The recent drop in crude oil prices has been a boon to consumers and businesses alike. However, sustained lower crude prices will invariably have a negative impact on drilling activity in those states where oil and gas development has been concentrated. The current price is below production costs in some locations. Without a prompt recovery in prices, it can be expected that a sustained decrease in oil and gas activity will have an adverse financial impact on the myriad of businesses that provide supplies and services in the oil and gas sector.
We admit, discovery disputes rarely make for titillating blog posts. But a letter ruling issued towards the end of last year by Judge Shannon in Longview Power, LLC et al. v. First American Title Insurance Co. recently caught our eye.
Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, which operates the Cincinnati and Cleveland casinos as well as the Thistledown racino, has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. However, Ohio’s gambling facilities were not listed in the filing. Newly appointed CFO, Eric Hession, has even stated to the Ohio Casino Control Commission that the bankruptcy filing should have little or no impact on Ohio’s facilities. It will continue to be business as usual.
Mississippi bankruptcy court holds that agreement encompassing both settlement agreement resolving claims for past-due performance royalties and contemporaneously executed ASCAP licensing agreements is not a single agreement, permitting the debtor to assume the licensing agreements without paying-or curing any default on payment of $400,000 due under the settlement agreement.
JPMorgan Chase & Co received a painful reminder recently that mistakes can be very costly after their appeal to the Second Circuit was remanded; the clerical mix-up could cost the company $1.5 billion.
Section 9-509(d)(1) of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) provides that a UCC-3 termination statement is effective only if “the secured party of record authorizes the filing.”
Compared to much of the rest of the world, the United States had the most positive economic, business, and financial news in 2014.
The composition of the Top 10 List of public bankruptcy filings for 2014 indicates that the U.S. has largely left behind the fraud, excess, abuse, and improvidence that dominated the bankruptcy landscape during the 2007–08 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. Continuing a trend that began in 2012, only a single representative from the banking and financial services industry made the cut.
After nearly three years of study and 16 public field hearings, a commission established by the American Bankruptcy Institute (the “ABI Commission”) to study the reform of chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code issued its Final Report and Recommendations on December 8, 2014 (the “Report”). The ABI Commission comprises nearly 130 corporate restructuring authorities serving on 13 advisory committees.
In section IV.E of its report and recommendations of reforms to chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, the American Bankruptcy Institute Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 (the “Commission”) considered changes to the Bankruptcy Code’s “safe harbor” provisions.
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