“Don’t care how; I want it now” – Veruca Salt, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The American Bankruptcy Institute Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 today released its long-awaited, much-anticipated Final Report and Recommendations.

While some of us may have had turkey on the mind over the last few days following the Thanksgiving holiday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives clearly had more important things than turkey to ponder. Just yesterday, December 1, 2014, the House passed H.R. 5421, the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act of 2014.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York was recently presented in In re Rede Energia, S.A.with the question of whether a confirmed Brazilian reorganization plan for Rede Energia, S.A. should be enforced in the United States.

On August 26, 2014, Judge Drain concluded the confirmation hearing in Momentive Performance Materials and issued several bench rulings on cramdown interest rates, the availability of a make-whole premium, third party releases, and the extent of the subordination of senior subordinated noteholders.

Donald Rumsfeld might sum up a recent decision by Judge Isgur out of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas as follows: “We also know there are known unknowns; that it to say we know there are some things we do not know.

Professional compensation is often a contentious issue in bankruptcy, as we have previously discussed.

Entities doing business with a customer that files for bankruptcy protection generally have the right to refuse to continue providing goods or services to the chapter 11 debtor, unless such goods or services are covered by a continuing contract, in which case any forfeiture of the debtor’s rights under the agreement is generally prohibited to afford the debtor a reasonable opportunity to decide what to do with the contract.

Unlike in cases filed under other chapters of the Bankruptcy Code, the filing of a petition for recognition of a foreign bankruptcy or insolvency case under chapter 15 does not automatically trigger a stay of actions against a debtor or its U.S. assets. Instead, the automatic stay generally applies only at such time that the U.S.

Section 503(b) of the Bankruptcy Code delineates categories of claims that are entitled to elevated priority as “administrative expenses.” Under section 503(b)(3)(D), administrative expenses include “actual, necessary expenses” incurred by a creditor, indenture trustee, equity holder, or unofficial committee “in making a substantial contribution” in a chapter 11 case.