Business Law Insolvency Law Committee

In Mai v. HKT Cal Inc., 66 Cal. App. 5th 504 (2021), the California Court of Appeal provided guidance on how litigants must offer proof of attorneys’ fees as damages in California courts, as distinguished from attorneys’ fees as costs. Read more

In re Weinstein Co. Holdings LLC, 997 F.3d 497 (3d Cir. 2021) involved a work-for-hire contract between The Weinstein Company—a bankrupt movie company—and Bruce Cohen, the producer of the critically acclaimed 2012 film, Silver Linings Playbook Read more

A private student loan is not "funds received as an educational benefit" and therefore is not excepted from discharge under Bankruptcy Code section 523(a)(8)(A)(ii). Read more

Under the Hawaii evidence code, a promissory note is not hearsay but a duplicate of a promissory note is not self-authenticating commercial paper. Read more

A creditor's failure to include the debtor's middle name in its financing statement was strong indication under Georgia law that the liens were invalid and could not be used to support a stay relief motion in a chapter 12 case. Read more

Court clarified what actions by a trustee are required in order for a chapter 7 debtor to lose his homestead exemption on recovered property under Bankruptcy Code section 522(g). Read more

So long as a structured settlement does not violate the absolute priority rule, a bankruptcy court may approve it notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Jeric Holding. Read more

Court reversed a trial court ruling under Article 3 of the UCC that exonerated a bank from liability for accepting for deposit to an employee's account a series of checks payable to his employer, but endorsed with an illegible scrawl that appeared to be the employee's initials. Read more

The FRBP, rather than the FRCP, govern a non-core case being adjudicated in US District Court under that court's "related to" bankruptcy jurisdiction. Read more

An inherited 401(k) account is not property of the estate and not subject to turnover by the debtor to a chapter 7 trustee. Read more