The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California recently granted a secured lender’s request for relief from the automatic stay, pursuant to sections 362(d)(1) and (d)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code, to allow a trustee’s sale of the debtor’s marina under state law. In re Delta Waterways, LLC, Case No. 18-42076-CN (Bankr. N.D. Cal. December 7, 2018). Several missteps and omissions by the debtor appear to have driven the Court’s decision.

Parties involved in cross-border bankruptcy/restructuring situations may be wary of the risk that repeated litigation in different courts with jurisdiction over the same debtor will result in conflicting judgments. The principle of “universalism” is the theory whereby the decisions of one primary jurisdiction addressing a debtor’s bankruptcy/restructuring issues are given universal effect by courts in other jurisdictions.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018, USA Gymnastics (USGA) filed for chapter 11 relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Case No. 18-09108). USGA is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It receive this designation from the U.S.

Checkout Holding Corp. (dba Catalina Marketing), along with ten affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-12794).

A sex-abuse scandal has landed another organization in bankruptcy court. USA Gymnastics (“USAG”) filed chapter 11 last week in Indiana following a team doctor’s conviction for abusing hundreds of girls.[i]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently examined and then clarified and set forth the test for evaluating the appealability of bankruptcy orders in an opinion released in the case Ritzen Group v. Jackson Masonry. In doing so, the appellate court reaffirmed the “longstanding and textually-compelled rule of [a] looser finality” standard in bankruptcy as compared to general civil litigation, and concluded that a denial of a motion to lift stay was a final appealable order subject to the fourteen-day appeals period established in Bankruptcy Rule 8002(a).

Intercreditor agreements—contracts that lay out the respective rights, obligations and priorities of different classes of creditors—play an increasingly important role in corporate finance in light of the continued prevalence of complex capital structures involving various levels of debt. When a company encounters financial difficulties, intercreditor agreements become all the more important, as competing classes of creditors seek to maximize their share of the company’s limited assets.

Intercreditor agreements--contracts that lay out the respective rights, obligations and priorities of different classes of creditors--play an increasingly important role in corporate finance in light of the continued prevalence of complex capital structures involving various levels of debt. When a company encounters financial difficulties, intercreditor agreements become all the more important, as competing classes of creditors seek to maximize their share of the company's limited assets.

Section 303 of the Bankruptcy Code provides a unique remedy to unsecured creditors seeking to collect their debts against an insolvent entity.  A careful look at this remedy is contained in an earlier post, entitled Creditors' Strategic Use of Involuntary Bankruptcy.  In summary, pursuant to section 303, three unsecured creditors, with claims in the aggregate of $15,775, can place an insolvent company in bankrup

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to resolve whether rejection of a trademark license in the licensor’s bankruptcy terminates the licensee’s rights to use the mark. Though Congress determined 30 years ago that holders of copyright and patent licenses would be protected from rejection, it left trademark licenses outside that safety. Circuit courts applying general rules of bankruptcy law have split on whether those rules protect the trademark licensee or leave the mark at risk, and the grant of certiorari invites a decision with important implications.