Business Law

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) ruled that a debtor who successfully fended off a motion to dismiss her bankruptcy case for abuse under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b) was not entitled to recover the attorney’s fees incurred in defense of the motion under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) because the motion was not a “civil action”. Read more

Insurance Code section 533 does not bar coverage for employment retaliation claims under Labor Code section 1102.5, subdivision (c).  City of Whittier v. Everest National Insurance Co. (2023) 97 Cal.App.5th 895. Read more

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (the Court) declined to allow a chapter 13 debtor to cure a prepetition arrearage on a house which had been owned by the debtor’s parents.  Read more

The following regulatory information may be of interest to attorneys practicing insurance law. This information is current as of January 16, 2024. Read more

The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (the BAP) recently ruled in a published opinion that a chapter 13 debtor may not sell co-owned property free and clear of debt secured by which the nondebtor’s interest in the property. In re Groves, 652 B.R. 104 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2023). Read more

Since 1872, California has favored open competition and declared, with limited exceptions, that contractual provisions restraining an individual from ”engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business” are void.  California Business & Professions Code § 16600. Read more

On March 28, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona affirmed a bankruptcy court’s decision to allocate sale proceeds pro rata between the tax-and-interest component and the penalty component of a tax lien avoided under Bankruptcy Code § 724(a). Matter of Freeman, No. 3:20-BK-10338-DPC, 2023 WL 2665735 (D. Ariz. Mar. 28, 2023). Read more

United States Supreme Court held that Congress unambiguously abrogated tribal sovereign immunity in the Bankruptcy Code because federally recognized Indian tribes are covered under the Code’s definition of a “governmental unit.”  Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Coughlin, 143 S. Ct. 1689 (2023). Read more

In a published opinion arising from a Ponzi scheme bankruptcy case, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) ruled that a transaction whereby a second factor paid off the first factor and received the accounts which were the first factor’s collateral property was not avoidable as a preferential or fraudulent transfer because it was not a transfer of “an interest of the debtor in property.”  Read more

California’s new climate disclosure requirements, Senate Bill 253 (SB 253) and Senate Bill 261 (SB 261), could significantly impact California’s agriculture industry. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bills into law on October 7, 2023, intending to increase climate transparency and accountability. The laws are the first of their kind in the United States. They will require companies doing business in California to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks. Together, the laws will significantly affect companies across the globe who conduct business in the state, which is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. Read more