In a divided opinion Tuesday, the Court of Appeals held that a lease and guaranty are separate contracts, even when the guaranty is incorporated into the lease. SeeFriday Investments, LLC v. Bally Total Fitness of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. For this reason, the court held, a guaranty might be discharged in bankruptcy – even where the tenant assumes the lease to which it is attached and incorporated.

TerraVia Holdings, Inc., a San Francisco-based specialty food company, and two of its affiliates have filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 17-11655).

The United States Supreme Court will soon decide whether state or federal law will apply to the recharacterization of debt. On June 27, 2017, the Court granted certiorari in In re Province Grande Olde Liberty, LLC, a decision out of the Fourth Circuit.

In 2003 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals surprised many observers when it held that a sale of real property under section 363 of title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code) could be approved free and clear of a lessee’s leasehold interest in the property. Precision Industries, Inc. v. Qualitech Steel SBQ, LLC (In re Qualitech Steel Corp. & Qualitech Steel Holdings Corp.), 327 F.3d 537 (7th Cir. 2003) (Qualitech).

(6th Cir. July 18, 2017)

The Sixth Circuit affirms the bankruptcy court’s order modifying its prior sale order under Rule 60(b). The court’s original order approved a sale of estate assets but the sale agreement and the order failed to include certain contracts to be assumed and assigned to the buyer. The court finds that modification of the order was appropriate because the motion to modify the order was filed within one year of entry of the sale order and the bankruptcy court properly exercised its discretion after weighing the relevant factors. Opinion below.

(Bankr. W.D. Ky. July 17, 2017)

The bankruptcy court enters judgment in favor of the lender, holding the debt owed by one of the debtors would not be discharged, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(6). The debtor disregarded the lender’s security interest in his business’s inventory, using the proceeds of the inventory for personal expenses in violation of the security agreement. The court holds that the lender failed to present sufficient evidence to except the other debtor’s (the first debtor’s spouse) debt from discharge. Opinion below.

Judge: Stout

On June 27, 2017, the United States Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari regarding the decision In re Province Grande Olde Liberty, LLC, 655 Fed.Appx. 971 (4th Cir. Aug. 12, 2016) to decide a circuit split on the applicable standard for debt recharacterization.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that a bankruptcy trustee was authorized to sell real estate free and clear of unexpired leases under 11 U.S.C. § 363(f), and the sale was not a rejection of the unexpired leases and therefore did not implicate 11 U.S.C. § 365(h).

In so ruling, the Ninth Circuit adopted the minority approach established in Precision Indus., Inc. v. Qualitech Steel SBQ, LLC, 327 F.3d 537 (7th Cir. 2003), which held that sections 363 and 365 may be given full effect without coming into conflict with one another.

Close to ten years have passed since the filing of the chapter 11 cases of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based SemCrude L.P., but this week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2015 district court ruling that resolved a dispute between oil producers and downstream purchasers over the perfection and priority of interests in oil sold by SemCrude L.P. and its affiliates. The Third Circuit’s holding in In re SemCrude L.P., --- F.3d ---, 2017 WL 3045889 (3d Cir.

A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has fanned the smoldering dispute among courts regarding the scope of asset sales in bankruptcy. In the In re Spanish Peaks Holdings II, LLC decision, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s holding that sale of commercial real estate can, in certain circumstances, be free and clear of all liens, claims, encumbrances, and interests, including a leasehold interest. In other words, a tenant of a bankrupt landlord could find itself with no interest in the property following the sale.