Unlike the parenting technique that requires a misbehaving child to sit in a designated area for a set amount of time, Gymboree Corporation, the well-known San Francisco-based company that operates specialty retail stores of children’s apparel, will serve its time-out before Judge Keith L. Phillips in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

What happens in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case when a creditor files a proof of claim involving a debt for which the statute of limitations to collect the debt has run? More specifically, does the filing of such a claim violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the “Act”)? That’s the issue considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent decision in the case of Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson. 1

In a May 16, 2017 ruling, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware affirmed the order of the bankruptcy court denying a party’s motion to compel arbitration. In doing so, the District Court adhered to traditional rules of contract interpretation in holding that the relevant arbitration provision was not written broadly enough to include the type of dispute pending before the bankruptcy court, and thus, the bankruptcy court retained jurisdiction.

NNN 400 Capitol Center, LLC, a single asset real estate debtor, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. According to the Petition, the Debtor estimates its assets and liabilities to both be between $10MM – $50MM.

A recent decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals may have muddied the question of the impact of collateral rent assignments on a debtor’s ability to re-organize under chapter 11.

FirstRain, Inc., an enterprise software company headquartered in San Mateo, CA, has filed voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 17-11249). FirstRain’s petition estimates both its assets and liabilities to be between $1 to $10 MM.

In a highly anticipated decision—HPIP Gonzales Holdings, LLC v. Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. (In re Sabine Oil & Gas Corp.), 2017 BL 83510 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 9, 2017)—Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York affirmed 2016 bankruptcy court rulings authorizing chapter 11 debtor Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. ("Sabine") to reject certain gas gathering and handling agreements.

In Weisfelner v. Blavatnik(In re Lyondell Chemical Company), 2017 BL 131876 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Apr. 21, 2017), the bankruptcy court presiding over the chapter 11 case of Lyondell Chemical Company ("Lyondell") handed down a long-anticipated opinion in the protracted litigation concerning the failed 2007 merger of Lyondell with Basell AF S.C.A. ("Basell"), a Netherlands-based petrochemical company.

In First Southern National Bank v. Sunnyslope Housing Limited Partnership, No. 12-17241 (9th Cir. May 26, 2017), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an en banc decision, held that, for purposes of confirmation of a plan of reorganization over a mortgagee’s objection, the value of the mortgagee’s secured claim was the value of the property as low income housing not the value the mortgagee would have received on foreclosure free of the low income housing restrictions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the filing of a proof of claim in bankruptcy proceedings with respect to time-barred debt is not a “false, deceptive, misleading, unfair, or unconscionable” act within the meaning of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) when there continues to be a right to repayment after the expiration of the limitations period under applicable state law. The Court’s decision in Midland Funding, LLC v.