In the latest decision to emanate from the Madoff bankruptcy, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the appeal of a protective order that relieved Irving Picard—the court-appointed trustee—from answering discovery requests regarding his compensation arrangement with his law firm.
Creditors seeking to file an involuntary petition against a debtor may want to consider doing their due diligence before using it as a tool in their ongoing disputes with a debtor.
We’ve previously written on various cases in which parties have sought to save or revive late filed pleadings by arguing those pleadings “relate back” to previously filed documents with varying degrees of success.
Generally when parties to a dispute work out a settlement they can breathe a sigh of relief and put their differences behind them. OK – it’s a little more complicated than that when one of the parties is a chapter 11 debtor that must seek relief from the bankruptcy court to approve the settlement. But what if a party objects? Things get a bit more complicated. And what if the objecting party has no apparent pecuniary interest at stake? In that scenario, the settling parties can rest a little easier as the bankruptcy court in
“Once again, I’m not quite sure what that means.” – Bobby Boucher, The Waterboy
When a court reaches a decision in a case, the law of the case doctrine generally provides that parties should not be able to relitigate the same issue in that case, and for the court to adhere to its prior decision.1 The doctrine does not, however, apply to every decision a court reaches. Two recent decisions by Judge Elizabeth Stong in the Brizinova chapter 7 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York explore when the doctrine may or may not apply in bankruptcy cases.
In a recent decision by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, In re Hercules Offshore, Inc., et al., Judge Kevin J. Carey confirmed Hercules Offshore’s plan over objections by the Equity Committee—including an objection to allegedly impermissible plan releases and exculpations.
Background
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
– Albert Einstein
Courts have applied various standards for determining when a “claim” arises for the purposes of the Bankruptcy Code, particularly in the tort context. A recent decision from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania illustrates that the standard may differ depending on whether the claim in question is a creditor’s claim against the debtor’s estate or a debtor’s claim against a third-party.