Creditors seeking to file an involuntary petition against a debtor may want to consider doing their due diligence before using it as a tool in their ongoing disputes with a debtor.
Today we’ll begin with a two-part question: When do you suppose you could (i) hold a debtor’s property hostage without running afoul of the automatic stay and (ii) also collect on an administrative expense for postpetition rent for leased space used to store such property?
If you don’t already know the answers to the above questions, perhaps an overview of a recent decision from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey will provide some insight.
Practitioners generally identify “excusable neglect” as the standard that bankruptcy courts apply in determining whether to allow a creditor’s untimely proof of claim. A creditor who lets the bar date pass finds itself in the undesirable position of having to persuade the bankruptcy court that its neglect to file a timely proof of claim was excusable.
“I’m inconsistent, even to myself.”
-Bob Dylan
The Bankruptcy Blog previously published an extensive guide to evaluating and purchasing director and officer (”D&O”) liability insurance for individuals at the helm of troubled companies. But what happens when a policy is in place and the directors and officers seek to obtain the proceeds of that policy to cover defense costs or related expenses?
An essential element to any cramdown plan is the presence of at least one impaired accepting class. Even when a plan proponent purports to satisfy this requirement, objecting parties will often challenge the plan’s classification scheme or whether a particular class is truly impaired. A recent decision from the Southern District of New York,
We know you’ve been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to translate “Absolute Priority Rule,” “Equitable Mootness,” and “Make-Wholes” (not to mention “Cramdown”) into Halloween costumes, so you may have missed out on some of the entries the Weil Bankruptcy Blog has posted over the past six weeks. For our treats to you, we are handing out these entries in convenient (Count Dracula) bite-sized servings. You can indulge a little today, and we will have more for you next week.
Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code provides debtors an efficient and flexible mechanism to dispose of substantially all estate assets outside of the confines of the Bankruptcy Code’s provisions concerning plan confirmation. The Third Circuit’s recent decision in
How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er, / In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar