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When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy last year and asked alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse to step forward, roughly 84,000 did, with many hoping the legal proceeding would help usher a financial settlement — and some closure to their ordeals, the Wall Street Journal reported. But 15 months later, those who came forward are still waiting as the Boy Scouts’ odyssey through chapter 11 approaches the finish line without a clear resolution of their claims. Boy Scout lawyer Jessica Lauria said in a court hearing last week that the only way to preserve the organization’s mission is to reorganize it rather than liquidating assets to pay sex abuse claims. Breaking up the Boy Scouts would harm 700,000 active Scouts, she said. But to turn the page on a legacy of sexual abuse and the resulting legal exposure, the Boy Scouts need to reach consensus with most survivors, who have the right to vote on any settlement the organization puts forth. Closed-door mediation sessions and more than $100 million spent on legal fees haven’t closed the gap between the ask and the offer. The Boy Scouts have made progress in recent days toward a potential agreement with a coalition of law firms that represents the bulk of the victims who have filed claims over childhood abuse. But the Boy Scouts are farther apart from a separate official committee of survivors. A court hearing that was slated for Monday, where a judge was to decide whether to allow victims to vote on the Boy Scouts settlement, was delayed a week, so talks could continue.

The company that bought The Weinstein Company’s assets out of bankruptcy does not have to pay a producer of the 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook” amounts he claims he is owed for his work on the movie, an appeals court ruled on Friday, Reuters reported. In a 25-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld lower court rulings that rejected producer Bruce Cohen’s claim that Spyglass Media Group LLC, which purchased the Weinstein assets out of bankruptcy in July 2018, owes him $400,000 under his work-for-hire contract. Spyglass acquired the Weinstein assets, including production contracts, for $289 million when the company filed for bankruptcy in 2018 following widespread allegations of sexual misconduct against co-founder Harvey Weinstein. A lawyer for Cohen, Angela Butcher of Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Craig Martin of DLA Piper, representing Spyglass, did not immediately respond either. The Cohen contract is one of several The Weinstein Company had with film and television talent before its bankruptcy. Spyglass's predecessor sued Cohen in October 2018 seeking a declaration that it acquired the company's assets free of any requirement to honor prior compensation obligations. “Silver Linings” stars Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro have since become involved in the litigation, but Cohen’s contract was effectively used as the bellwether case for such agreements in the Delaware bankruptcy court that handled the Weinstein case.

Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust has gotten bids of more than $480 million for 14 of its properties, but the bankrupt hotel chain doesn’t yet have a buyer for its lease for 1930s ocean liner the Queen Mary, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Heading into a Thursday auction, Monarch Alternative Capital LP was the lead bidder for Eagle Hospitality’s properties, with a $470 million offer for all 15 properties that set the floor price. The distressed-debt investor ended up having the best offer for 10 of 14 Eagle Hospitality properties, for a total proposed purchase price of roughly $360 million, according to auction records filed late Thursday. A hearing to approve the proposed sales is scheduled for May 28 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Proposed buyers for the other four properties are Beach Point Capital Management LP, Solid Rock Ventures LLC, Taconic Capital Advisors LP and FullG Capital Ltd, documents show. As of late Thursday, however, “there is no purchaser for the Queen Mary Hotel,” Eagle Hospitality said in a court filing.

The judge overseeing the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy on Wednesday offered her grim view of the status of the youth organization’s reorganization efforts, which have yet to lead to any support from former scouts who say they were sexually abused by Scouting leaders, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Del., indicated during a virtual hearing that she is prepared to move quickly on the remainder of the Boy Scouts’ chapter 11 proceeding, which began in February 2020 in an attempt to resolve nearly 300 sex abuse lawsuits. But she also acknowledged the difficulty of proceeding with the organization's request to begin soliciting votes on its proposed reorganization plan, which includes a settlement of more than 80,000 sex abuse claims, when it has yet to bring in any support from abuse survivors. “I will say to solicit a plan that has no abuse survivor support is not an attractive option,” Silverstein said. “But neither is engaging in protracted litigation that has the potential to end the Boy Scouts as it currently exists.” The judge will likely announce her ruling on the motion to begin vote solicitation next week.

Hospitality Investors Trust Inc., which has stakes in 100 U.S. hotels, filed for bankruptcy protection with a prearranged plan that would hand the company over to Brookfield Asset Management Inc., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The New York-based real-estate investment trust said yesterday that it would use the chapter 11 process to put its prepackaged agreement into effect. The proposal includes modifications to loans and to hotel management agreements after the hotel industry had its worst year on record in 2020. More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many hotels are starting to find their footing again, and owners and investors expect bookings to revive as vaccination becomes more widespread and people regain their appetite to travel. Hospitality Investors continues to be among the industry players suffering from the pandemic, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Riggins said in a court filing. The company had $1.7 billion in assets and $1.36 billion in debt at the end of March.

The hospitality group behind chef Tanya Holland's Michelin-lauded Brown Sugar Kitchen, a national destination for modern soul food in Oakland, has filed for chapter 11 protection, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The operating realities of the pandemic erased already thin margins as downtown Oakland offices emptied out, Holland said, creating a situation where "there was just no balance on the balance sheet essentially, so much debt" in the form of back rent, vendors and investors. The bankruptcy petition will not impact daily service at her flagship restaurant at 2295 Broadway Ave., currently open for outdoor dining, takeout and delivery, Holland told me in an exclusive interview. The filing for BSK Hospitality Group LLC, made Wednesday in the U.S. Northern District bankruptcy court, listed assets of under $50,000 and six creditors with claims totaling $938,314.06.

A Brooks Brothers part-owner that lost $100 million when the menswear retailer went bankrupt last year sued its former controlling Del Vecchio family for allegedly ignoring potential deals that could have warded off chapter 11, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Hong Kong-based TAL Apparel Ltd. said in court papers that the troubled company had interested suitors in 2019 but the Del Vecchio family turned its back on those opportunities, choosing to gamble on bankruptcy instead. Brooks Brothers filed for chapter 11 in 2020, joining a herd of pandemic-battered apparel retailers. The company was sold out of bankruptcy for $325 million to Authentic Brands Group LLC and mall operator Simon Property Group Inc. TAL, a former minority shareholder, said the 2019 offers were rejected because, although they were rich enough to keep Brooks Brothers out of bankruptcy, they weren’t enough to protect the Del Vecchio family from having to pay out on a make-whole agreement with TAL. In 2016, when TAL agreed to invest $100 million for a minority stake in Brooks Brothers, the deal came with a guarantee backed by the Del Vecchios, according to the complaint. Under the agreement, if Brooks Brothers was sold for less than $652 million — the valuation assigned to the company when TAL bought its stake — the family would make good on TAL’s losses, the lawsuit said. The potential offers that arrived in 2019 were at prices that would have forced the Del Vecchios to come up with money of their own to cover TAL’s losses, according to the complaint, which said the family “threatened that instead of pursuing the bids on the table, they would ‘roll the dice’ and sell Brooks Brothers as part of bankruptcy proceedings.” Bankruptcy or no bankruptcy, TAL is seeking a court order compelling Claudio Del Vecchio, his son Matteo and affiliated entities to make good on TAL’s losses.

Oklahoma City-based Gulfport Energy Corp. has emerged from bankruptcy, the Oklahoman reported. The company announced yesterday that it successfully completed a restructuring process to emerge from chapter 11 protection with a new interim CEO, a new board and significantly less debt. It is among numerous Oklahoma-based energy companies to emerge from bankruptcy in recent years, including Chesapeake Energy, which emerged from its process in February. In all, Gulfport offloaded more than $1.2 billion it owed creditors. While the reconstituted company still has $853 million in debt, officials said yesterday that it has about $135 million of liquidity and a net-debt-to-EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) ratio of 1.5x. Gulfport also announced the departure of pre-bankruptcy CEO David M. Wood and CFO Quentin Hicks. Timothy J. Cutt, chairman of Gulfport's new board of directors, will lead the company as its interim CEO while William “Bill” J. Buese has been named as its CFO, moving forward.

When shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. soared after the company filed for bankruptcy a year ago, finance professionals reacted with a mix of confusion and scorn. A year later, small investors who bet on the company in its distress are getting the last laugh, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The century-old rental-car giant is poised to mint big gains for loyalists on its way out of bankruptcy. It’s a result that seemed unfathomable when its business unraveled early in the COVID-19 pandemic and another marker of an upside-down year in markets. On May 14, a bankruptcy court approved a winning auction bid that will hand control of Hertz to institutional investors who won a heated competition to buy the company out of bankruptcy as its prospects brightened. Hertz expects stockholders to receive more than $7 a share of value out of the deal, and perhaps as much as $8 a share, as the company emerges from chapter 11. Hertz closed at $5.76 on Tuesday in the over-the-counter market. The New York Stock Exchange delisted the shares in October after determining they were no longer suitable, since the company was in bankruptcy. Driven by individuals trading on apps, Reddit message-board boosters and the boredom of lockdown, financial markets have been on occasion hard to explain this year, including the GameStop Corp. mania, a joke cryptocurrency and a $100 million deli. It’s not surprising that standard bankruptcy practice should also get turned around. Hertz shareholders avoided being wiped out as the company’s prospects recovered to match the bullish outlooks of online traders who piled into the company in June after it filed for bankruptcy protection. Whether or not they were acting irrationally, their view of Hertz ended up closer to reality than the supposed smart money that dumped the stock.