Among other things, the plan called for the Liquidating Trust to pursue causes of action belonging to the debtors’ estates. One of those causes of action related to a breach of a Chapter 11 asset purchase agreement between the debtors (as sellers) and the proposed purchaser, Brown Media Corporation, an entity created by one of the debtors’ shareholders to buy the debtors’ assets out of the bankruptcy case. In connection with its initial bid, the proposed purchaser had deposited $765,000 with an escrow agent as a good faith deposit.

On May 25, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the “Court”) affirmed a district court’s affirmance of a bankruptcy court’s decision in In re Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. that permitted a debtor to reject a midstream gathering agreement as an “executory contract.”1 The Court’s decision, which is the first Court of Appeals to address the rejection of a midstream gathering agreement, firmly establishes a debtor’s right to do so under certain circumstances.

BACKGROUND

ABT Molecular Imaging, Inc. has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 18-11398). ABT, based in Louisville, TN, designs, manufactures and distributes the world’s first and only small-footprint Biomarker Generator for Fludeoxyglucose, the imaging agent used in positron emission tomography.

A bankruptcy court properly denied a bank's motion to compel arbitration of a debtor's asserted violation of the court's discharge injunction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held on March 7, 2018. In re Anderson, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 5703, 20 (2d Cir. Mar. 7, 2018). Finding a purported "inherent conflict between arbitration of [the debtor's] claim and the Bankruptcy Code," the Second Circuit reasoned that the bankruptcy court "properly considered the conflicting policies in accordance with law." Id., quoting In re United States Lines, Inc., 197 F.3d 631, 641 (2d Cir.

The Bottom Line

In Momentive Performance Materials, the Second Circuit declined to dismiss as equitably moot the appeals of certain noteholders.

The Bankruptcy Code contains an array of provisions designed to encourage lenders to provide debtor-in-possession ("DIP") financing in chapter 11 cases, including authorization of "superpriority" administrative expense claims and "priming" liens designed to ensure that DIP loans are repaid. However, as illustrated by a ruling recently handed down by the U.S.

New MACH Gen, LLC, along with four subsidiaries and affiliates, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-11368). MACH Gen, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, owns and operates three natural gas-fired electricity generating facilities across the United States.

“ . . . [A] bankruptcy court may not designate claims for bad faith simply because (1) a creditor offers to purchase only a subset of available claims in order to block a [reorganization] plan . . . and/or

As an officer of the court every attorney is held accountable to the standards set forth in the Rules of Professional Conduct. In bankruptcy court, attorneys are held to additional standards set forth in local bankruptcy law. A violation of the rules can result in harsh sanctions as attorney Richard Gates discovered in In re Gates, Misc. Case No. 18-00301-KRH (Bankr. E.D. Va. Apr. 5, 2018).