U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch on Monday signaled a desire for clearer rules on when appeals courts can hear disputes stemming from bankruptcy sales, in a case involving a cheap lease Sears had at the Mall of America that was transferred following its bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, a lawyer for the Minneapolis-based mall's parent company, MOAC Mall Holdings LLC, sought to convince the justices to reverse a lower court ruling finding it had to honor an extremely tenant-friendly lease it made with Sears Holdings Corp in 1991 that offered Sears rent of just $10 a year for 100 years. After Sears went bankrupt in 2018, it sold its assets for $5.2 billion to former chairman Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc., and the lease was transferred months later to Transform Holdco LLC, a company formed by Sears' new owners. Transform's lawyer Eric Brunstad argued that under bankruptcy law no court has the jurisdiction to hear Mall of America's appeal and that finality in bankruptcy sales protects both debtors and buyers.
