The Supreme Court Gets Its Grammar on: Interpreting the Right to Postpetition Interest Under Section 506(b)
In this Throwback Thursday, piece we revisit the decision of the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Ron Pair Enters. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that section 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code permits a creditor to receive postpetition interest on an oversecured claim even if the creditor does not have the benefit of an agreement providing for interest on the claim.
The filing of a bankruptcy petition creates a bankruptcy estate that includes “all legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case.” Highland Capital Mgmt. LP v. Chesapeake Energy Corp. (In re Seven Seas Petroleum, Inc.), 522 F.3d 575, 584 (5th Cir. 2008) (quoting 11 U.S.C. § 541(a)(1)). This includes “rights of action such as claims based on state or federal law.” Id.
In a recent decision welcomed by creditors, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina reversed a bankruptcy court order confirming a Chapter 11 debtor’s plan because the debtor engaged in “obvious gerrymandering” in order to secure the votes necessary to obtain confirmation of the plan.
I. Facts
The Texas Supreme Court, on June 20, 2014, issued its highly anticipated opinion in Ritchie v. Rupe, 2014 Tex. LEXIS 500 (Tex. 2014). Ritchie involved a claim by a minority shareholder in a closely held corporation under the Texas receivership statute, seeking to force the majority shareholders to buy-out the minority shareholder’s interest in the corporation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held on June 23, 2014 that an oversecured lender’s legal fees were subject to the bankruptcy court’s review for reasonableness despite a court-ordered non-judicial foreclosure sale of the lender’s collateral. In re 804 Congress, LLC, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 2816521 (5th Cir. June 23, 2014). Affirming the bankruptcy court’s power and reversing the district court, the Fifth Circuit found the lender’s utter failure to detail its legal fees with any documentary support to be fatal.
Facts
In its opinion in Clark v. Rameker, 573 U.S. ____ (2014), the United States Supreme Court ruled that inherited IRA accounts are not exempt under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C), and are subject to payment of creditor claims in a chapter 7 case.
On June 19, 2014, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York once again granted Australia-based Octaviar Administration Pty Ltd. chapter 15 recognition as a foreign main proceeding, six months after the Second Circuit overturned an earlier order granting the same relief.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up an appeal brought by Irving Picard, the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee charged with recovering assets on behalf of Madoff’s bankruptcy estate and distributing them to victims of Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.
It’s been several years since I last posted about objections to bankruptcy claims, and the topic is so important to creditors that it’s time to revisit it.
A hedge fund sued an investment bank for tortious interference based on its exclusion from participation in exit financing for a debtor. The bankruptcy court granted the investment banker’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and the hedge fund appealed.