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Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Law
Bankruptcy & The Underwater Home: A Case For Real Property Redemption, David Sheinfeld
Bankruptcy & The Underwater Home: A Case For Real Property Redemption, David Sheinfeld
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code exists to satisfy the claims of creditors and preserve an economic “fresh start” for the debtor after bankruptcy. In exchange for surrendering her property to the trustee to have it monetized (i.e., sold), the debtor receives a discharge of her debts and an injunction against future creditor in personam actions to recover them. However, the in personam injunction is insufficient to protect consumer debtors who are in default on mortgages encumbering underwater homes because the creditor’s in rem rights remain; after the conclusion of the case, the creditor can continue foreclosure proceedings, which …
A New Approach To Executory Contracts, John A.E. Pottow
A New Approach To Executory Contracts, John A.E. Pottow
Book Chapters
Few topics have bedeviled the bankruptcy community as much as the proper treatment of executory contracts under section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code. The case law is "hopelessly convoluted" and a "bramble-filled thicket." While many have struggled in the bootless task of providing coherence to the unwieldy corpus of case law and commentary, all would agree Jay Westbrook has been at the modern vanguard of this Sisyphean task. (1 assign Westbrook to the "modern" forefront, thereby relegating Vern Countryman, whose legacy in this domain rightly persists, to the annals of history, choosing as my perhaps arbitrary dividing line the adoption …
Fiduciary Principles In Bankruptcy And Insolvency, John A.E. Pottow
Fiduciary Principles In Bankruptcy And Insolvency, John A.E. Pottow
Book Chapters
This chapter examines fiduciary duties in bankruptcy and insolvency, focusing on the bankruptcy trustee’s duties, which are triggered by virtue of appointment in a case. It first provides a background on bankruptcy law in order to elucidate the doctrines and rules affecting fiduciary responsibilities in bankruptcy, citing a number of relevant provisions in the Bankruptcy Code. It then considers the fiduciary, non-fiduciary, and anti-fiduciary obligations of the trustee under the Bankruptcy Code before discussing the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty. In particular, it highlights bankruptcy-related issues raised by the duty of loyalty with respect to secured creditors, priority unsecured …
Bankruptcy Fiduciary Duties In The World Of Claims Trading, John A.E. Pottow
Bankruptcy Fiduciary Duties In The World Of Claims Trading, John A.E. Pottow
Articles
In earlier work, I explored the role of fiduciary duties in the bankruptcy trustee's administration of a debtor's estate, noting the absence of any explicit demarcation of those duties in the Bankruptcy Code. In this piece, I report the highlights of that analysis and see to what extent (if any) fiduciary duties can inform policy prescriptions for the issue of bankruptcy claims trading, colorfully referred to by some as the world of "bankruptcy M&A." My initial take is pessimistic. Fiduciary duties, at least as traditionally conceived in bankruptcy, are unlikely to provide much help. But there is still a source …
What Bankruptcy Law Can And Cannot Do For Puerto Rico, John A. E. Pottow
What Bankruptcy Law Can And Cannot Do For Puerto Rico, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
This article is based on a February 2016 keynote address given at the University of Puerto Rico Law Review Symposium “Public Debt and the Future of Puerto Rico.” Thus, much of it remains written in the first person, and so the reader may imagine the joy of being in the audience. (Citations and footnotes have been inserted before publication ‒ sidebars that no reasonable person would ever have inflicted upon a live audience, even one interested in bankruptcy law. Rhetorical accuracy thus yields to scholarly pedantics.) The analysis explains how bankruptcy law not only can but will be required to …
Implementing Symmetric Treatment Of Financial Contracts In Bankruptcy And Bank Resolution, E. J. Janger, John A.E. Pottow
Implementing Symmetric Treatment Of Financial Contracts In Bankruptcy And Bank Resolution, E. J. Janger, John A.E. Pottow
Articles
Financial contracts come in many forms and serve many functions in both the financial system and the broader economy. Repos secured by U.S. Treasury securities act as money substitutes and can play an important role as part of the money supply, while similarly structured repos, secured by more volatile collateral, may be used as speculative devices or hedges. Swaps can be used to insure against various types of market risk, from interest rates to oil prices, or they can operate as vehicles for highly leveraged investments. The parties to these instruments are sometimes major financial institutions and, other times, ordinary …
The Immovable Object Versus The Irresistable Force: Rethinking The Relationship Between Secured Credit And Bankruptcy Policy, Lawrence Ponoroff, F. Stephen Knippenberg
The Immovable Object Versus The Irresistable Force: Rethinking The Relationship Between Secured Credit And Bankruptcy Policy, Lawrence Ponoroff, F. Stephen Knippenberg
Michigan Law Review
The last leaf in O. Henry's classic short story was hanging by a delicate thread, but it never fell. It never fell, of course, because it wasn't real; Old Behrman had painted it (and caught pneumonia for his trouble) in order to give Johnsy the will to live. The Supreme Court's decision in Dewsnup v. Timm is also hanging by a thread, following a barrage of scholarly criticism and more than four years of limiting case law and legislative incursions on the case's core conceptual rationale. But the holding in Dewsnup, unlike the last leaf, is very real. It has …
A Rule Unvanquished: The New Value Exception To The Absolute Priority Rule, Clifford S. Harris
A Rule Unvanquished: The New Value Exception To The Absolute Priority Rule, Clifford S. Harris
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines whether the new value exception remains part of the revised Bankruptcy Code. Part I discusses the background of the new value exception. Part II traces the development of the conflict concerning the survival of the new value exception subsequent to the adoption of the Code. It then discusses the Supreme Court's opinions in Mid/antic National Bank v. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and its progeny, which established the methodology for determining the impact of the revised Bankruptcy Code on preexisting bankruptcy law. Based on an analysis of the Midlantic doctrine, Part II concludes that Congress did …
Adequate Protection And Administrative Expense: Toward A Uniform System For Awarding Superpriorities, Julia A. Goatley
Adequate Protection And Administrative Expense: Toward A Uniform System For Awarding Superpriorities, Julia A. Goatley
Michigan Law Review
Part I of this Note reviews the legislative history of relevant Code sections and the Code language that pertain to the granting of adequate protection. Section 361 of the Code provides for three types of adequate protection. Sections 362, 363, and 364 set out instances when actions by the trustee that result in a decrease in the value of a secured party's interest require the provision of adequate protection. Finally, sections 503 and 507 designate circumstances when prepetition secured creditors are eligible to receive administrative expenses. Section 507(b) authorizes allowance of an administrative expense claim when the adequate protection provided …
Re-Vision Of The Bankruptcy System: New Images Of Individual Debtors, Karen Gross
Re-Vision Of The Bankruptcy System: New Images Of Individual Debtors, Karen Gross
Michigan Law Review
A Review of As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in American by Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrene Westbrook
Section 707(B) Of The Bankruptcy Code: A Roadmap With A Proposed Standard For Defining Substantial Abuse, David L. Balser
Section 707(B) Of The Bankruptcy Code: A Roadmap With A Proposed Standard For Defining Substantial Abuse, David L. Balser
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note examines these questions and proposes a standard for determining "substantial abuse." Part I provides an overview of Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. Part II discusses the legislative history of section 707(b). Part III examines the jurisdictional and procedural questions raised by the section and attempts to define what Congress meant by "primarily consumer debts" and "on [a court's] own motion." Part IV proposes a two-part standard for determining "substantial abuse." This standard suggests that courts should find "substantial abuse" whenever a debtor acts in bad faith or is able to repay 100% of his debts over the …
The Transformation Rule Under Section 522 Of The Bankruptcy Code Of 1978, Raymond B. Check
The Transformation Rule Under Section 522 Of The Bankruptcy Code Of 1978, Raymond B. Check
Michigan Law Review
This Note rejects the statutory arguments that have been advanced in favor of the transformation rule, and argues that the rule is inconsistent with both the policies motivating section 522 of the Bankruptcy Code and the overall purposes of the U.C.C. priority system. Part I examines the treatment of purchase money security in the U.C.C. scheme. It also describes the exemption provisions of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code and the legislative concerns that shaped those provisions. Part II summarizes the judicial adoption of the transformation rule and the statutory basis relied upon by courts in applying it. Part III argues that …
Avoiding Liens Under The New Bankruptcy Code: Construction And Application Of Section 522(F), Judy Toyer
Avoiding Liens Under The New Bankruptcy Code: Construction And Application Of Section 522(F), Judy Toyer
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that strict construction of section 522(f)(2) is most consistent with congressional intent. Part I discusses the congressional rationale behind lien avoidance. Part II examines present efforts to apply section 522(f)(2), and concludes that judicial interpretation to date has proved largely inadequate. Finally, Part III proposes new judicial guidelines and statutory amendments designed to standardize application of the lien avoidance provision in a manner consistent with the congressional intent behind the Reform Act.