One topic we regularly write about on the Bankruptcy Blog is releases – especially third-party releases. In fact, as recently as Thursday, we wrote about third-party releases. The topic of third-party releases is often controversial, and circuits disagree about the extent to which they are permissible, if at all.
On July 15, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court made it much more difficult, costly and cumbersome for a judgment creditor to obtain a priority lien against the personal property of a judgment debtor. Associated Bank, N.A., v. Jack W. Collier, 2014 WI 62. Two members of the court disagreed with the decision and argued that it has changed 150 years of Wisconsin law.
When a key customer files bankruptcy, one of the first questions you will face is whether to keep doing business or end the relationship. (Another key question is making sure your pre-bankruptcy claim gets on file or otherwise acknowledged.) Since companies in bankruptcy (called debtors or debtors in possession) usually cannot survive without trade support, they often reach out to suppliers to ask for trade terms, or at least a steady supply of goods, after a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy is filed.
As a result of the sheer number of legal and factual issues involved in many chapter 11 cases, bankruptcy judges can sometimes find themselves as captives of the parties; they may not appreciate the significance of an issue or a provision buried in a longer document unless it is properly presented. Thus, it is imperative that counsel flag the key issues for the court.
Discounted cash flow analysis is a mainstay among the valuation methodologies used by restructuring professionals and bankruptcy courts to determine the enterprise value of a distressed business. Despite its prevalence, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently concluded the DCF method was inappropriate for the valuation of “dry bulk” shipping companies.
In the world of bank holding company bankruptcies, often a dispute arises between the parent company and the FDIC (as receiver for parent’s failed bank subsidiary) over the ownership of the tax refunds issued to the bank’s consolidated group pursuant to a consolidated tax return.
On July 22, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a bank’s motion to dismiss a putative class action adversary proceeding alleging that certain of the bank’s credit reporting practices violated U.S. bankruptcy law. In re Haynes, No. 11-23212, 2014 WL 3608891 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 22, 2014).
On June 17, 2014, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals1 vacated a District Court’s dismissal order and resuscitated a bankruptcy appeal brought by a group of litigation creditors seeking recourse against the debtors post-confirmation.2 The Third Circuit opinion is an important reminder to both debtors and creditors that the doctrine of “equitable mootness” has limits and that confirmation of a plan does not preclude review of post-confirmation actions inconsistent with obligations in the plan.
On June 27, 2014, in National Heritage Foundation, Inc. v. Highbourne Foundation, 1 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, agreeing with decisions by the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which were issued upon remand from a prior appeal, held that the third-party non-debtor release provision in the chapter 11 plan of reorganization of National Heritage Foundation, Inc. was invalid.
Creditors in bankruptcy cases may be interested in the July 10, 2014 Opinion issued by the Eleventh Circuit in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC.