The Bottom Line:
The Bottom Line:
The Bottom Line
The Third Circuit, in Artesanias Hacienda Real S.A. de C.V. v. N. Mill Capital, LLC (In re Wilton Armetale, Inc.), 968 F.3d 273 (3d Cir. 2020), issued a decision with potential implications for creditors who wish to pursue causes of action after a bankruptcy trustee refuses to act on such claims. The Third Circuit held that if a bankruptcy trustee clearly abandons a cause of action, the right of creditors to pursue that cause of action “spring[s] back to life.”
What Happened?
The recent decision of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in In re AAGS Holdings LLC, Case No. 19-13029 (SMB) (Bankr. D. Del. Nov. 12, 2019), underscores the ability of debtors — and specifically, for purposes of this Client Alert, parties to real property purchase contracts — to take advantage of the Bankruptcy Code’s 60-day tolling period to get more time to close on a purchase despite a “time of the essence” ("TOE") closing deadline.
The Bottom Line
The Bottom Line
In another decision affecting Chapter 11 cases, U.S. Bank National Association v. Village at Lakeridge, --- S. Ct. ---, 2018 WL 1143822 (2018), on March 5, 2018, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision, authored by Justice Kagan, affirming the Ninth Circuit’s decision to review the Bankruptcy Court’s determination of a mixed question of fact and law for clear error, rather than de novo.
The Bottom Line
A recent case in the Southern District of New York, U.S. Bank, NA v. T.D. Bank, NA, applied the so-called Rule of Explicitness to the allocation of recoveries among creditors outside of a bankruptcy proceeding. In the bankruptcy context, this rule requires a clear and unambiguous intention to turn over post-petition interest to senior creditors at the expense of junior creditors. The court in this case found the requisite documentary clarity to pay post-petition interest ahead of the distribution of principal.