The appellate courts have been busy explaining or clarifying preference and fraudulent transfer law. Although novices may think the Bankruptcy Code (Code) is clear on its face, imaginative counsel have found gaps in the statute and generated rafts of litigation since the Code's enactment in 1979. Recent appellate decisions, summarized below, show that courts are still making new law or refining prior case law.
A recent bankruptcy case from the District of Delaware underscores the need for a trademark licensor to be alert to filings made in its licensee's bankruptcy case that may require prompt action by the licensor to protect its valuable rights under a license agreement.
Given the potentially harsh consequence of failing to timely assume a vital lease, a Chapter 11 debtor must be vigilant to avoid a forfeiture. It is important to know, however, that all might not be lost even if the debtor misses this deadline.
The Supreme Court concluded that because the 2017 amendments exempted debtors located in two States, it was not "uniform" as it did not apply equally to all debtors regardless of where they were situated and, therefore, the statute was unconstitutional.
Given the potentially harsh consequence of failing to timely assume a vital lease, a Chapter 11 debtor must be vigilant to avoid a forfeiture. It is important to know, however, that all might not be lost even if the debtor misses this deadline.
The defendant "was a 'mere conduit' of [a] fraudulent transfer and cannot be liable to the bankruptcy estate for funds she never knew about," held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in In re BICOM N.Y., LLC.
While bankruptcy traditionally has been seen as a challenging pathway for debtors with student loans, court-based student loan management programs have been adopted to facilitate the repayment and resolution of student loan debt within the Chapter 13 bankruptcy process.
Conflicts of interest among clients are a chronic problem for law firms with many clients. How law firms address the problem — and they must — is what the Boy Scouts of America decision shows.
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a lower courts' rulings that a stipulation between the IRS and a bankruptcy trustee, which allowed the IRS's priority tax claim, did not prevent the IRS from collecting nondischargeable tax debt above the agreed amount in that stipulation.
It seems clear that bankruptcy filings inevitably will increase in the near future, because of rising interest rates, pandemic-related micro-economic forces, global strife, and other macro-economic factors and their continuing strain on the global economy and individual businesses. Consequently, strategic buyers and private equity sponsors should find expanding opportunities to purchase distressed businesses out of bankruptcy.
