LJN Newsletters

The most recent results of Nassau Asset Management's NasTrac Quarterly Index show that the company's level of repossession and liquidation activity for the first quarter has risen significantly over the past year in the construction equipment and machine tool categories, while also showing continued high activity in trucking.

Who's doing what; who's going where.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on May 5, 2009, that two secured lenders were fully secured, "entitled to a full recovery" from the debtor despite the bankruptcy court's improper valuation of the collateral (improved airport terminal space) securing the lenders' underlying $60 million loan. In re United Air Lines, Inc.

In 2005, Congress added Code ' 503(b)(9) and created a new administrative claim which, in effect, creates a class of "critical" pre-petition creditors that debtors can pay without court authority. The creditors in this entitled class did nothing more than deliver goods to the debtor within 20 days prior to the petition date. Interestingly, the section provides no similar relief to providers of services or any class of lender.

In a case of timely significance, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has recently ruled that pension plan termination premiums are not "claims" subject to being discharged under a Chapter 11 plan, but rather, must be paid in full upon emergence from bankruptcy.

The absolute priority rule is supposed to provide some measure of order and certainty in the world of Chapter 11. But bankruptcy practitioners know that the mere inclusion of the word "absolute" in the rule's name does not make it so.

This article discusses the procedures for assigning Article 9 security interests, the issues highlighted in Clark Contracting Services Inc. v. Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, and the reaction to that decision.

In fiscal year 2008, the EEOC received 2,880 complaints of religious discrimination, up from 1,786 complaints received in 1998. In response to the substantial increase in religious discrimination claims, in July 2008 the EEOC revised its Compliance Manual and published Questions and Answers and Best Practices.