The Court of Chancery of Delaware recently issued a noteworthy decision clarifying fiduciary duties and confirming business judgment rule protection for board-level business strategy decisions by directors of insolvent corporations.1 Quadrant Structured Products Company v. Vertin, 102 A.3d 155 (Del. Ch. 2014).
There were nearly a million bankruptcy cases filed by individuals and businesses in 2014. It is safe to say that only the tiniest fraction of such debtors have any familiarity with the Supreme Court’s decision in Stern v.
On October 20, 2014, we issued a Legal News Alert commenting on a decision of the Delaware Supreme Court, on certification from the Second Circuit, regarding the effect of a mistaken UCC-3 termination statement.The Delaware Supreme Court held that an indisputably mistaken UCC-3 termination statement that purported to terminate a lender’s security interest in a $1.
In another major development in a case that continues to redefine the standard procedures in asbestos-related bankruptcy proceedings, on January 13, 2015, Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC announced that it had reached an agreement with the representative for future asbestos claimants that would settle all present and future asbestos claims for $358 million. The current net present value of the settlement is reportedly $205 million – considerably higher than the bankruptcy court’s liability estimate of $125 million, but well below the $1.3 billion plaintiffs had been seeking.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit (the “BAP”) issued a number of published and unpublished decisions in the fourth quarter of 2014 that impact both consumer and business bankruptcy practice throughout the circuit.
Big Case for UCC Aficionados
Today, in the latest installment of our series reviewing the Final Report and Recommendations of the American Bankruptcy Institute Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, we review the Commission’s comments on (i) venue and (ii) core and noncore matters – discussed in sections IX.A and IX.B, respectively.
The Delaware Supreme Court ruled last fall that a UCC termination statement inadvertently releasing collateral on a $1.5 billion term loan was valid. The creditor could not later claim it did not intend to include the collateral in its release of other collateral with regard to a different credit facility. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA (Del. 2014).
In re Castle Home Builders, Inc., 520 B.R. 98 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2014) –
The debtors obtained confirmation of plans of reorganization that restructured prepetition mortgage loans. When the servicer for some of the loans continued to ignore the terms of the plans, the reorganized debtors sought enforcement of the court’s confirmation order and sanctions.