Imagine: you are a lender that has loaned substantial sums of money to an individual, secured by real property owned by the borrower. After the borrower defaults and negotiations fail, you seek and obtain the appointment of a receiver. But now litigation ensues—about the loan documents, about contract defaults, about interest rates, about foreign law. After a substantial investment of time and money, your trial date draws closer. At some point during this odyssey, your borrower secretly transfers the real property collateral to a newly-created, single-member LLC.
In In re Eifler, issued yesterday, the Sixth Circuit passed up an opportunity to join the First and Fifth Circuits in adopting a “transparently plain” exception to the reliance-on-counsel defense by which a bankrupt debtor can demonstrate a lack of fraudulent intent.
A debtor’s prepetition causes of action and other legal interests typically become property of the debtor’s estate under section 541 of the Bankruptcy Code. In a chapter 11 case, this often leaves the trustee (or debtor in possession) with the sole authority to pursue – or not pursue – such causes of action postpetition. Although the trustee is generally required to maximize the value of the estate, situations can arise where a trustee refuses to pursue litigation that is otherwise in the estate’s best interest.
Questions Standing of Indenture Trustees to Pursue Fraudulent Conveyance Claims
If a creditor violates the automatic stay by seizing property of the estate and fails to cure that violation before the debtor files an action under sec. 362(k), may the debtor recover his attorney’s fees for prosecuting the stay violation under sec. 362(k)? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that, in these circumstances, attorney’s fees incurred in prosecuting a stay violation are recoverable by a debtor against the creditor committing the violation.
The purchaser of assets from one bankruptcy debtor objected to the plan of reorganization filed by a related bankruptcy debtor because the plan did not recognize the purchaser’s rights in a deep water well pursuant to a lease between the two debtors. The bankruptcy court determined that the buyer did not acquire any rights to the well, the district court affirmed, and the buyer appealed to the 8thCircuit.
This week we present for your consideration two cases: (a) an Eleventh Circuit decision upholding a copyright infringement award against a venue operator for playing five copyrighted songs without a license; and (b) an Alabama Supreme Court decision reversing damages awarded to a farmer for a claim of conversion against a foreclosing bank that took possession of harvested crops.
The meaning of "unreasonably small capital" in the context of constructively fraudulent transfer avoidance litigation is not spelled out in the Bankruptcy Code. As a result, bankruptcy courts have been called upon to fashion their own definitions of the term. Nonetheless, the courts that have considered the issue have mostly settled on some general concepts in fashioning such a definition. In Whyte ex rel. SemGroup Litig. Trust v. Ritchie SG Holdings, LLC (In re SemCrude, LP), 2014 BL 272343 (D. Del. Sept.
The mainstream media have been trying to predict, on almost a daily basis, the causes of, and the winners and losers (mostly focused on the latter category) resulting from, the current volatility in oil and gas prices.