Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

Is Revised Ucc Article 9 An Anti-Bankruptcy Act? Yes, G. Ray Warner

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Professor Harrell's article is an excellent addition to the discussion that I hoped to stimulate with my article on the bankruptcy implications of the Article 9 revision. I will not attempt here to respond to each specific point he has made, as I believe that my original article adequately sets forth my views.

I was, and I remain, convinced that the Article 9 revision project had as an agenda changing bankruptcy law and I believe that, as a result, the drafters exceeded the proper role of a non-governmental, state-based, supposedly neutral, law reform institution. My earlier anti-bankruptcy article was …

Closing A Bankruptcy Loop-Hole Or Impairing A Debtor's Fresh Start? Sarbanes-Oxley Creates A New Exception To Discharge, Lucian Murley

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Making Sense Of Successor Liability, Marie T. Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

A firm that buys assets from another firm ordinarily does not acquire liability to the seller's creditors simply by buying its assets. This ordinary rule is subject to important exceptions. The buyer's consent triggers an exception. If a buyer agrees to assume the seller's liability to third parties, it is for that reason liable. This article considers a more controversial exception - successor liability. When a court decides that an asset acquirer should be treated as a "successor" to the transferor, it is liable for the transferor's debts as though it were the transferor.

Building A Doll's House: A Feminist Analysis Of Marital Debt Dischargeability In Bankruptcy, Peter C. Alexander

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Researching Bankruptcy Law On The Internet, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

Attorneys researching bankruptcy law use a diverse collection of print resources to locate bankruptcy primary and secondary sources. Bankruptcy code provisions appear in Title 11 of the codified federal statutes, available either in the official U.S. Code (published by the U.S. Government Printing Office) or one of the two commercially published unofficial codes, U.S.C.A. (Thomson-West) and the U.S.C.S. (LexisNexis). Attorneys find bankruptcy rules and official forms (Rules 1-9036; Forms 1-35) in the same three sets. Researchers often find the unofficial codes preferable because they are annotated with case summaries and references to other materials and are supplemented more frequently than …

Financial Collapse And Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?, Elizabeth Warren

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Every policy prescription, economic analysis, or news report about consumer bankruptcy rests on one or another unspoken image of the estimated 1.5 million families that will file in a single year. Data from the 2001 Consumer Bankruptcy Project permit a systematic analysis of the composition of those who file for personal bankruptcy, focusing on their education, occupation, and home ownership status. These attributes serve as a proxy for class identification. Based on these indicia, more than 90 per cent of the families in bankruptcy qualify as middle class. These data are a powerful reminder that whatever else might be said …

Employee Interests In Bankrupcy: Lessons From Enron, Lorie Johnson

Popular Media

Enron employees lost over $1 billion in retirement savings when the company failed and filed for bankruptcy protection. Many of these employees also lost their jobs. Enron employees were both visible and vocal about their losses, quickly obtaining the support of both the AFL-CIO and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/Push Coalition in their fight to get some redress for their losses. Since Enron was current on its payroll at the time of the bankruptcy filing, employees’ losses consisted of severance payments totaling $145 million and the losses associated with investments in Enron stock through their 401(k) accounts.

Corporate Governance Reform And Reemergence From Bankruptcy: Putting The Structure Back In Restructuring, Charles M. Elson, Paul M. Helms, James R. Moncus

Vanderbilt Law Review

A company's descent into bankruptcy may result from one or more troubling factors. Often the failing enterprise has adopted a poor business model, been led by deficient management, or labored under an unworkable capital structure. More often than not, a business failure is also accompanied by a less-than-ideal corporate governance structure within the organization. The failure to adopt an effective corporate governance model often leads to a sterile, inactive board of directors and may hasten a firm's demise. Conversely, proper corporate governance may prevent a business's slide into Chapter 11. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between corporate …

"Delaware Is Not A State": Are We Witnessing Jurisdictional Competition In Bankruptcy?, Marcus Cole

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over the last twelve years, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware has experienced exponential growth in the number of bankruptcy filings for large corporate debtors. This relatively recent rise in Delaware bankruptcy venue cannot, on its face, be explained by Delaware's eighty-five-year preeminence in the race for corporate charters, since the advantages most often postulated for Delaware's dominance in corporate law do not carry over to corporate bankruptcy. The state has limited influence over federal bankruptcy law and virtually no control over the selection of federal bankruptcy judges. This rise of Delaware bankruptcy venue, or Delawarization …

Why Are Delaware And New York Bankruptcy Reorganizations Failing?, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty

Vanderbilt Law Review

Before 1990, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware was a sleepy backwater. During the entire decade of the 1980s, Phoenix Steel-whose only plant was located in Delaware-was the only large, public company to file there. In 1990, two large, public companies-Continental Airlines and United Merchants and Manufacturers-filed in Delaware. They constituted 7% of the twenty-nine large, public companies filing in the United States that year. From 1990 to 1996, Delaware's market share steadily increased to 87% (thirteen of fifteen cases).' In just seven years, Delaware had become the bankruptcy reorganization capital of the United States.

Lynn …

Chapter 11 Reorganization Cases And The Delaware Myth, Harvey R. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a spirited debate concerning the emergence of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Delaware Bankruptcy Court") as the virtual Chapter 11 capital for distressed debtor corporations. The "Delawarization" of corporate reorganizations under title 11 of the United States Code (the "Bankruptcy Code"), which occurred during the 1990s as a result of the migration of Chapter 11 cases of large enterprises from other venues to Delaware, has provoked a stream of academic articles debating the consequences of Delaware's emergence. Armed with statistics purporting to demonstrate a high rate of recidivism …

The Law Of Last Resort, Barry E. Adler

Vanderbilt Law Review

A financially distressed individual or corporation employs the bankruptcy process only as a last resort. The study of bankruptcy law, however, need not, and should not, be an afterthought. The traditional bodies of law that compose private ordering are the laws of property, contract, and tort. Property law establishes private entitlements that can be specifically enforced against the world. Contract law permits individuals to exchange obligations and thus invest one another with entitlements. Tort law creates its own set of entitlements and imposes liability for unwanted interference with those or other entitlements. These bodies of law are often presented as …

Introduction To The Symposium "Convergence On Delaware: Corporate Bankruptcy And Corporate Governance", Robert K. Rasmussen, Charles M. Elson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Bankruptcy is back. The use of Chapter 11 by large, publicly held firms was a subject of much debate in the academic and popular press in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Firms such as Texaco, Revco, LTV, Federated Department Stores, Maxwell Communications, TWA, and Eastern Airlines all filed for bankruptcy during that time. The economic boom of the mid- and late 1990s, however, resulted in a relative dearth of high-profile bankruptcy cases. The recent economic downturn has moved corporate reorganizations back into the spotlight. The Chapter 11 filings by firms such as Enron, Global Crossing, the Loewen Group, …

Consolidated Groups Must Use A Separate Entity Approach When Reducing Tax Attributes In Bankruptcy, Natalie C. Khavulya-Maksin

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Do Debtors Owe Rent To Their Bankruptcy Trustee For Remaining In The Home After Filing And Prior To Foreclosure, Notwithstanding A Homestead Exemption?, Vladimir Elgort

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secured Credit And Insolvency Law In Argentina And The U.S.: Gaining Insight From A Comparative Perspective, Guillermo A. Moglia Claps, Julian B. Mcdonnell

Scholarly Works

It is not the purpose of this study to argue for or against changes in the secured credit or insolvency law of Argentina or the U.S. The perpetual clash of interested noted by James Madison and the contemporary pressures of the global economy are likely to assure that these areas of law will be subject to continuing scrutiny in both countries. Instead, we first urge that the law governing the creation and enforcement of security devices and the way in which insolvency laws impact these devices be considered together as part of one system of financing. The power which secured …

Reorganizations And Stochastic Collateral Value, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Bebchuk and Fried propose using a series of auctions to implement a market-based methodology for valuing secured claims in a reorganization. This Article demonstrates their procedure can result in a secured creditor receiving more than its ex ante bargain, and that the probability distribution of possible collateral values can be relevant to fulfilling the ex ante bargain. This Article further develops and examines a refinement of the Bebchuk and Fried procedure that provides an approximate solution to the overcompensation of secured creditors. This refinement reconceptualizes collateral as comprising two components: (i) a call option on that property, exercisable at the …

Sovereign Impunity: The "Uniform Laws" Theory Tries (And Fails) To Take A Bankruptcy-Sized Bited Out Of The Eleventh Amendment, Cecily Fuhr

Washington Law Review

Sovereign immunity represents the principle that a state cannot be subjected to suit without its consent. In bankruptcy proceedings, it is sometimes necessary for a debtor to file an adversary proceeding against a creditor to determine the dischargeability of a debt. When the creditor is a state, the exercise of sovereign immunity by that state can pose an obstacle to the total discharge of debts contemplated by the bankruptcy system. Courts have found unconstitutional recent attempts by Congress to abrogate states' sovereignty in § 106(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. In response, some courts have adopted a "uniform laws" theory. This …

Confusion And Solution: Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Trustee's Standard Of Care For Personal Liability, David P. Primack

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Bankruptcy Upon A Firm Using Patents And Trademarks As Collateral, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

The Bankruptcy Code sets forth an orderly process for the distribution of a debtor-in-bankruptcy's assets. This process has the effect of altering many of the procedural and substantive rights and obligations of the debtor, as well as of the debtor's creditors. Parties asserting a property interest in assets of a debtor in bankruptcy, however, must rely on nonbankruptcy law to determine the nature and extent of their property interests. The most commonly asserted interest by creditors involved in a bankruptcy are security interests.

Bankruptcy Electronic Case Filing Workshop, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the Bankruptcy Electronic Case Filing Workshop (C.M./E.C.F.: Case Management/Electronic Case Filing) held by UK/CLE in 2002.

China, Nicholas C. Howson, Lester Ross, Donald Clarke

Book Chapters

The mere notion of bankruptcy, liquidation or reorganisation of industrial enterprises was long considered anathema in the People's Republic of China (PRC or China), and directly contrary to the underlying logic of a centrally planned, state-owned economy and industrial system. The state's reluctance to allow bankruptcies was rooted in the ideology of the governing Communist Party but also reflects fiscal constraints with respect to payments to unemployed workers and the recapitalisation of state-owned commercial banks forced to write off loans as bad debts. However, such notions have gained wider acceptance concurrent with:

• China's ongoing transformation to a socialist market economy; …

Muddy Rules For Securitization Transactions, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Can't Pay Your Debts, Mate? A Comparison Of The Australian And American Personal Bankruptcy Systems, 18 Bankr. Dev. J. 297 (2002), Paul B. Lewis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Warn? – The Worker Adjustment And Retraining Notification Act In Bankruptcy, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification ("WARN") Ace was enacted by Congress in 1988 to provide limited protections to workers whose jobs are suddenly and permanently terminated. The WARN Act generally precludes an "employer" from ordering a "plant closing or mass layoff" until the expiration of a sixty-day period after giving written notice of such proposed action. Pursuant to legislative directive, the Department of Labor ("Department") promulgated a final rule in 1989 interpreting the provisions of the statutory language. Although neither the WARN Act itself nor the final rule makes any reference to bankrupt employers, in the preamble to the …

Fixing Florida's Execution Lien Law Part Two: Florida's New Judgment Lien On Personal Property, Jeffrey Davis

UF Law Faculty Publications

Under both the prior and current laws, a creditor seeking to satisfy a judgment out of property of the judgment debtor obtains a writ of execution from the clerk of the court that issued the judgment and then delivers the writ to a sheriff in one of Florida's sixty-seven counties. The writ commands the sheriff to levy on property of the debtor until the amount stated in the writ is satisfied. Under the prior law, delivery of the writ to the sheriff not only initiated the execution process, but under the seminal case of Love v. Williams, it also …

Why Are Delaware And New York Bankruptcy Reorganizations Failing?, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty

UF Law Faculty Publications

Why are Delaware and New York Bankruptcy Reorganizations Failing?

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part Ii), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

Scholarly Works

This part of the article provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA. (Part I provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation.)

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part I), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

Scholarly Works

This part of the article provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation. (Part II provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA.)

Multidisciplinary Practice After In Re Enron: Should The Debate On Mdp Change At All?, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.