Business Law Insolvency Law Committee

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that cryptocurrency assets held in accounts deposited with the debtors constituted assets of the debtors’ bankruptcy estates.  In re Celsius Network LLC, 647 B.R. 631 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2023). Read more

On December 16, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit published an opinion holding that a collector’s use of an outside mailer was not similar enough to the publicity requirement under the tort of public disclosure of private facts, and therefore the consumer lacked standing to bring a claim for improper communication with third parties under section 1692c(b) of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692-1692p (FDCPA).  Shields v. Professional Bureau of Collections of Maryland, Inc., 55 F.4th 823 (10th Cir. 2022). Read more

Ruling on an objection filed by a chapter 11 plan administrator to landlords’ claims after lease termination, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the Court) rejected prior district practice and calculated the amounts due under the rent cap of 11 U.S.C. § 502(b)(6) using the Time Approach rather than the Rent Approach.  In re Cortlandt Liquidating LLC, 648 B.R. 137 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2023). Read more

The United States Supreme Court, relying on textual interpretation, the principles of common-law fraud, precedent from the 1800s, and legislative intent, held that the debt incurred because of the fraud of a spouse or partner is imputed to the other partner and therefore is non-dischargeable in that person’s bankruptcy under the provisions of 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A).  Read more

The plaintiff obtained two loans secured by his home. Plaintiff stopped making payments.  In March 2014, one lender foreclosed on a loan. Read more

In Rios, the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin held that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) had an “interest in property” through its federal tax liens on the Chapter 13 Debtors’ (“Debtors”) Social Security benefits. Read more

Utilizing provisions of the New York Limited Liability Company Law, a bankruptcy court in the Eastern District of New York (the Court) granted a chapter 11 liquidating trustee’s motion to appoint co-trustees to liquidate the assets of LLCs in which the deceased debtor was a managing member.  Read more

In a published opinion with a detailed description of the development abusind importance of California’s usury law, the California Court of Appeal (the Court) reversed a trial court ruling which reflected the lower court’s erroneous understanding that California’s complicated relationship with usury, with many exceptions, demonstrates that the prohibition of usury is not a fundamental public policy of the state. Read more

The allowed homestead exemption in Riverside County California, when Robert and Suzanne Reicher filed their chapter 7 petition, was roughly $456,000.  Read more

In an unpublished decision, the U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit (the “BAP”) affirmed the bankruptcy court’s rulings denying a chapter 7 debtor’s motion to convert and motion for reconsideration, based on its determination that the bankruptcy court’s finding that the debtor had sought conversion in bad faith was not clearly erroneous.   Read more