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“[S]ometimes a debtor is liable for fraud that she did not personally commit,” held the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2023, when the debtor’s business partner had deceptively obtained money by fraud, thereby making the innocent partner liable for a nondischargeable debt under Bankruptcy Code (Code) §523(a)(2)(A) (“any debt from money “obtained by … fraud” not dischargeable and survives debtor’s bankruptcy). Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 2023 WL 2144417 (Feb. 22, 2023). Unanimously affirming the Ninth Circuit and resolving “confusion in the lower courts,” the Court explained that the common law and precedent precluded an innocent debtor from discharging a debt obtained by the fraud of the debtor’s agent or partner. Id. at *8. The innocent debtor here thus could not use bankruptcy to avoid liability. More important, the decision has practical significance for corporate officers and others in an agency or partnership relationship. The decision also may have serious consequences for corporate Chapter 11 debtors whenever a “domestic governmental unit” is a creditor.
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Delaware District Court Could Guide Supreme Court Purdue Pharma Decision
By Michael L. Cook
A bankruptcy court properly held that derivative claims based on “piercing the corporate veil theory of liability [were] released under” a confirmed reorganization plan, but that direct “claims for negligent undertaking” were not released and “could be asserted” in state court against the debtors’ equity sponsors.
Court Caps Landlord's Bankruptcy Claim Against Lease Guarantor
By Andrew C. Kassner and Joseph N. Argentina Jr.
A big issue in real estate and retail bankruptcies, among others, involves the disposition of commercial real estate leases, given the potential magnitude of landlord damage claims under state law resulting from a tenant’s default under a long-term lease.
Delaware Bankruptcy Court Rejects Equity Holder's Challenge to Revoke Confirmation Order
By Lawrence J. Kotler
The equity owner asserted that the confirmation order previously entered by the court should be revoked based on the equity owner’s claim that value was lost due to improper sale and marketing efforts by the debtors and its professionals both pre- and post-bankruptcy and, as such, they should have been “in the money” and entitled to a distribution under the confirmed plan.
By George Williams
One of the major catalysts of the “Crypto Winter” that began in 2022 was the collapse of Terraform Labs’s native token LUNA in May 2022. Now two years and a dozen crypto-related bankruptcies later, Terraform Labs has filed for Chapter 11 protection.
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