California. The other state’s judgment must first be turned into a California judgment. The statutory mechanism for effecting this is the Sister State and Foreign Money—Judgments Act, aka the SSFMJA, Code Civ. Proc. § 1710.10 et seq.

In Virginia Broadband, LLC (Bankr. W.D. Va. Sept. 9, 2013), the unsecured creditors committee moved to dismiss an LLC’s chapter 11 bankruptcy case alleging a flaw in the authorization of the LLC’s bankruptcy filing caused by an authorizing member’s individual bankruptcy filing. Specifically, the committee alleged that when the authorizing member filed his individual bankruptcy case, Virginia law divested him of his non-economic (voting) rights in the LLC.

The Issue

The absolute priority rule ordinarily prevents a Chapter 11 debtor from distributing any money or property to junior creditors and old equity investors unless all senior creditors have first been paid in full. See 11 U.S.C. § 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii). Nevertheless, old equity investors may attempt to receive new equity in the reorganized debtor in consideration for providing new (post-bankruptcy) investments in the debtor.

The Colorado LLC Act prohibits an insolvent LLC from making a distribution to a member. Insolvency is defined as the LLC’s liabilities exceeding its assets, with minor exceptions. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-80-606. The Act also mandates that a member who receives a distribution and who knows at the time that the LLC is insolvent is personally liable to the LLC for the amount of the distribution. Id.

On Command Video Corp. v. Roti, Nos. 12-1351 and 12-1430 (7th Cir., Jan. 14, 2013)

CASE SNAPSHOT

In re GAC Storage Lansing, LLC, No. 11-40944 (Bankr. N.D. Ill., Feb. 27, 2013)

CASE SNAPSHOT

The court denied confirmation of the debtor’s plan, finding that: (i) the debtor failed to demonstrate that it would be able to obtain financing to pay off the balloon payment; (ii) the proposed transfer of new equity to an individual with indirect ownership interest violated the absolute priority rule; and (iii) the plan’s injunction barring actions by the secured creditor against the guarantors was overly broad.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed an insider preference complaint by Capmark Financial Group Inc. and its affiliates ("Capmark") seeking to recover a $145 million pre-bankruptcy payment from a lender group. Capmark Financial Group Inc. v. Goldman Sachs Credit Partners L.P., __ F. Supp. 2d __, 2013 WL 1420243 (S.D.N.Y. Apr.

The homestead exemption is important to the many debtors in bankruptcy who own their own homes. But what if the debtor owns the home through his or her single-member LLC? Is that good enough? A Bankruptcy Appellate Panel recently said no, ruling that a debtor whose home was owned by her single-member LLC could not take advantage of the homestead exemption. In re Breece, No. 12-8018, 2013 WL 197399 (B.A.P. 6th Cir. Jan. 18, 2013).