2015 was a rough year for the oil and gas industry. The primary source of the trouble was (and continues to be) the dramatic fall in crude oil prices. In 2014, the price of U.S. crude oil averaged approximately $91 per barrel. In 2015, the price dropped to an average of approximately $49 per barrel. As of this writing, the price was approximately $36 per barrel.
Court of Appeals Rejects Literal Construction of Bankruptcy Code section 523(a)(1), Ruling Court Must Determine Whether Debtors Subjectively Made an Honest and Reasonable Attempt to Satisfy the Tax Law
In a December 17, 2015 decision in United States v. Martin (In re Martin), 2015 WL 9252590 (9th Cir. BAP 2015) the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Panel”), defined what qualifies as a tax return for dischargeability purposes, specifically disagreeing with three other Courts of Appeals.
Case #1. An equipment lease or a disguised financing?
Lyon Fin. Servs., Inc. v. Illinois Paper and Copier Co.
US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division
2015 U.S. Dist. Lexis 169946 (December 21, 2015)
Background
Last time, we mentioned that a Virginia-based mining company will be selling of parts of its business—including parts located in Kentucky—as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. In this and our next post, we wanted to provide a brief overview of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and why it is important for businesses to work with experienced legal counsel when pursuing a bankruptcy.
Most companies do not own all of the intellectual property (IP) rights that their businesses rely on. It is not uncommon for some portion of a company’s IP rights to be in-licensed from other persons or entities under a license agreement. In such cases, the licensee has contractual rights to use the IP that is the subject of an in-license but not full ownership of such IP. In the day-to-day operations of a company, the distinction between owned IP rights and in-licensed IP rights can easily get lost.
While the FCC recently opined that consumers can revoke their consent to receive calls via an ATDS in any manner that clearly expresses a desire not to receive further messages, a district court in Illinois has set some perimeters on revocation. In Cholly v. Uptain Group, Inc., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171415, C.A. No. 15 C 5030 (N.D. Ill. Dec.
On New Year's Eve 2015, Swift Energy Company and 8 affiliates filed a voluntary petition commencing a prepackaged chapter 11 case in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The case is docketed as case no. 15-12670, and has been assigned to The Honorable Mary F. Walrath. The petition lists assets of $1.024 billion and liabilities of $1.349 billion.
On December 22, New York AG Schneiderman announced that more than 3,000 consumers received partial compensation from funds stemming from a global settlement negotiated by AG Schneiderman and the CFPB.
On December 14, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that claims arising from securities of a debtor’s affiliate must be subordinated to all claims or interests senior or equal to claims of the same type as the underlying securities in the bankruptcy proceeding.
Quite often a creditor discovers that one of its debtors has avoided satisfying a liability by fraudulently transferring assets to another individual or entity. This is a frustrating discovery, but the creditor is not without remedies. Under Florida Statutes fraudulent transfers can be attacked and unwound through two methods. The popular method is filing a lawsuit to include a statutory cause of action to invalidate the fraudulent transfer under