If you’re a secured lender, news of a Chapter 11 filing by your borrower can be unsettling. The commencement of a Chapter 11 case triggers an “automatic stay” which, with certain exceptions, operates as an injunction against all actions affecting the debtor or its property.3 Under the automatic stay, a secured lender holding a security interest in the debtor’s property may not repossess or foreclose on that property without the permission of the bankruptcy court.
Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. shut down in July and filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey court that same month. The bankruptcy court ordered an auction sale, and a purchaser has come forward to buy all of the company’s assets.
A bankruptcy court in Pennsylvania recently held that trade creditors who supplied goods to a debtor prior to its bankruptcy filing were not entitled to administrative priority status under Bankruptcy Code section 503(b)(9) because the goods were “received by the debtor” at the time they were placed on the vessel at the port overseas more than 20 days before the debtor’s bankruptcy filing, although the debtor took possession of the goods within the 20 day period. In re World Imports, Ltd. — B.R. —-, 2014 WL 2750258 (Bankr. E.D. Pa., June 18, 2014).
Originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of The Bankruptcy Strategist.
Dishi & Sons v. Bay Condos LLC, 510 B.R. 696 (S.D.N.Y. 2014) –
In approving the sale of a Chapter 11 debtor’s assets, a bankruptcy court found that a tenant of the debtor was entitled to continue in possession of the leased portion of the sold property for the remainder of its lease. The successful bidder at the sale appealed, arguing that the sale was “free and clear” of the tenant’s interests.
Judge Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted class claim certification to a group of former MF Global employees seeking payment on account of unpaid accrued vacation time.
Steve McCroskey: Jacobs, I want to know absolutely everything that’s happened up ‘til now.
Jacobs: Well, let’s see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. . . .
-Airplane II: the Sequel
In Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, No. 13-12389 (July 10, 2014), the Eleventh Circuit held that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits filing a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in bankruptcy court, where the party attempting to collect knows the debt is time barred. The appellate court observed that a “deluge has swept through U.S. bankruptcy courts” of consumer debt buyers attempting to collect expired debts from debtors in Chapter 13 bankruptcy.