In difficult economic times, debtors’ attorneys closely review credit reports looking for potential legal claims against creditors. Long after a debtor has been discharged from bankruptcy, creditors can find themselves defending claims of improper credit reporting. A recent case from the Eastern District of North Carolina illustrates the trouble facing creditors who furnish incorrect reports of discharged debt. See In re Adams (Bankr. E.D.N.C. 2010).
A United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina has denied a motion to compel discovery of all claims for which the insurer had denied coverage based on the desire of an insolvent insured to forfeit coverage.Lane v. Endurance American Specialty Insurance Co., 2011 WL 1791343 (W.D.N.C. May 10, 2011). The court granted, however, the plaintiff’s motion to compel the insurer to provide information about all other claims noticed under the policies at issue.
The debtor made claims against a surety that issued a performance bond in connection with a construction contract. The surety contended that it was not liable for the consequential damage claims.
In another major development in a case that continues to redefine the standard procedures in asbestos-related bankruptcy proceedings, on January 13, 2015, Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC announced that it had reached an agreement with the representative for future asbestos claimants that would settle all present and future asbestos claims for $358 million. The current net present value of the settlement is reportedly $205 million – considerably higher than the bankruptcy court’s liability estimate of $125 million, but well below the $1.3 billion plaintiffs had been seeking.
In a case that should cause lenders heartburn, the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina recently ruled that common provisions in a Chapter 11 plan prevented the debtor’s lender from executing on a judgment against the non-debtor owner of the debtor.1 Biltmore is a corporation2 that operates manufactured home parks and sells and rents manufactured homes. McGee is the president and controlling shareholder of Biltmore. Biltmore filed Chapter 11 in January of 2011, and TD Bank was Biltmore’s largest secured creditor.
Secured creditors often oppose plans where the only accepting class appears to be one created by the debtor through separate classification of claims when the claims have little in common but their acceptance of the plan and have more in common with other claims. A recent decision by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina provides such creditors with additional support in their fight against separate classification.
In a recent decision welcomed by creditors, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina reversed a bankruptcy court order confirming a Chapter 11 debtor’s plan because the debtor engaged in “obvious gerrymandering” in order to secure the votes necessary to obtain confirmation of the plan.
I. Facts
On January 10, 2014, the Hon. George R. Hodges, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina, handed down a decision that promises to be a “game changer” for asbestos manufacturers facing potentially crushing mesothelioma death claims.
On January 10, 2014, a Bankruptcy Court Judge issued a strongly-worded, 65-page opinion that exposes a “startling pattern of misrepresentation” by some plaintiffs’ attorneys in asbestos litigation. He concluded that the “withholding of exposure evidence by plaintiffs and their lawyers was significant and had the effect of unfairly inflating” recoveries. In re GarlockSealing Techs., No. 10-31607, at 35, 37 (Jan. 10, 2014, Bankr. W.D.N.C.).