Last month, in a significant ruling in the General Growth Properties, Inc. (“GGP”) bankruptcy case, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York denied motions to dismiss, as bad faith filings, the bankruptcy cases of 20 purported bankruptcyremote special purpose entity (“SPE”) subsidiary debtors.1

Receiverships have gained in popularity in foreclosure cases and in other types of litigation in recent years. Orders appointing receivers and setting forth the receiver’s duties frequently include a provision allowing the receiver to market and sell real estate. However, the question of whether a receiver legally has the ability to convey title to real estate, free and clear of liens and encumbrances, appears to have been answered in the negative, at least by one appellate district in Ohio.

In a recent ruling from the bench, Judge James M. Peck of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that Metavante Corporation’s suspension of payments under an outstanding swap agreement with Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc.

On September 17, 2009, the U.S.

The following is a list of some recent larger U.S. bankruptcy filings in various industries. To the extent you are a creditor to any of these debtors, or other entities which may have filed for bankruptcy protection, you as a creditor are entitled to certain protections under the Bankruptcy Code.  

AUTOMOTIVE  

Holley Performance Products Holdings Inc., a supplier of parts for race cars, filed its second bankruptcy petition in less than two years Monday.  

CREDIT CARDS

Today, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed the Georgian Bank, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and the FDIC was named as receiver.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order on Sept. 17, 2009, granting a motion filed by Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. (“LBSF”) to compel Metavante Corporation (“Metavante”) to continue to make payments to LBSF under an ISDA Master Agreement.

The judge responsible for the Lehman bankruptcy proceedings in the United States has found that the provisions of the US bankruptcy code that exempt swap agreements and master netting agreements from the application of the Code's automatic stay and other relevant provisions do not permit a party to an ISDA Master Agreement to suspend performance under Section 2 (a) (iii) of the master agreement.

For the fashion industry, one of the must-have, but hard to come by, items this season is a favorable refinancing deal. The recent volatility in the fashion market has reflected not just the ever-changing tastes of the cognoscenti, but also the rapidly shifting economic landscape confronting designers and retailers. The fashion industry has suffered acutely in the global financial crisis as consumers curb their spending, particularly in the luxury goods market. In fact, analysts have estimated that 12% of fashion companies will not survive the recession.  

On September 15, 2009, the United States Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York ordered Metavante Corporation (“Metavante”) to make payments to Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. (“LBSF”) under a prepetition interest rate swap agreement guaranteed by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (“LBHI” and, together with LBSF, “Lehman”) after Metavante had suspended ordinary course settlement payments under the swap.1 Metavante claimed a contractual right to withhold payment under Section 2(a)(iii) of the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement as a result of Lehman’s bankruptcy.