Introduction

In early November, the Ninth Circuit held in In re New Investments, Inc. that a debtor was required to “cure” defaults to an agreement using a post-default interest rate, overturning its prior, decades-old decision In re Entz-White Lumber & Supply, Inc., which had held that a debtor could cure agreements at pre-default interest rates.

Background

While the majority of the cases covered by the Weil Bankruptcy Blog address issues arising in corporate restructurings, cases concerning individual debtors often offer interesting insights into the history and meaning of various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.

In In re Intervention Energy Holdings, LLC, the question before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware was whether an investor who “bought and paid for [one] Common Unit (including all rights related thereto),”

The Big Easy. A city overflowing with art, food, fun, and pride. A place where you can experience the immensity and power of a hurricane (both the rum-based libation and the coastal weather event). And home to one of the most popular travel destinations in the United States—the French Quarter. In this installment of the Weil Bankruptcy Blog, we take you to Bourbon Street and review a decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals resolving a dispute between two companies regarding (fittingly) the assumption of a lease for a saloon on Bourbon Street.

Do you serve on your condominium’s board as a fun way to meet your neighbors and test out your governance skills? What seems like a low-commitment diversion can balloon into a stressful time suck – or worse.  You may be held personally liable for breaching fiduciary duties to your condo.  And if you fall into really bad luck and end up in bankruptcy, you may not even be able to discharge debts for such liability, as a recent Fifth Circuit decision reminds us.  

The avoidance powers contained in chapter 5 of the Bankruptcy Code permit the recovery of certain prepetition “transfers” made by the debtor – either as a preference under section 547 or as a fraudulent transfer under either section 548 or state common law, made applicable under section 544 of the Bankruptcy Code.  Typically, the “tran

The recent decisions in Re MF Global UK Ltd and Re Omni Trustees Ltd give conflicting views as to whether section 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986 has extra-territorial effect. In this article, we look at the reasoning in the two judgments and discuss a possible further argument for extra-territorial effect.

The conflicting rulings on section 236

Rare is the decision finding that bid rigging occurred.  Recently, though, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut uncovered a bid rigging scheme in connection with the sale of property in a Canadian arrangement proceeding.  In re Sagecrest II LLC, et al., Case No. 08-50754 (Bankr. D. Conn. Dec.

Typically, when an individual debtor files for bankruptcy, all of his or her belongings become part of the big “property of the estate” pot that the court ladles up pro rata among hungry creditors.  But debtors need to eat too.  Exemption law allows individual debtors and their families to keep some basic property, such as the clothes on their backs and roofs over their heads.