Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

The Duty To Creditors Reconsidered - Filling A Much Needed Gap In Corporation Law, Richard A. Booth

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Directors' Duty To Creditors Of A Financially Distressed Company: A Perspective From Across The Pond, Donna W. Mckenzie-Skene

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Gap Filling In The Zone Of Insolvency, Frederick Tung

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Directors' Duty To Creditors And The Debt Contract, Simone M. Sepe

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

From Production Resources To Peoples Department Stores: A Similar Response By Delaware And Canadian Courts On The Fiduciary Duties Of Directors To Creditors Of Insolvent Companies, Pamela L.J. Huff, Russell C. Silberglied

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

The Maxwell Case, John A. E. Pottow

Book Chapters

This chapter will provide some broader context regarding the famous Maxwell Communication bankruptcy, which is one of the most significant cross-border insolvency precedents to date.1 It does so by first looking at Bob Maxwell's life and business in roughly chronological stages (the good, the bad, and the ugly). It then explores the insolvency proceedings that bear his name (the beautiful) and one specific litigation action within those proceedings of particular importance (the exquisite). Finally, it offers some brief reflection on what the Maxwell case may have taught us (the sublime).

Bankruptcy Fire Sales, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty

UF Law Faculty Publications

For more than two decades, scholars working from an economic perspective have criticized the bankruptcy reorganization process and sought to replace it with market mechanisms. In 2002, Professors Douglas G. Baird and Robert K. Rasmussen asserted in The End of Bankruptcy, an article published in the Stanford Law Review, that improvements in the market for large, public companies had rendered reorganization obsolete. Going concern value could be captured through sale. This article reports the results of an empirical study comparing the recoveries in bankruptcy sales of large public companies in the period 2000-2004 with the recoveries in bankruptcy reorganizations during …

Corporate Form And Substantive Consolidation, William H. Widen

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Spearing Tool Filing System Disaster, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

Debtor name errors have been a substantial and persistent problem for filers and searchers in the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 filing system. Filers make errors in spelling, punctuation, and spacing, use trade names, and include extraneous words. The law prior to 2001 excused such errors if they were minor and not seriously misleading. That put the burden on searchers to conduct reasonable diligent searches to find erroneous filings. The effect was to render all searches problematic and costly. The drafters of revised Article 9 conceived a brilliant solution to the problem with respect to corporate debtors (registered entities). First, …

Twilight In The Zone Of Insolvency: Fiduciary Duty And Creditors Of Troubled Companies - History & Background, Royce De R. Barondes, Lisa Fairfax, Lawrence A. Hamermesh, Robert Lawless

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Twilight In The Zone Of Insolvency: Fiduciary Duty And Creditors Of Troubled Companies - Theory And Policy, Kelli A. Alces, Larry E. Ribstein, Alan Schwartz, Simone M. Sepe

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Bankruptcy Pro Bono Representation Of Consumers: The Seven Deadly Sins, Nancy B. Rapoport, Roland Bernier Iii

Scholarly Works

This article attempts to walk the reader through the morass left by BAPCPA, using the seven deadly sins as its motif.

The Myth (And Realities) Of Forum Shopping In Transnational Insolvency, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

A decade ago, in 1996, the landscape of transnational insolvencies was vastly different from today. The UNCITRAL Model Law had not been finished, the efforts at the E.U. Insolvency Treaty were jeopardized by mad cows, and no one had heard of Chapter 15. Now, all three universalist projects are up and running, putting universalism in a comfortable state of ascendancy. The paradigm has not been without critics, however, the most persistent and eloquent of which has been Professor Lynn LoPucki. LoPucki has periodically attacked universalism on a number of grounds. These grievances include a sovereigntist complaint of universalism's insensitivity to …

Private Liability For Reckless Consumer Lending, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

Congress recently enacted amendments to the Bankruptcy Code that possess the overarching theme of cracking down on debtors due to the increasing rate at which individuals have been filing for bankruptcy. Taking into account the correlation between the overall rise in consumer credit card debt and the rate of individual bankruptcy filings, the author nevertheless hypothesizes that not all credit card debt is troubling. Instead, the author proposes that the catalyst driving individual bankruptcy rates higher than ever is the level of "bad credit"-or credit extended to individuals even though there is a reasonable likelihood that the individual will be …

Direct Creditor Claims For Breach Of Fiduciary Duty: Is They Is, Or Is They Ain't? A Practitioner's Notes From The Field, Roger A. Lane

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Directors' Duties In Failing Firms, Larry E. Ribstein, Kelli A. Alces

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Labor Through The Prism Of Bankruptcy, G. Ray Warner, David L. Gregory

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

On Friday, September 28, 2008, St. John's University School of Law was very honored to host "The Future of Labor Through the Prism of Bankruptcy" Symposium. St. John's Institute of Bankruptcy Policy, the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, and the Labor Relations and Employment Society at the School of Law co-sponsored this landmark symposium.

Many of the structural changes in contemporary labor-management relationships emanate from the intersections of labor law and bankruptcy law. Many of the nation's major "legacy" industries—including, but not limited to, the unionized auto makers and many airlines—are compelling case studies. Indeed, only a few …

Federalism And Bankruptcy: Deciphering Katz, G. Ray Warner

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

A symposium on bankruptcy and state sovereign immunity was held on February 9, 2007 at St. John's University School of Law. Scholarly symposium papers included in this issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review were prepared by five participants who are experts on issues arising from the intersection of constitutional and bankruptcy law with state sovereign immunity from suits in federal courts. Three of the participating authors, who explore in their articles the theory and history of the jurisprudence of sovereign immunity and the Eleventh Amendment, are outstanding academics who have previously written extensively on this subject—Professor Ralph …

Non-Pecuniary Interests And The Injudicious Limits Of Appellate Standing In Bankruptcy, S. Todd Brown

Journal Articles

Standing to appeal bankruptcy court orders today is limited to those with a pecuniary interest. This prudential limitation is based on the person aggrieved requirement of Section 39(c) of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 - a requirement that was not included in the Bankruptcy Code. This article examines the extensive differences between the Act and the Code, the potential justifications for extending the pecuniary interest test in spite of the omission of the person aggrieved requirement, and the potential ramifications for parties and the integrity of the bankruptcy process. This analysis suggests that standing to appeal bankruptcy orders should be …

Rescuing The Rescued: Stemming The Tide Of Foreclosure Rescue Scams In Washington, Zachary E. Davies

Seattle University Law Review

While foreclosure rescue scam (FRS) victims have many remedies under existing statutes, remedies are inadequate because they fail to holistically address the FRS problem. A successful statutory approach to combating the spread of this insidious scam must rest on three legs: education, enforcement, and litigation. First, homeowners facing foreclosure need timely warnings regarding the existence and prevalence of the FRS before the onslaught of FRSA solicitations begins. Next, in addition to education,homeowners need effective enforcement of the statutes that are supposed to protect them. Finally, homeowners wronged by FRSAs need to be able to seek civil relief that both adequately …

Individual Chapter 11 Reorganizations: Big Problems With The New "Big" Chapter 13, Robert J. Landry Iii

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Center Of Main Interests, International Insolvency Case Venue, And Equality Of Arms: The Eurofood Decision Of The European Court Of Justice, Samuel Bufford

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the Eurofood-E.C.J. decision and evaluates its impact on the decisions of the Irish and the Italian courts to open main insolvency cases for Eurofood. This Article also addresses the broader international insolvency law issues that the E.C.J. decision left open. Part II of this Article provides background information on the format and binding effect of a decision of the E.C.J. Part III explores the background of Parmalat and Eurofood and describes the Eurofood cases in the Irish and Italian courts prior to the E.C.J. decision. Part IV examines the E.C.J. decision, its rationale, and its application to …

The Nondischargeability Of Student Loans In Personal Bankruptcy Proceedings: The Search For A Theory, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

In fiscal year 2002, approximately 5.8 million Americans borrowed $38 billion (USD) in federal student loans. This was more than triple the $11.7 billion borrowed in 1990. As a rule of thumb, tuition has been increasing at roughly double the rate of inflation in recent years. This troubling trend of accelerating tuition, coupled with the fact that real income has stagnated for men and increased only modestly for women over the past two decades, means that more and more students are going to need to turn to borrowed money to finance their degrees absent a radical restructuring of the postsecondary …

Universal Proceduralism, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Teaching Selected Ethical Issues In Bankruptcy, Michael Korybut

All Faculty Scholarship

Both consumer and business bankruptcies present numerous ethical questions. Like any lawyer, the bankruptcy attorney must be familiar with a variety of ethics codes and rules, such as the 1969 ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility or the 1983 ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Further, the Bankruptcy Code has a number of provisions that raise ethical questions. Accordingly, when the author teaches his Bankruptcy survey course, he devotes time in a number of classes to ethical issues. In particular, the author spends a good part of one class on Bankruptcy Code section 327(a) which prohibits an attorney representing the …

Eliminating The Judicial Function In Consumer Bankruptcy, Rafael I. Pardo

Scholarship@WashULaw

The centerpiece of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 has been the means test, a formulaic statutory directive pursuant to which courts are to presume abuse of the bankruptcy system by Chapter 7 debtors who have an ability to repay past debts with future income. This Essay provides a new insight into means testing by arguing that, more than anything else, it has brought about a significant change in the institutional design of bankruptcy courts: namely, the increased blurring of administrative and judicial functions. The Essay concludes that this development should be cause for concern as …

Bankruptcy Reform And The "Sweat Box" Of Credit Card Debt, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

Those that backed the 2005 bankruptcy reform law argued that it would protect creditors from consumer abuse and lack of financial responsibility. The substantial increase in the number of bankruptcies over the last decade combined with the perception of systemwide abuse apparently convinced legislators from both political parties that the backers had a point. Thus, Congress enacted amendments to the Bankruptcy Code that – if effective – would fundamentally change the core policies underlying the consumer bankruptcy system in this country. The rhetoric surrounding the reform debates pressed the idea that if borrowers had to repay more of their debts, …

Bankruptcy Decision Making: An Empirical Study Of Continuation, Edward R. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

Many small businesses attempt to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, but most are ultimately liquidated instead. Little is known about this shutdown decision. It is widely suspected that the bankruptcy process exhibits a continuation bias, allowing failing businesses to linger under the protection of the court, which resists liquidation even when it is optimal. This paper examines the shutdown decision in a sample of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed in a typical bankruptcy court over the course of a year. The presence of continuation bias is tested along several dimensions – the extent of managerial control …

Timbers Of Inwood Forest, The Economics Of Rent, And The Evolving Dynamics Of Chapter 11, Edward R. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court's decision in Timbers of Inwood Forest occupies an unhappy position in bankruptcy case law. It is often remembered as a troubled interpretation of the Code, denying undersecured creditors compensation for an important source of depreciation – depreciation in the real value of a creditor's claim during a lengthy reorganization process. But Timbers was not a simple case in which a bank was denied adequate protection for lost investment opportunities. It was instead a case in which the bank tried to opt out of the bankruptcy process itself. The debtor was an apartment complex. After it entered bankruptcy, …

Twilight In The Zone Of Insolvency: Fiduciary Duty And Creditors Of Troubled Companies - The Duty To Creditors In Practice, J. William Callison, Mark A. Grovic, James J. Hanks Jr., Roger A. Lane

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.