We know that our readers are busy during this time of year with vacation travel, holiday parties, and deals closing before year end. And we know that it’s easy to fall behind on your essential bankruptcy reading. Our gift to you this holiday season is this look back at our last six weeks of Weil Bankruptcy Blog posts, wrapped up into three neat little packages (or posts, that is). So grab your glass of eggnog, and put your feet up, as we recap what you may have missed.
Insiders: A Perennial Favorite
As we’ve previously covered in prior blog posts, Being In Love Means Never Being Able To Get Your Student Loans Discharged, Or Why Stedman Graham Should Have To Pay His Student Loans and
Section 303(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code allows an involuntary petition to be filed by three or more creditors who hold non-contingent claims totaling at least $15,325 more than the liens on the debtor’s property. Those creditors then must prove that the debtor was generally not paying its debts as they came due within the guidelines
“So many years we’ve tried
To keep our love alive
But baby it ain’t over ’til it’s over”
-Lenny Kravitz – “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over”
In the latest chapter of the New Century bankruptcy cases, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a district court’s decision on the sufficiency of the debtors’ publication notice and remanded the case back to the district court to determine the critical issue of whether the plaintiff-appellees were known creditors entitled to actual notice.
We had a dream we’d go trav’lin’ together
We’d spread a little lovin then we’d keep movin’ on
Trav’lin’ along there’s a song that we’re singin’,
C’mon get happy
A whole lotta lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’,
We’ll make you happy,
We’ll make you happy
(from “C’Mon Get Happy”)
The Executive Summary provided a short version of the facts. The next few paragraphs provide a longer version, or you can skip to the next section.
The new German stabilizing and out of court restructuring regime came into effect on 1 January 2021. The "Stabilization and Restructuring Framework of Companies Act", known as StaRUG1, heralds a new phase in the German restructuring landscape, introducing a framework of tools including a new restructuring plan, which will enable debtors to restructure and cram down minority creditors outside of German insolvency proceedings for the first time.
In a recent decision, In re Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners, L.P., No. 14-000255-mdc (Bankr. E.D. Pa. Dec. 31, 2019), the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that state sovereign immunity does not prevent bankruptcy courts from hearing fraudulent transfer claims against states.
On February 28, 2019, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an opinion in In re TM Village, Ltd. (Bankr. N.D. Tex. Feb. 28, 2019), holding that an unintentional, duplicate obligation remaining under a contract can render the contract executory, even if perhaps in contravention of the plain language of the contract.