On October 5, 2010, Judge Bruce Black of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois (the “Bankruptcy Court”) issued a ruling in the River Road Hotel Partner LLC, et. al. (the “Debtors”) bankruptcy cases denying the Debtors’ bid procedures motion incident to plan confirmation. The bid procedures motion, among other things, sought the denial of secured creditor’s right to credit bid.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently ruled that a nonresident parent company may be subject to suit in Minnesota for damages claims against its insolvent Minnesota subsidiary company. The decision would appear to defeat a primary reason for forming a separate subsidiary business entity: the protection of related entities and their assets from potential liability arising from the business operations of the subsidiary.
A discovery dispute gave the bankruptcy court an opportunity to rule on the common interest privilege which, the court said, has completely replaced the joint defense privilege for information sharing among clients with different attorneys, citing In re Teleglobe Communications Corp., 493 F.3d 345, 364 n. 20 (3d Cir. 2007). Leslie Controls, Inc., Case No. 10-12199 (Bankr. D. Del. 9/21/10)(Sontchi, B.J.).
When we last left off, Judge Peck (SDNY) was foiling Cyrus Select Opportunities’ efforts to oppose Ion Media’s chapter 11 plan, while in the Northern District of Texas, Judge Jernigan was putting the stops on Michigan Retirement Systems’ attempt to thwart Erickson Retirement Communities’ allocation of value to PNC Bank
I. Introduction.
Last week the Supreme Court exercised its option to do nothing about a Seventh Circuit decision allowing the federal government to cram a $150 million remediation obligation onto a chapter 11 successor corporation – all because the feds chose to proceed under RCRA (the federal hazardous waste statute) rather than CERCLA (the Superfund cleanup statute). Smart tactics by the feds.
On October 12th, the FDIC published for comment proposed rules on how the agency would treat certain creditor claims under the new orderly liquidation authority established under the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposed rules bar any additional payments to holders of long-term senior debt, subordinated debt or equity interests that would result in those creditors recovering more than other creditors entitled to the same priority of payments under the law.
On October 12, the FDIC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking for a rule clarifying how the FDIC would treat certain creditor claims under the new liquidation authority, established under the Dodd-Frank Act, for financial companies whose insolvency would pose a significant risk to the financial stability of the United States.