On November 6, 2023, WeWork Inc. and several hundred of its affiliates filed voluntary chapter 11 cases in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. According to a press release issued simultaneously with the filings, WeWork also intends to file recognition proceedings in Canada under Part IV of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The press release also states that WeWork’s locations outside of the United States and Canada are not part of the reorganization process.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of several conversion claims brought by the estate of a deceased account holder against a bank, holding that one of the conversion claims was time-barred, and that the estate did not have standing to pursue the remaining conversion claims as the alleged injury was not fairly traceable to the bank.
A copy of the opinion in Muff v. Wells Fargo Bank NA is available at: Link to Opinion.
Can a debtor reinstate a defaulted loan under a Chapter 11 plan without paying default rate interest? This question was analyzed thoroughly in a recent Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court decision by Judge Philip Bentley.
Anyone working in the restructuring profession undoubtedly has encountered the ominous term “debt maturity wall” in relevant business articles and industry publications. Much like other feared apparitions such as the Loch Ness monster and Sasquatch, the maturity wall is visible at great distance but never up close. Similarly, these sightings are episodic and the evidence of their very existence is flimsy, yet they remain fixed in the public’s mind. What keeps them going? The possibility that they are real.
UK members will want to monitor the situation and prepare for contingencies as US company experiences financial difficulties
On Monday 7 November 2023 WeWork Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in respect of its US business, and intends to file for recognition of those proceedings in Canada.
Amid high interest rates and economic uncertainty, it is not surprising that corporate restructurings are on the rise. In fact, restructuring activity in the first half of 2023 more than doubled from the corresponding period in 2022.1
In contrast with a majority of bankruptcy courts that routinely dismiss cannabis-related cases for perceived violations of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in the recent opinionIn re Hacienda, No. 2:22-BK-15163-NB, (Bankr. C.D. Cal. July 11, 2023), refused to conform to the same historical standard. Instead, the Bankruptcy Court struck down the U.S. trustee’s motion to dismiss not once but twice in favor of confirming a marijuana business’ Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
Background
This ideal is floating around:
- upon removal of a Subchapter V debtor from possession, for fraud or other cause,
- the Subchapter V trustee has no expanded right, power, function or duty beyond operating debtor’s business (the “Ideal”).
This Ideal is both:
- contrary to unambiguous language of the Bankruptcy Code, as a matter of law; and
- in Never-Never Land, as a matter of practice.
I’ll try to explain.
This is a truism:
After years of litigation involving state, federal, Irish, and (to a lesser extent) Swiss law; transfers of numerous assets, including Ireland’s priciest-personal residence; a jury trial; and extensive post-trial briefing, the Second Circuit made short shrift of a former real estate mogul and his ex-wife’s appeal of a judgment rendered against them for fraudulent conveyances.
A study on using round-number offers and precise-number offers in negotiations reaches these two conclusions: