(Bankr. E.D. Ky. May 9, 2016)
The bankruptcy court grants the trustee’s motion to dismiss the creditors’ adversary proceeding. The claims asserted by the creditors were property of the estate and thus the trustee has the exclusive right to assert the claims. Opinion below.
Judge: Wise
Attorneys for Trustee: Foley & Lardner LLP, Geoffrey S. Goodman, David B. Goroff
Attorneys for Plaintiffs: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Robert J. Boller, Douglas A. Rappaport, Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Casey M. Cantrell Swartz, W. Timothy Miller
The United States Supreme Court has unanimously held that federal bankruptcy law does not preclude an unsecured creditor from recovering attorney’s fees authorized under a prepetition contract and incurred postpetition in bankruptcy-related litigation with the debtor.
Venue has long been a contentious topic highlighted by cases such as Enron and WorldCom to the more recent venue battle in Caesars. Recently, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas addressed this issue, and declined to transfer a pending bankruptcy case to the District of Delaware where cases involving the debtor’s indirect parent company and other affiliates were pending.
On April 25, 2016, Judge Glenn of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued a memorandum in an adversary proceeding in which neither of the two non-debtor parties apparently wanted to be in the Southern District of New York.
In a recent decision, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas affirmed the bankruptcy court’s rejection of the cost methodology to value the right to use common amenities in a condominium development and, in the process, bolstered the notion that bankruptcy courts have discretion in determining what valuation methodologies are appropriate under the facts and circumstances of a particular case.
CentsAbility: Creditors' Rights Law Update
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in InRe Reuben Samuel Royal, Case No, 14-07134-DMW (May 2, 2016) recently concluded that the Chapter 13 debtors cannot surrender a vehicle back to the lender after confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan even though the vehicle was depreciating or declining in value.
Until recently, In re Atari, Inc. was a closed case, but, in a recent decision, the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York found that “other cause” existed to reopen the bankruptcy cases.
Background
Adding to the unsettled body of case law on the enforceability of prepetition waivers of the automatic stay, on April 27, 2016, the U.S.
Law360, New York (May 5, 2016, 12:02 PM ET) -- A core principle of bankruptcy tax litigation holds that “bankruptcy courts have universally recognized their jurisdiction to consider tax issues brought by the debtor, limited only by their discretion to abstain.” IRS v. Luongo, 259 F.3d 323, 329-330 (5th Cir. 2001) (citing In re Hunt, 95 B.R. 442, 445 (Bankr. N.D. Tex. 1989). The Second Circuit recently departed from that generally accepted principle in United States v. Bond, 762 F.3d 255 (2d Cir. 2014).