On March 24, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Quality Stores, Inc.,No. 12-1408, holding that severance payments made to employees terminated in connection with a company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan are taxable wages under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).
On March 19, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided Grede v. FCStone, LLC, Nos. 13-1232, 13-1278 (7th Cir. Mar. 19, 2014), an opinion that reinforces the importance of the portability of investment accounts carrying commodity customer funds. The Seventh Circuit held that commodity futures customer funds must be protected in an insolvency situation, and that the release of customer funds to meet margin obligations should be upheld at all costs.
On Monday, March 10, 2014, the companies that own and operate the Sbarro pizza chain, Sbarro LLC and 33 affiliates, filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code. The Sbarro companies operate 217 restaurants in the U.S. and there are 582 franchised restaurants, 176 in the U.S. and 406 at international locations.
What recourse is there for a plaintiff seeking to recover a debt when the defendant goes bankrupt during suit, and its owner commences operating essentially the same business through another legal entity? Can successor liability be asserted and, if so, how? Those issues played out in the recent case of Marange Printing, Inc. v. Finish Line NJ, Inc., et al., Superior Court of New Jersey, Docket No. A-2735-12T2 (decided March 7, 2014).
On February 11th, the three private plaintiff-appellants and eleven State plaintiff-appellants in State National Bank of Big Spring, et al. v. Jacob J. Lew, et al. filed briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in their appeal of the District Court’s decision that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010) (the “Dodd-Frank Act” or the “Act”).
Until recently, the creditor of a chapter 7 debtor whose debts were not primarily consumer in naturewas unable to rely on Eleventh Circuit precedent to support its position that its debtor's chapter 7 bankruptcy case should be dismissed for bad faith.
Which law firm is rumored to be failing this week, and who will be next? Although, inevitably, the target firms insist that retaining bankruptcy counsel does not mean a filing is imminent, such legal industry headlines are catnip for strong firms hoping to bolster their own talent by luring lateral hires away from weak ones. With those opportunities, however, comes the real risk of being sued later by the failed firm’s bankruptcy trustee.
In In re TOUSA, Inc., 503 B.R. 499 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2014) (No.
A recent decision from the Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas concludes that directors of a non-debtor general partner may owe fiduciary duties to a limited partnership debtor in bankruptcy whether or not such duties exist (or have been disclaimed) under the debtor's and general partner's organizational documents or applicable state law.[1] In deciding whether to dismiss an involuntary petition filed against Houston Regional Sports Network, L.P.