Section 1930(a)(6) of Title 28 requires the payment of quarterly fees to the United States Trustee (the “UST”) for each quarter that a bankruptcy case is open. The amount of fees is calculated based on the amount of disbursements made by the debtor during each quarter. But, are these fees payable when a trust, established by a confirmed plan, makes distributions rather than a debtor?

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.

Monday, July 19, 2021 

Bankruptcy

On May 24, 2021, the Second Circuit held that a 2017 increase to the quarterly fees paid by chapter 11 debtors was unconstitutional and awarded Clinton Nurseries, Inc., Clinton Nurseries of Maryland, Inc. and Clinton Nurseries of Florida, Inc.

When is an insurance commissioner not a governmental authority? A federal district judge reminds us that a state insurance commissioner, when acting as receiver of an insolvent insurer, acts in a different capacity to his governmental role. This principle can cause an insurance commissioner to fall outside a contractual definition of “governmental authority” even where the definition contains inclusive language on multiple capacities.

With more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt outstanding in the United States, student loan borrowers sometimes try to turn to the bankruptcy courts for relief, often without success due to the fact that most student loans are presumed to be nondischargeable.[1] In its July 15, 2021 decision in In re Homaidan,

Many businesses recognized significant net operating losses or “NOLs” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), generally allows many types of taxpayers (including individuals, estates and trusts, exempt organizations, and most C corporations) to utilize NOLs to offset taxable income in other tax years, subject to certain limitations.

The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a Bankruptcy Court and held that dismissal of an underlying bankruptcy case did not divest the Bankruptcy Court of jurisdiction in related quiet title action. In re Lindsey, 2021 WL 1140661 (11th Cir. 2021). In 2015, the plaintiff filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 13 bankruptcy relief. In his schedule of assets, the plaintiff listed a fee simple interest in a commercial multi-tenant building and an adjacent vacant lot.

Once again, a bankruptcy court has weighed in on the subject of discharging student loan debt in the context of a chapter 7 proceeding.

The last year and a half was a time to be remembered in bankruptcy law. It started with an eye on increasing the ability of small businesses to utilize the Chapter 11 process in a more efficient and less expensive way, which led to a record number of commercial filings, a reduction in consumer filings, and a test of the bankruptcy system. What will the second half of 2021 look like?

On July 8, 2021, Pipeline Foods, LLC, along with several affiliates, which operate a Minnesota-based organic food supply chain company, filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 21-11002). The company estimates $100 to $500 million in assets and liabilities.