July 7 - Members and Subscribers - Welcome to the new and improved abi.org! - If you have not already done so, please reset your ABI password to access the site. Click "Login" and then "Forgot Password"
This year has been an exciting one for the Secured Credit Committee (SCC). For those of you interested in learning more about SCC activities, and hopefully becoming more involved, this message summarizes some of the highlights of the SCC in 2015, the SCC's goals for 2016, and areas in which you might want to become involved.
Can a debtor use its lack of following corporate and statutory formalities as a defense to a request for adequate protection? The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine ruled on this question as well as some others in In re Parkview Adventist Medical Center.
On June 1, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bank of America N.A., v. Caulkett,[1] unanimously holding that debtors could not strip off a second lien in a chapter 7 proceeding. In Caulkett, the debtors were attempting to void a junior lien where the debt owed by the senior lien exceeded the value of the collateral.
Foreclosure of personal property is a necessary evil for lenders in the commercial default context, and the foreclosure and sale must meet the commercially reasonable standard to withstand later scrutiny by competing creditors and unrequited borrowers.
In In re Alternate Fuels Inc.[1], the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals describes and applies standards for (1) recharacterizing debt claims as camouflaged equity and (2) equitably subordinating debt claims. In doing so, the court confirmed two things:
