The power of a debtor or trustee to avoid preferential transfers that benefit certain creditors over others is critical to achieving one of the primary tenets of the Bankruptcy Code – the equality of treatment among all creditors. This ability to recover preferences prevents a debtor from favoring certain creditors over others by transferring property in the time leading up to a bankruptcy filing. Although these preference powers are broad, they are restrained by certain conditions, including a minimum threshold on amounts that can be avoided.
On April 25, 2016, Judge Glenn of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued a memorandum in an adversary proceeding in which neither of the two non-debtor parties apparently wanted to be in the Southern District of New York.
In a unanimous decision arising out of the Tribune Media Company bankruptcy cases, a panel of the Second Circuit held that the safe harbor under section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, which precludes avoidance of certain transfers by a
“Sometimes, you can make no mistakes, do everything right, and still lose.”
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
♫ “Girl, it’s easy to love me now.
Would you love me if I was down and out?
Would you still have love for me?” ♫
-50 Cent, 21 Questions
Is insurance just a business or does it serve a greater public good? If it weren’t for insurance, a fire or earthquake could leave you homeless; a visit to the emergency room could wipe out your bank account; a workplace accident could leave you salary-less. But, on the other hand, picture that wily Geico lizard, and insurance seems more like any other business trying to make a buck.
At the most basic level, bankruptcy is all about property. Going out on a limb here, we’d say that it’s a good idea to have a sense of what is and what is not your property before filing for bankruptcy. Of course, this is easier said than done in some cases and can be subject to dispute, as demonstrated by
Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code provides debtors an efficient and flexible mechanism to dispose of substantially all estate assets outside of the confines of the Bankruptcy Code’s provisions concerning plan confirmation. The Third Circuit’s recent decision in
How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er, / In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar