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Full-Text Articles in Law
House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki
House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki
Michigan Law Review
Since the price peak in 2006, home values have fallen more than 30 percent, leaving millions of Americans with negative equity in their homes. Until the Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, the bankruptcy system would have provided many such homeowners with a remedy. They could have filed bankruptcy, discharged the negative equity, committed to pay the mortgage holders the full values of their homes, and retained those homes. In Nobelman, however, the Court misinterpreted reasonably clear statutory language and invented legislative history to resolve a three-to-one split of circuits in favor of the minority view …
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Michigan Law Review
Securities class actions are often criticized as wasteful strike suits that target temporary fluctuations in the stock prices of otherwise healthy companies. The securities class actions brought by investors of Enron and WorldCom, companies that fell into bankruptcy in the wake of fraud, resulted in the recovery of billions of dollars in permanent shareholder losses and provide a powerful counterexample to this critique. An issuer's bankruptcy may affect how judges and parties perceive securities class actions and their merits, yet little is known about the subset of cases where the company is bankrupt. This is the first extensive empirical study …
The Law Of Ponzi Payouts, Spencer A. Winters
The Law Of Ponzi Payouts, Spencer A. Winters
Michigan Law Review
When a Ponzi scheme collapses, there will typically be net winners and net losers. The bankruptcy trustee will often seek to force the net winners - those who received more money back from the Ponzi scheme than they invested - to disgorge their profits. Courts diverge on whether they should compel disgorgement in this instance. This Note argues that under prevailing fraudulent transfer law, net winners in a Ponzi scheme need not disgorge their profits. This is because the investor's dollar-for-dollar discharge of a preexisting debt constitutes the transfer of value in exchange for the payout. There are two exceptions …
A New Approach To Section 363(F)3, Evan F. Rosen
A New Approach To Section 363(F)3, Evan F. Rosen
Michigan Law Review
Section 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code provides five circumstances in which a debtor may be permitted to sell property free of all claims and interests, outside of the ordinary course of business, and prior to plan confirmation. One of those five circumstances is contained in § 363(f)(3), which permits such a sale where the "interest is a lien and the price at which such property is to be sold is greater than the aggregate value of all liens on such property." While it is far from certain whether § 363(f)(3) requires a price "greater than the aggregate [face value] of …
Assessing The Chrysler Bankruptcy, Mark J. Roe, David Skeel
Assessing The Chrysler Bankruptcy, Mark J. Roe, David Skeel
Michigan Law Review
Chrysler entered and exited bankruptcy in forty-two days, making it one of the fastest major industrial bankruptcies in memory. It entered as a company widely thought to be ripe for liquidation if left on its own, obtained massive funding from the United States Treasury, and exited via a pseudo-sale of its main assets to a new government-funded entity. The unevenness of the compensation to prior creditors raised concerns in capital markets, which we evaluate here. We conclude that the Chrysler bankruptcy cannot be understood as complying with good bankruptcy practice, that it resurrected discredited practices long thought interred in the …
Bankruptcy Vérité, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty
Bankruptcy Vérité, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty
Michigan Law Review
In the empirical study we report in Bankruptcy Fire Sales, we compared the recoveries from the going-concern bankruptcy sales of twenty-five large, public companies with the recoveries from the bankruptcy reorganizations of thirty large, public companies. We found that, controlling for the asset size of the company and its presale or pre-reorganization earnings ("EBITDA"), reorganization recoveries were more than double sale recovenes. We are honored that Professor James J. White has chosen to comment on our study. White is an eloquent defender of the status quo, pulls no punches, and always has something interesting to say. Bankruptcy Noir is …
International Bankruptcy: In Defense Of Universalism, Andrew T. Guzman
International Bankruptcy: In Defense Of Universalism, Andrew T. Guzman
Michigan Law Review
The globalization of business activity is rightfully celebrated as one of the triumphs of the second half of the twentieth century. The benefits stemming from the globalization of commerce are substantial, but international transactions also bring with them important challenges for the world's legal systems. Traditionally, national governments could focus on their domestic economies without undue attention to international issues. Today, however, a country's policymakers must respond to the growth in international business activity with appropriate legal changes. Failure to do so will cause their legal regimes to fall further and further out of step with the needs of the …
Exemption Of Erisa Benefits Under Section 522(B)(2)(A) Of The Bankruptcy Code, Michigan Law Review
Exemption Of Erisa Benefits Under Section 522(B)(2)(A) Of The Bankruptcy Code, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note argues that the two federal statutes are exempting statutes under section 522(b)(2)(A), and thus BRISA funds should be exempt in a bankruptcy action when the debtor uses the state exemption scheme. Part I argues that standard principles of statutory interpretation, as applied to the language of the bankruptcy statute, refute the possibility that Congress intended the list of statutes in the legislative history to be exclusive. Having established that statutes other than those listed may be included under section 522(b )(2)(A), Part II first refutes the argument that the absence of BRISA from the list of exempting statutes …
Withholding Taxes On Wage Dividends For Pre-Bankruptcy Wages Assigned To Fourth Priority In Distribution Of Bankrupt's Estate-In Re Connecticut Motor Lines, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Withholding Taxes On Wage Dividends For Pre-Bankruptcy Wages Assigned To Fourth Priority In Distribution Of Bankrupt's Estate-In Re Connecticut Motor Lines, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Among claims against a bankrupt estate were those for unpaid wages and vacation pay earned within three months of the bankruptcy of the employer. The referee ordered distribution of the amount of the claims, assigning them second priority, but he refused to authorize deduction of income withholding tax and social security taxes from these payments as requested by the Government. The district court reversed, holding the trustee in bankruptcy liable for the taxes as a first priority administrative expense. On appeal, held, reversed. Taxes based on wage claims accruing prior to bankruptcy but paid during bankruptcy are section 64a(4) …