We at the Stern Files recently expressed our disappointment with the lack of more meaningful guidance in
Interest rates that remain near zero and debt maturities that have been pushed out to 2017 and 2018 have helped drive chapter 11 filings to historic lows. Has this difficult environment put corporate restructuring on life support?
The New York Court of Appeals, on July 1, 2014, in response to questions certified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held that “pending hourly fee matters are not [a dissolved law firm’s] ‘property’ or ‘unfinished business’” under New York’s Partnership Law. In re Thelen LLP, __ N.Y.3d __, slip op. at 2 (July 1, 2014); see In re Thelen LLP, 213 F.3d 213, 216 (2d Cir. 2013).
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.
In 1988, Congress added section 365(n) to the Bankruptcy Code to provide special protections for licensees of intellectual property upon a debtor’s rejection of an intellectual property license agreement. Whether trademarks are within the ambit of section 365(n) protection, though, is open to question.
On June 6, 2014, in Lewis Brothers Bakeries Incorporated and Chicago Baking Company v.
In a decision released on June 25, 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that ASARCO LLC could not maintain CERCLA cost recovery actions against the trustees of residuary trusts created by the will of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. ASARCO, as part of its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, paid the US, the State of Washington, and the Port of Everett, Washington $50.2 million to settle pending CERCLA claims at two Superfund sites in Washington State.
Bankruptcy courts have jurisdiction over "core" and "non-core" proceedings. See 28 U.S.C. § 157. In "core" proceedings, bankruptcy courts can enter final judgments. See 28 U.S.C. § 157(b). In "non-core" proceedings, however, bankruptcy courts must make findings of fact and conclusions of law and send their rulings to the district court for de novo review. See 28 U.S.C. § 157(c).