Introduction

The Bottom Line

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Garrison Keillor once said, “Sometimes I look reality straight in the eye and deny it.”[1] Being that the case arose in Minnesota, perhaps Circuit Judge Michael Melloy channeled Keillor, one of that state’s great humorists, when he authored the opinion in The Official Commit

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently reversed a lower court’s decision granting summary judgment to a condominium association and held that the association’s foreclosure of a “super-priority” condominium lien may not have extinguished an otherwise first-priority mortgage on the property. SeeU.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n v. Green Parks, LLC, No. 16-cv-842 (D.C. Mar. 13, 2018). In the case, the borrower obtained a loan to purchase a condominium.

A bankruptcy trustee could not “avoid [a] debtor’s transfer” of encumbered asset sale proceeds when the debtor holds the funds “as a mere disbursing agent [under] a contract that” restricted its use, held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on April 18, 2018. Keach v. Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. (In re Montreal, Me. & Atl. Ry.), 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 9772 *14 (1st Cir. Apr. 18, 2018).

The Bankruptcy Code gives a bankruptcy trustee, or the debtor in possession, the power to “avoid” certain transfers made by the debtor at various times before filing for bankruptcy relief.

Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a shareholder had not approved the filing as required by the debtor’s charter was going directly to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on an expedited basis. It is the first case concerning the merits of contractual or structural bankruptcy-remoteness in my memory to reach a Court of Appeals since the adoption of the Bankruptcy Code in 1978.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Merit Management Group, LP v. FTI Consulting, Inc. has appropriately drawn significant attention.

LEXISNEXIS A.S. PRATT

APRIL/MAY 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: COMPARATIVE LAW Steven A. Meyerowitz

WHAT'S PAST IS PROLOGUE: THE EUROPEAN MOVEMENT TOWARD HARMONIZED PRE-INSOLVENCY BUSINESS RESTRUCTURINGS CONTRASTED WITH THE AMERICAN PREFERENCE FOR GOING-CONCERN ASSET SALES Harry Rajak, Patrick E. Mears, and Edward O. Mears

LANDMARK COURT OPINION INCREASES LIABILITY RISK PROFILE FOR GERMAN PORTFOLIO COMPANY MANAGEMENT Bernd Meyer-Lwy and Carl Pickerill

SPLIT FIRST CIRCUIT PREVENTS NON-DEBTOR LICENSEE FROM USING REJECTED TRADEMARK LICENSE Michael L. Cook