Undersecured creditors may breathe a little easier.  In a recent decision, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied the debtors’ request to use an undersecured creditor’s cash collateral, in the form of postpetition rents, to pay estate professional fees, holding that the undersecured creditor was not adequately protected even though the value of its collateral was stable and possibly increasing.  

The question “Where’s the Beef?” is typically associated with the famous Wendy’s television commercial from 1984 and its lovable actress, Clara Peller. But the recent decision in the chapter 7 case of a national meat processor had an avoidance action defendant asking, “Where’s the Beef … (with me)?” after the debtor’s chapter 7 trustee attempted to avoid over $5 million in transfers made by the debtor to the defendant prepetition.

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. 

Under section 365(d)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code, an unexpired lease of nonresidential real property is automatically deemed rejected if a debtor-lessee does not assume such lease within 120 days of its bankruptcy filing, or within 210 days with court permission.

Debtors seeking dismissal of an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding may want to consider a recent decision of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia.  In denying an individual debtor’s motion to dismiss an involuntary petition, the court in In re Barkats held that a debtor may not pay off petitioning creditors to the detriment of other creditors as a way of avoiding an involuntary p

When evaluating a debtor’s bankruptcy or restructuring options, determining how to increase or preserve the debtor’s liquidity is crucial to the analysis. Well-advised debtors with significant labor liabilities will need to explore whether attaining cost savings through rejection of their collective bargaining agreements is a viable alternative.

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.

As we’ve noted on several occasions, parties in interest in a bankruptcy case generally hope for “big money – no whammies” (“

“An attorney’s reluctance, or that of his assistant, to work after 6:30 p.m. one evening in order to meet a court-imposed filing deadline does not constitute excusable neglect.”

– In re An

In the well-known children’s story book written by P.D. Eastman and edited by beloved Dr. Seuss, a baby bird embarks on a quest to find his mother, asking a hen, a dog, and a kitten, among others, the famous question, “Are you my mother?”   If Dr. Seuss had penned the recently-decided case of Thielman v. MF Global Holdings, Ltd.