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Baltimore district judge applies the Fourth Circuit’s ‘substantial and unanticipated’ test to modifications of chapter 11 plans.

The ‘new value’ offered by old equity in a chapter 11 plan was insufficient because it was only a small fraction of claims and because the dividend to creditors was also small.

If a loan benefits both a debtor and someone else, the loan still may be included in counting whether the debt “arose from the commercial or business activities of the debtor.”

Judge Harner does the best she can to ease the burden imposed on a debtor by student loans.

Decision by Bankruptcy Judge Michelle Harner demonstrates the flaw in the Fourth Circuit’s rule requiring parallel proceedings in bankruptcy court and in arbitration when disputes are both core and non-core.

Only individuals in subchapter V of chapter 11 are barred from discharging debts found to be nondischargeable under Section 523(a).

The SBRA can be used to extinguish a creditors’ committee previously appointed in a ‘traditional’ chapter 11 case.

A creditor without knowledge of bankruptcy isn’t always entitled to file a late claim in chapters 7, 12, and 13, Judge Harner says.

The addition of Section 362(b)(3) is held not to affect the ‘freeze rule’ with regard to lapsing security interests.

Unperformed obligations must be ‘material’ for a contract to be executory.