Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

Standardizing And Unbundling The Sub Rosa Dip Loan, Kenneth Ayotte, Alex Zhicheng Huang

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

In many recent chapter 11 cases, debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) loans determine reorganization plan payoffs at the outset of the case. Recent DIP loans are tied to plan terms including rights offerings, which give the DIP lender exclusive rights to purchase discounted equity in the reorganized company, and backstop fees, which pay the rights holder for committing to purchase them. Terms like these raise fears that DIP loan approval is being used to short circuit the chapter 11 reorganization plan process—in bankruptcy parlance, that the DIP loan is a sub rosa plan. How should bankruptcy law manage this sub rosa DIP loan …

Sovereign Immunity Tests Bankruptcy’S Least Contested Axioms, Deborah L. Thorne, Luke L. Sperduto

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Section 106 of the Bankruptcy Code expressly abrogates the sovereign immunity of governmental units with respect to fifty-nine other provisions of the Code. There are currently two distinct issues splitting circuit courts over the meaning of this provision. First, does section 106 waive the sovereign immunity of the Internal Revenue Service in avoidance actions brought against it by a bankruptcy trustee under section 544(b)? Second, are Native American Indian Tribes “governmental units” within the meaning of section 101(27), such that their sovereign immunity is abrogated to the extent set forth in section 106? Invoking conventional canons of statutory construction, this …

Alliance Politics In Corporate Debt Restructurings, Diane Lourdes Dick

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Alliance politics have always been a complicating factor in corporate restructurings. Negotiations between and among large groups of corporate stakeholders naturally require that parties expend time and resources on building coalitions, overcoming holdouts, and fleshing out their collective action. But recent trends suggest that alliance politics—rather than sound financial and economic decisions—may be driving restructuring outcomes, introducing new risks and inefficiencies in the financial markets. For instance, restructuring proponents increasingly use wedge strategies and divide-and-conquer tactics to exacerbate the coordination problems that lenders in large syndicates already face, giving rise to hostile restructurings that have the potential to introduce dangerous …

Bankruptcy In The Golden Years: The Case For Increasing Exemptions For Elderly Americans, Danny Fitzpatrick

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Comment analyzes 11 U.S.C. § 522(d) and several state exemption statutes for their success at providing elderly debtors sufficient exemptions to maintain their quality of life after filing for bankruptcy. Exemptions are assets that are excluded from an individual debtor’s estate upon filing for bankruptcy and that serve as protection against creditors stripping the debtor of all pre-petition property interests. State and federal exemptions vary dramatically, with some states carving out additional exemptions specifically for elderly debtors. For example, states like Massachusetts and Maine recognize additional exemptions for elderly debtors with regards to their homesteads.

Bankruptcy filing …

Acceptance Remarks, David R. Jones

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Big Banks & Small Consequences In Chapter 13, Alexandra P.E. Sickler

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Mortgage creditors struggle to properly service mortgages in chapter 13 cases, as evidenced by numerous cases describing violations of Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1. The consumer bankruptcy system, however, is not calibrated to compel systemwide compliance from these large, institutional repeat actors. This Essay argues that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is well-suited to support the consumer bankruptcy system by exercising its monitoring and enforcement powers to promote, and even compel, mortgage creditor compliance in chapter 13 cases.

Status Check: Should The Federal Tax Status Of A Disregarded Debtor Be Property Of The Estate?, J. Benjamin Ward

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Comment focuses on whether the tax status of a debtor constitutes “property” of the debtor’s estate under 11 U.S.C. § 541(a). The answer to this question ultimately determines whether a bankruptcy trustee has the power to avoid a “check-the-box” tax status change made by the owner of a debtor entity from a “pass-through” to a separately taxed C Corporation. This issue normally arises when the parent corporation or individual owner of a debtor subsidiary corporation or disregarded entity (to the individual owner) elects to transform the status of the debtor by “checking the box” on the proper federal tax …

One Size Does Not Fit All Leases—It's Time To Amend Bankruptcy Code Section 365, Rachel Hudson

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

For far too long, Bankruptcy Code Section 365 has caused confusion among parties to oil and gas leases when one party files for bankruptcy. This section of the Bankruptcy Code is intended to provide relief to debtors who are party to an unexpired lease or an executory contract, allowing a debtor-in-possession or trustee to make the decision to either assume or reject the agreement. While this concept is straightforward for standard lease agreements and contracts, courts have struggled to determine whether oil and gas leases actually fall into the category of a “lease” per se, an executory contract, or neither. …

Custodian Or Not: Scrivener's Error In A Bankruptcy Code Safe Harbor, Thomas E. Plank

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Article analyzes a drafting error in the United States Bankruptcy Code that remained latent for 36 years until 2020. This drafting error limits a safe harbor that Congress enacted in 1984 and expanded in 2005 to protect an important segment of the securities and mortgage loan markets.

When a person becomes a debtor in bankruptcy, the Bankruptcy Code imposes an automatic stay on substantially all actions by creditors and other entities against the debtor or the debtor’s bankruptcy estate. It also abrogates contractual provisions, known as ipso facto clauses, that otherwise permit a party to terminate a contract because …

Bankruptcy And The State, Adam Feibelman

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Anticipating a wave of bankruptcies caused by the economic and financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous commentators proposed measures to expand the institutional capacity of the bankruptcy system. A number of these proposals would represent dramatic and systematic government involvement in the U.S. bankruptcy system. Such involvement by the government in the bankruptcy system is a topic that is largely ignored in the literature on bankruptcy. Where it is observed, it is generally criticized. Among other things, it sits uneasily with dominant theories of bankruptcy that assume the bankruptcy system should be driven by the interests of direct stakeholders …

Bankruptcy And The Anti-Assignment Acts: A New Approach To The Issue Of Assumption And Assignability Of Government Contracts, Ha Khuong

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

One of the most important and valuable tools that a business debtor has for reorganization under the bankruptcy proceedings is assuming and assigning executory contracts. However, circuit courts are divided on the issue of whether the Anti-Assignment Act, in conjunction with Section 365(c)(1)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, prohibits the assumption of an executory government contract over the objection of the government where the contract is to be performed by the debtor-in-possession. Some circuit courts apply the “Hypothetical Test” which restricts a debtor-in-possession from assuming an executory contract over an objection if applicable law would bar assignment to a hypothetical third …

Putting With A Pitching Wedge: Indiscriminating Termination Of The Automatic Stay, Lawrence Ponoroff

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

The serial filing of chapter 13 cases solely for the purpose of frustrating and delaying foreclosure or other legitimate collection efforts, and with no serious intent to reorganize, has long been perceived as an abuse of the bankruptcy system requiring a fulsome response. In 2005 Congress seized on a solution involving withdrawal or withholding of the automatic stay. Since it is the existence of the stay that most prompts abusive filings, the solution seemed appropriate. It was not for a variety of reasons examined in this article, but most notably because not all serial filings are abusive, and the stay …

Rethinking Roadblocks To Municipal Bankruptcy, Tejas Dave

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Comment argues that Congress should remove roadblocks that prevent municipalities from easily filing for bankruptcy. It shows that statutory and ad hoc roadblocks allow states and the federal government to exert excessive pressure on fiscally distressed municipalities. Further, while scholars claim that the Bankruptcy Code provides bankruptcy courts with too little power to adjudicate municipal bankruptcies and that municipal fiscal distress should be resolved by states, this Comment argues that federal bankruptcy courts are the proper venue to resolve municipal distress and that these courts have sufficient power. This power could be used more effectively by removing chapter 9’s …

Having Your Cake And Eating It Too: Why Voluntary Post-Petition 401(K) Contributions Are Disposable Income, Austin S. Howell

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Following the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, the majority of chapter 13 debtors have been successful in minimizing their repayment obligations to creditors while bolstering their financial stability during retirement. The Bankruptcy Code allows chapter 13 debtors to retain their assets and repay their debts to creditors using their earned income. Alternatively, debtors may simply avoid some of the liability by dedicating a portion of their earned income for reasonably necessary expenses. Judicial inconsistencies have emerged concerning whether voluntary post-petition 401(k) retirement contributions for chapter 13 debtors constitute disposable income in accordance with Sections 541(b)(7) and 1325(b) of the …

The "Ideal Debtor" And The "Traditional" American Household, A. Mechele Dickerson

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Laws that award governmental benefits reflect an archetype of the type of person deemed worthy of governmental assistance and generally favor and reward people who have specific personal attributes or who engage in activities deemed socially desirable. Just as the Bankruptcy Code favors the “Ideal Debtor,” state and federal laws favor and subsidize Americans who live in a “traditional household.” Historically, this household consisted of husbands who earned income in the paid labor market and wives who stayed home to provide unpaid care for their husbands and minor children. Households that deviated from that norm rarely received the full range …

The Hardship Discharge And How It Can Improve Debtor Success, Abbie Schmadeke

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Chapter 13 bankruptcy has long been heralded as a moral alternative to chapter 7 liquidations. Despite this, success among chapter 13 debtors is limited, and debtors who opt for this route face other challenges. The hardship discharge allows chapter 13 debtors to receive a discharge of their debts without plan completion. While the provision has been a piece of the bankruptcy law for nearly a century, little research on its effects on debtors exists. The struggles that chapter 13 debtors face underlies the need for more research on the hardship discharge as a potential solution. This Comment seeks to utilize …

The Time Has Come For Disaggregated Sovereign Bankruptcy, Odette Lienau

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

With expanding global vaccinations and the potential end of the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, who among us has not succumbed to daydreams of post-crisis ‘normal’ life? Still—and setting aside for now the certain obstacles on any road to public and economic health—we should not be too sanguine about the degree to which the eventual recovery will be even, including across countries. By now, the images of economic dislocation resulting from the pandemic, including empty tourist beaches, deserted town centers, and closed manufacturing plants, have become commonplace. In certain regions and countries, this dislocation and its after-effects may prove long-lasting, putting …

Government Activism In Bankruptcy, Jared A. Ellias, George Triantis

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

It is widely recognized that bankruptcy law can stymie regulatory enforcement and present challenges for governments when regulated businesses file for Chapter 11. It is less-widely understood that bankruptcy law can present governments with opportunities to advance policy goals if they are willing to adopt tactics traditionally associated with activist investors, a strategy we call “government bankruptcy activism.” The bankruptcy filings by Chrysler and General Motors in 2009 are a famous example: the government of the United States used the bankruptcy process to help both auto manufacturers resolve their financial distress while promoting the policy objectives of protecting union workers …

Bankruptcy Shopping: Domestic Venue Races And Global Forum Wars, Anthony J. Casey, Joshua C. Macey

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Article proposes reforms to bankruptcy law’s venue rules. These reforms would expand venue choice, reduce opportunistic venue shopping, and account for the rise of global forum shopping. To date, the leading proposals to reform venue selection rules for bankruptcy cases have ignored simpler alternatives that can reduce opportunistic misbehavior while preserving beneficial choice. Moreover, those proposals have focused exclusively on restricting a debtor’s choice among venues within the United States while ignoring the increasing availability and convenience of foreign courts as forums for distressed corporate debtors seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings. In this way, the proposals on the table …

Chapter 11 Under Duress, Jay Lawrence Westbrook

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

In this Article, the Business Bankruptcy Project (BBP) reports data from an empirical study of two samples of chapter 11 bankruptcies in the federal courts in Wilmington and Manhattan, two districts notably important in modern bankruptcy practice. While our study includes a number of interesting and important facts about the chapter 11 process in 2014 and 2018, this brief interim report centers around the loss of value arising from control by pre-bankruptcy lenders and the implications that arise from that fact. Building on other recent studies, it highlights the fact that a control transaction in many chapter 11 cases has …

A Path Forward For The Postal Service, Laura N. Coordes

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

What is the United States Postal Service (USPS)? The entity’s future, financial and otherwise, is wrapped up in the answer to this fundamental, yet surprisingly complicated, question. The postal service in the United States began as a part of the federal government, but over the years, Congress has altered its structure. Today’s USPS is an entity situated somewhere between a public, governmental agency and a private business. It has attributes resembling both, and while most observers agree that it is becoming more “privatized,” it is still subject to a significant number of laws and regulations that do not apply to …

Bankrupting Tribes: An Examination Of Tribal Sovereign Immunity As Reparation In The Context Of Section 106(A), Joshua Santangelo

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Comment concerns section 106(a) of the Bankruptcy Code, which abrogates sovereign immunity of “a State, a Commonwealth, a District, a Territory, a municipality, or a foreign state; or other foreign or domestic government.” A circuit split exists as to whether this section applies to Native Nations. The Sixth Circuit interpreted this section to maintain sovereign immunity for Native Nations in the Code, while the Ninth Circuit interpreted it to abrogate tribal sovereign immunity. This Comment argues that the Sixth Circuit’s interpretation of section 106(a) is the correct interpretation because of the unique relationship between Native Nations and the federal …

Continuation Of Chapter 13 Postmortem: Why Courts Should Allow Deceased Debtors' Cases To Continue Post Plan Confirmation, Alexandra R. Byrne

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

A lack of direct guidance from Rule 1016 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure has created inconsistency among bankruptcy courts regarding whether to continue a chapter 13 case if the debtor dies post plan confirmation but before discharge. Rule 1016 allows a deceased debtor’s chapter 13 case to continue if “further administration is possible” and it is “in the best interests of the parties.” Although dismissal is appropriate if the debtor dies before plan confirmation, continuation after plan confirmation is possible and benefits all parties. The benefits of continuation post plan confirmation stem from the certainty under federal bankruptcy …

Water Under The Bridge? A Look At The Proposal For A New Chapter 16 Of The Bankruptcy Code From A Comparative Law Perspective, Tobias Wetlitzky

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bankruptcy law will play a crucial role in addressing the consequences of the global economic shutdown. Many large corporations in the U.S. will need to undergo chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings or may attempt to reorganize their financial debt in an out-of-court workout. However, section 316(b) of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 has long been blamed for making out-of-court restructurings practically impossible, because it requires unanimous approval from bondholders. In 2014, the National Bankruptcy Conference presented a solution for the inefficiencies in bond workouts by proposing a streamlined debt reorganization procedure for borrowed …

The Future Of Bankruptcy Appeals: Appellate Standing After Lexmark Considered, John A. Peterson Iii, Joshua A. Esses

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

The purpose of this Article is to summarize the current state of the law regarding appellate standing in bankruptcy appeals within the various sister circuit courts of the United States, and to recommend how the law of appellate review of bankruptcy court orders should be applied. We will begin with a purely descriptive summary of the law of standing in federal courts and of standing to appeal orders of bankruptcy courts specifically. From this discussion it should be clear that courts almost universally limit appellate standing of bankruptcy court orders to parties that can demonstrate that they are a person-aggrieved—in …

Disorderly And Discriminatory: The Bankruptcy Code's Treatment Of Disabled Debtors, Madeline Thatcher

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Disability benefits in bankruptcy face uncertainty under the current exemption system. The enumerated federal exemptions are poorly drafted, lack useful legislative history, and classify benefits depending on the benefit’s source. The opt out provision found in section 522(b) of the Bankruptcy Code allows jurisdictions to limit debtors to the state’s exemptions rather than the federal exemptions. Depending on which exemption the court places the disability benefits under, the benefits may be fully exempt from the bankruptcy estate, limited to the amount reasonably necessary for the debtor’s support, or unexempt. The bankruptcy courts struggle to uniformly apply the federal and state …

List It Or Lose It: The Application Of Judicial Estoppel When A Debtor Fails To List A Claim, Johnathan H. Christoforatos

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

This Comment addresses the application of judicial estoppel to dismiss a debtor’s civil or administrative claim when the debtor fails to list his claim on the required schedule. Part I of this Comment analyzes the general concept of equity and the principles underlying judicial estoppel. Part II analyzes equity and judicial estoppel through the lens of the bankruptcy system. Part III presents my proposed test to determine when it is appropriate for courts to invoke judicial estoppel to dismiss a debtor’s undisclosed claim when the trustee has decided to abandon it after it has been discovered. This test considers four …

Event Program, Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Symposia & Workshops

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Workshop

March 12, 2021 10:00 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Emory University School of Law via Zoom

Workshop Invitation, Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Symposia & Workshops

Friday, March 12, 2021 | 10:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. EDT

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Workshop

This year, the EBDJ is publishing a special issue entitled the “Developments Issue” that will feature essays from some of the top bankruptcy scholars in the United States. In conjunction with the publication of this special issue, the Journal is hosting this workshop for authors to discuss their pieces and to take questions and comments from workshop attendees and fellow panelists.

Speakers include: Professor Laura Coordes, Professor Odette Lienau, Professor Anthony Casey, Professor Joshua Macey, Professor George Triantis, Professor Jared Ellias, and Professor Jay …

Event Program, Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Symposia & Workshops

Seventeenth Annual Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal Symposium

February 20, 2020
Tull Auditorium
Emory University School of Law
Atlanta, GA