Insolvency Law Committee Profile

In In re Lee and Chen, 2023 WL 7489928 (BAP 11/13/23), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit ("BAP") held that § 1322(c)(2) is an exception to § 1322(b)(2), and that the Chapter 13 debtors were able to bifurcate and cramdown a secured debt on their residence that matures during the plan. Read more

In In re Evans, 69 F.4th 1101 (9th Cir. 2023), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has joined the Tenth Circuit decision in In re Doll, 57 F.4th 1129 (10th Cir. 2023) on an issue that other circuits have also recently addressed, holding that a standing trustee in a Chapter 13 case may not be paid her percentage fee when the case is dismissed prior to confirmation. Read more

The following is a case update written by Hale Andrew Antico, Chief Counsel of Antico Law Firm, analyzing Green Coin v. Khadavi (In re Khadavi), 2023 WL 859668 (9th Cir. Dec 12, 2023), a recent case of interest. Read more

On September 27, 2023, the Insolvency Law Committee filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in William K. Harrington, United States Trustee, Region 2 v. Purdue Pharma L.P. et al., No. 23-124 (Purdue 4). Leonard Gumport, counsel on that brief, describes the recent oral argument in Purdue 4. Read more

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Circuit Court) recently applied the earmarking doctrine to determine that a debtor did not have an interest in funds that were used to pay subordinated debt, in contradiction to the terms of a chapter 11 plan.  The decision reversed the Tenth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (the BAP), which had reversed the original decision of the bankruptcy court. Read more

In a split decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) ruled that the bankruptcy court had related to jurisdiction to issue a preliminary injunction which prohibited asbestos claimants from pursuing non-bankruptcy court litigation against a non-debtor affiliate of the debtor.  Read more

In Masingale v. Munding (In re Masingale), 644 B.R. 530 (9th Cir. BAP 2022), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal (the “BAP”) held that an asset was fully exempt where chapter 11 debtors listed the value of their claimed exemption as “100% of FMV” and no objection to the exemption was filed.  Read more

n a published opinion, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) recently ruled that § 365(b)(1)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code does not provide an administrative priority claim to a creditor (here a general contractor) who seeks payment from a debtor under one contract but whose assertion of uncured default arises from a separate contract (here a ground lease) in which the creditor has no contractual right. Read more

In an unpublished but analytic opinion, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) recently questioned prevailing precedent which requires an appellant of a Bankruptcy Court order to be a person aggrieved and provides that the person-aggrieved test represents a jurisdictional bar.  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