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"
Chicago Bankruptcy Judge David Cleary followed a decision by then-district Judge David Hamilton and “respectfully” disagreed with decisions by two predecessors on the same bankruptcy bench.
When there is a recorded option to purchase real estate, Prof. Westbrook would have analyzed the specific performance rights of the holder of the option under state law, not the question of whether the option was executory.
Just because the debtor orchestrated a fraudulent transfer, the Seventh Circuit tells us there’s nothing for a trustee recover if there was no diminution of the estate.
Although a stock purchase and a loan payoff were one month apart, a district judge in Indiana found a sufficient nexus to invoke the safe harbor and dismiss a fraudulent transfer suit.
Within the next year, four circuits will have ruled on a split where some lower courts pay chapter 13 trustees and others don’t when dismissal precedes confirmation.
The Seventh Circuit explained how preponderance of the evidence became the standard of proof for turnovers and dischargeability when the Bankruptcy Code replaced the Bankruptcy Act.
A secured lender who doesn’t file a claim doesn’t get paid by the chapter 13 plan and keeps its lien, but can’t reclaim the collateral during the life of the plan.
Chicago’s Judge Cleary didn’t compel arbitration of an affirmative counterclaim by the debtor against the creditor that would be determined in the course of passing on the allowance of the creditor’s proof of claim.
