Context

On February 12, following a four-day trial, the U.S.

As we described in our client alert dated September 14, 2016, in the aftermath of the real estate downturn from 1989 to 1993, when real estate mortgage lenders began to contemplate making new mortgage loans, they sought to create new legal structures to prevent their prospective borrowers from filing for Chapter 11, and to ameliorate the adverse consequences, if such a filing were to occur.

Courts disagree as to whether the amount that a bankruptcy trustee or chapter 11 debtor-in-possession ("DIP" ) can recover in fraudulent transfer avoidance litigation should be capped at the total amount of unsecured claims against the estate. A Delaware bankruptcy court recently weighed in on this issue in PAH Litigation Trust v. Water Street Healthcare Partners, L.P. (In re Physiotherapy Holdings, Inc.), 2017 WL 5054308 (Bankr. D. Del. Nov. 1, 2017). Noting the absence of any guidance on the question from the U.S.

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: BONT), a department store retailer headquartered in York, PA, has, along with nine (9) of its affiliates and subsidiaries, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10248).

Ascent Resources Marcellus Holdings, LLC, along with two of its affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10265). The Debtors, based in Oklahoma City, OK, operate as an oil and natural gas E&P in the Marcellus Shale basin in the eastern United States.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross sitting in Delaware recently approved J.G. Wentworth’s (the “Debtor’s”) Chapter 11 plan after overruling an objection from the U.S. Trustee regarding third-party releases. The Debtor’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan was the second it has brought before the Delaware bankruptcy court in the last ten years.

In one of the first decisions issued this year by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the court addressed an issue of first impression. In Mission Products Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, n/k/a Old Cold LLC, No. 16-9016 (1st Cir. Jan. 12, 2018), the First Circuit held that the omission of trademarks from the definition of “intellectual property” in Section 101(35A) of the Bankruptcy Code, as incorporated by Section 365(n), leaves a trademark licensee with nothing more than a claim for damages upon the rejection of its license under Section 365(a).

Scottish Holdings, Inc., Charlotte, NC based reinsurance company, has, along with a single affiliate, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10160).

Rand Logistics, Inc., along with six affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10175).