Summary of recommended changes to the Bankruptcy Code from the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11
Summary of recommended changes
This chart summarizes the Recommendations in the Commission’s Report that relate to or would have an impact on creditors’ rights.
Background
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently entered an order confirming that when a fraudulent transfer defendant is able to establish a defense pursuant to 11 U.S.C.
In ordinary civil litigation, appellate review is generally limited to “final judgments,” in order to prevent the wastefulness of appeals on rulings that are not truly dispositive of the case. That notion becomes somewhat more difficult in a bankruptcy, where there are often multiple litigations within the umbrella bankruptcy case. But does that mean that notions of finality should be different in the bankruptcy context? Not so, at least according to the Sixth Circuit.
The "American rule" is a well-defined legal principle applied by courts throughout the United States that holds each party to a dispute responsible for paying its own attorney fees. This principle is, however, subject to a number of exceptions that effectively allow a prevailing party to recover its own attorney fees from a losing party. For example, federal and state statutes increasingly authorize a prevailing party to recover costs from its adversary in certain types of actions.
2014 has been a tumultuous year, filled with tragedy and interstellar triumphs: Ebola; Sochi; Ukraine; Flight 370; ISIS; Flight 17; Comet 67P. Life in the corporate bankruptcy and restructuring world was considerably more sedate than in the world at large. Now five and six years removed, some of the mega cases of the 2008 and 2009 era linger on and continue to generate interesting legal developments.
On November 5, 2014, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia issued a noteworthy opinion that runs counter to what many Virginia law practitioners assume to be the common law in Virginia – i.e., that a manager of a Virginia limited liability company owes a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the limited liability company.
It long has been the law that unpaid creditors of an insolvent debtor can complain if the debtor sells or otherwise transfers any of its assets for less than their fair value. Assume, for example, a company in financial distress sells one of its manufacturing plants to an unrelated purchaser for $15 million. If an unpaid creditor of the seller can demonstrate the fair value of the facility at the time of the sale was $20 million, the purchaser may be required to account to the seller, or its creditors, for the $5 million difference.
“Always look out for Number One, but don’t step in Number Two” – Rodney Dangerfield
“What-eva – I’ll do what I want [as long as my company is solvent]” – Eric Cartman, South Park
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal’s recent decision in State Bank of Toulon v. Covey (In re Duckworth)Case Nos. 14-1561 and 1650 (7th Cir. November 21, 2014) illustrates how a banker’s seemingly minor mistake in drafting secured loan documents granting a lien to secure a non-existent obligation can lead to avoidance of a lender’s security interest by the borrower’s bankruptcy trustee.
On November 21, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a very tough opinion for lenders. In this case, a borrower signed a $1,100,000.00 Promissory Note dated December 15 and an Agricultural Security Agreement dated December 13. The Security Agreement said that it granted the bank a security interest in crops and farm equipment. The Promissory Note referred to the Security Agreement. Unfortunately, the Security Agreement stated that it secured a Promissory Note dated December 13, not December 15.