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Chief Bankruptcy Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York has temporarily blocked three dozen Child Victims Act cases against area Catholic parishes and schools from moving forward in State Supreme Court, the Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported. The judge put the 36 cases on hold until Oct. 1, saying their advancement now would threaten the Buffalo Diocese’s bankruptcy reorganization effort. “At a time when the vast majority of interested parties are working to find a way for the debtor to reorganize, the distraction of state court litigation for the benefit of a few will endanger the prospects of an outcome for the benefit of everyone,” Judge Bucki said in a written ruling on Wednesday. A chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2020 automatically stopped 260 Child Victims Act lawsuits against the diocese from advancing in state courts. Catholic parishes, schools and other entities that are separate nonprofit corporations did not file for bankruptcy. Judge Bucki last July temporarily protected parishes and schools from lawsuits. Those protections became more permanent when abuse survivors who make up the committee of unsecured creditors struck a deal with the diocese to not press forward with lawsuits against individual parishes. In exchange, the diocese agreed to hand over thousands of pages of confidential internal documents on abuse, clergy records, finances and other matters.

A lawyer representing New York’s attorney general accused National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre of hiding from its board his plan to put the gun rights group into bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. LaPierre unilaterally authorized the January chapter 11 filing without proper NRA board approval, Gerrit Pronske, a lawyer representing the New York attorney general’s office, said during a virtual hearing on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. “Filing this bankruptcy was NRA’s best-kept secret,” Pronske said, “Except, you can’t keep an act secret from the persons who need to approve the act.” The allegation, which the NRA denies, is a basis for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s argument that the bankruptcy case was filed in bad faith and should be thrown out or, alternatively, that an independent trustee should be appointed to take charge of the NRA, wresting control from LaPierre and the board. James filed a lawsuit last August seeking to dissolve the organization. The NRA, a New York registered nonprofit organization since 1871, said in a news release that the bankruptcy was appropriately filed and is part of a broader strategy to depart a “toxic political environment” and reincorporate in Texas.

A Texas wind farm facing a $113 million bill from Citigroup Inc. for failing to deliver power during last month’s cold snap filed a lawsuit seeking to protect itself against the risk of a takeover and forced liquidation by the bank, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Stephens Ranch Wind Energy LLC filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the Supreme Court of New York County, accusing Citi of using the winter freeze that swept Texas last month “as a basis to seize control of Stephens Ranch and liquidate its assets.” Citi declined to comment. The bank declared defaults against Stephens Ranch after its wind turbines were “incapacitated” during the winter storm and the facility couldn’t meet contractual obligations to generate power, according to the complaint. Stephens Ranch, which operates 210 turbines with a capacity of 376 megawatts located between the cities of Lubbock and Odessa, said the notices of default, which it disputes, put it at “severe risk of losing its business.” Justice Robert R. Reed entered a restraining order on Wednesday blocking Citi from taking action against the wind farm based on the alleged default and scheduled a further hearing on the dispute for April 22.

The Texas Senate passed a sweeping bill to overhaul the state’s electricity market following last month’s historic blackouts by forcing power plants to winterize and barring the type of business model used by Griddy Energy, Bloomberg News reported. The measure, which still needs approval by the state’s House of Representatives, would require the owners of all power generators, transmission lines, natural gas facilities and pipelines to protect their facilities against extreme weather or face a penalty of up to $1 million a day. Nearly half of Texas’s power-plant capacity went down in February after a severe winter storm froze equipment, halted gas supplies and triggered blackouts that left more than 4 million homes and businesses in the dark for days. More than 100 people died during the crisis. In its aftermath, lawmakers have scrambled to address some of the power-system flaws laid bare by the catastrophe. The bill aims to rein in, albeit modestly, Texas’s laissez-faire approach to electricity markets, which some have argued contributed to the crisis. The state’s power system operates independently from other grids so as to avoid federal oversight, and the market relies almost exclusively on price signals to secure electricity rather than holding supply in reserve for emergencies. On Tuesday, the Texas house preliminarily approved its own package of bills designed to respond to the grid failure. They included a measure that would only require power plants and power line owners to weatherize. Notably, both the Senate and House measures would ban power providers from offering electricity plans tied to the state’s volatile wholesale power market, a practice that resulted in exorbitant bills for customers during the energy crisis. Griddy, whose customers received bills in the tens of thousands of dollars, declared bankruptcy in the wake of the crisis.

Electricity retailer Entrust Energy Inc. sought chapter 11 protection Tuesday as the latest corporate bankruptcy stemming from last month’s extreme weather events in Texas, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Entrust’s chapter 11 papers listed a disputed $270 million bill from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator at the center of the state’s energy crisis. Houston-based Entrust is among many municipal utilities, electric cooperatives and electricity retailers facing huge bills from Ercot for power they bought at vastly elevated prices during the cold snap in Texas last month. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., the state’s largest energy cooperative, was the first to file for chapter 11 after being overwhelmed with invoices. Energy retailers Just Energy Group Inc., Griddy Energy LLC and Brilliant Energy LLC also declared bankruptcy. Others have indicated they are in financial distress, are disputing the bills or need to borrow to pay Ercot, which allowed electricity prices to soar to the maximum level of $9,000 per megawatt hour, compared with the average price of roughly $22 last year, in an effort to get power generators to supply power amid widespread blackouts and equipment failures. Ercot cut off Entrust from the state power market after the company failed to make required payments and transferred its customers elsewhere, according to an Ercot notice. Rhythm, a renewable energy provider, said earlier this month it had acquired Entrust’s Texas customers as well as those of another retailer, Power of Texas Holdings Inc. totaling 40,000 residential and 10,000 commercial users.

The Texas attorney general’s office is asking a judge to approve the creation of a committee to represent customers in the chapter 11 case of Griddy Energy LLC, which went bankrupt in the wake of the state’s historic winter storm last month, Reuters reported. During a virtual hearing yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Abigail Ryan told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston that it would be helpful to have the thousands of Griddy customers who were affected by the devastating Texas winter storm in February be represented under one umbrella in the case. The retail electric provider filed for chapter 11 protection on March 15 after the storm left it owing $29 million to the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc.

NextEra Energy Inc.’s long-running quest to recoup $60 million from the bankruptcy of former Texas energy giant Energy Future Holdings Corp. comes with a hitch — collecting the money means tangling with an old foe, Elliott Management Corp., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. As one of the largest creditors, Elliott got most of the cash left behind when Energy Future’s operating businesses exited bankruptcy in 2018, following a failed deal with NextEra for which the Florida-based power company has been seeking compensation ever since. NextEra’s legal arguments had been largely rejected until earlier this month, when an appeals court revived the company’s efforts to recoup its fees and expenses from trying and failing to buy Texas utility Oncor Electric Delivery Co., Energy Future’s former crown jewel. Oncor was eventually sold to Sempra Energy when Texas regulators rejected NextEra as a buyer. The defunct shell of the old Energy Future has only $2 million to its name, having paid out more than $1 billion to creditors in the years since its bankruptcy terms went effective. Its chapter 11 administrators were back in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Friday, facing a renewed fight with NextEra but with precious few resources to litigate, let alone pay a potential judgment.

Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester is living out of two rooms at an Albuquerque parish these days, his formal diocesan home sold to help pay for the sins of his predecessors and the damage done by priests and other clergy members who molested children, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The archdiocese reported selling the four-bedroom, tri-level house near its Catholic Center on Albuquerque’s West Side for about $425,000 as part of a stepped up liquidation of assets in its ongoing chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization, which appears closer than ever to settlement. Basically every piece of property the Archdiocese of Santa Fe corporation-proper owns is ‘on the block,’ ” according to a bankruptcy update written earlier this month by archdiocese Vicar General Father Glenn Jones. He reported that Wester has moved to smaller quarters in an undisclosed “parish facility.” Properties being sold include a well-known archdiocese retreat center in Santa Fe and may ultimately include the St. Pius X High School property in Albuquerque.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre has sold its headquarters for $5.2 million — money church officials say will be used to pay creditors, the Associated Press reported. Newsday reports the diocese became the largest in the country last year to declare bankruptcy amid more than 200 lawsuits it faced under New York State’s Child Victims Act. The law opened a so-called lookback window — since extended until August — that allows childhoods victims of sexual abuse to file civil claims beyond statute of limitations restrictions. The diocese, home to 1.4 million Catholics in the Long Island region, sold the five-story pastoral center and an adjacent parking lot to Synergy Holding Partners LLC. Church officials said they decided to sell the headquarters in 2018 after deciding it was no longer cost effective. Sean Dolan, a diocesan spokesman, said Friday that the location of the new headquarters has not been finalized. The diocese also decided to close seven grammar schools over the past year amid declining enrollment and revenue.