Business Law Insolvency Law Committee

A Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania (the “Court”) recently upheld challenges to the eligibility of a physician to proceed as a debtor in Subchapter V. Read more

In Allred v. Arendt (In re Dozier), 2021 Bankr. LEXIS 3450 (Bank. S.D. December 15, 2021) (“Dozier”), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Dakota (the “Bankruptcy Court”) denied the Chapter 7 trustee’s motion for summary judgment against the debtor’s former counsel on claims alleging various species of fraud. Read more

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) certified questions relating to Florida’s “safe harbor” provisions in its adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) which could save a creditor from losing its secured interest if it filed a financing statement with an incorrect name for the debtor. Read more

A Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Virginia (the Court) recently ruled that a provision under Virginia law which dissociates a member of a limited liability company upon the filing of a bankruptcy petition, thereby terminating that member’s non-economic/management interests in the LLC, was unenforceable as a violation of Bankruptcy Code § 541(c)(1) Read more

Writing a month apart, two bankruptcy courts addressed the issue of whether the “Shared Responsibility Payment” (SRP), which citizens are required by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to pay if they do not maintain a minimal standard of health care insurance, is entitled to payment as a priority claim in a Chapter 13 case. Read more

In an unpublished disposition, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Court”) applied its precedent to rule that when a debtor with a homestead exemption in Idaho voluntarily sells the homestead while the bankruptcy is pending, he must reinvest the amount of the exemption in another homestead within one year, as required under Idaho law Read more

In Matter of LaHaye, ___ F.3d ___, 2021 WL 5276367 (5th Cir. 11/12/2021 (“LaHaye”), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) held that the Chapter 11 plan of an LLC grocery business did not improperly discharge a portion of the debt of the LLC’s guarantors to the guaranty’s beneficiary by providing that upon confirmation of the plan the guarantors’ liability was reduced by the value of the LLC’s real property through either post-confirmation foreclosure by the beneficiary or transfer of the property to the beneficiary. Read more

A Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California (the “Court”) recently denied a plaintiff’s Application for Issuance of an Order to Show Cause re Contempt against a defendant which had been ordered to pay attorney’s fees and costs Read more

A Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California (the “Court”) recently ruled that the unfunded liability of a defined benefit pension plan was not an administrative priority expense of reorganized Chapter 11 debtors, but rather would be paid pro rata with other unsecured prepetition liabilities. Read more

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (the “Court”) recently ruled that the failure of a judgment creditor to withdraw a pre-petition attachment lien on a debtor’s credit union account was not a violation of the automatic stay Read more