In civil disputes — including bankruptcy litigation — it is not uncommon for questions to arise about a client’s potential exposure to criminal liability, whether the client is a party or a witness. Civil litigators must therefore understand the role of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in the civil context.
In a recent opinion, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon reminds all finance lawyers (and participants trying to document a finance transaction without legal assistance) that recording an “assignment” of a deed of trust is not always sufficient to perfect an interest in the real property.
On Friday, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services closed Home Valley Bank, headquartered in Cave Junction, Oregon, and appointed the FDIC as receiver for the bank.
The Bankruptcy Code impairs lenders’ rights in various ways. Accordingly, lenders have long attempted to devise methods of preventing borrowers from filing for bankruptcy protection. Such attempts generally have not been successful -- courts hold that as a general matter, a borrower’s pre bankruptcy waiver of the right to file bankruptcy is against public policy and is void. See, e.g., Klingman v. Levinson,831 F.2d 1292, 1296 n.3 (7th Cir.
The inclusion of pre-bankruptcy waivers in “standard issue” credit documents has generated a host of litigation in bankruptcy cases about the enforceability of such provisions.
In In re Charles A. Grogan and Sarah A. Grogan, No. 11-65409 (Bankr. D. Ore. Sept. 10, 2013), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon confirmed the Debtors’ Third Amended Chapter 11 plan. The Debtors are Christmas tree farmers and their plan proposed to liquidate the majority of their Christmas tree farm and sell six major parcels of land. While the two main secured creditors were deemed to have rejected the plan, the court found the cram down standards of section 1129(b)(2)(A) were applicable.
Oregon’s $29 million corporate excise tax claim against the taxpayers’ parent company was held to violate both the Due Process and Commerce Clauses of the U.S. Constitution by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Oregon claimed that Washington Mutual, Inc. (WMI) was liable for its subsidiaries’ tax because WMI had (as the parent corporation) filed consolidated corporate tax returns on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries and therefore could be held jointly and severally liable for the tax due.
Grogan v. Harvest Capital Co. (In re Grogan), 476 B.R. 270 (Bankr. D. Or. 2012) –
In Grogan, the debtors planted and harvested Christmas trees. The bankruptcy court was called upon to determine whether the debtors could exercise their “strong arm” powers under Section 544(a) of the Bankruptcy Code to trump the liens of two of their lenders on the Christmas trees.
In a recent contested matter in the case Home Valley Bancorp., Inc., Case No.
On Friday, the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities closed Columbia River Bank, headquartered in Dalles, Oregon, and the FDIC was named receiver.