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For Purdue Pharma LP, the rationale behind a proposed $4.3 billion settlement with the members of the billionaire Sackler family that own the company comes down to uncertainty. The bankrupt OxyContin maker -- as well as creditors seeking to hold Purdue and its owners accountable for the opioid crisis -- could use wide-ranging legal theories to try to extract billions of dollars from members of the Sackler family. But the endeavor would be convoluted, expensive, and could fail entirely, Purdue’s lawyers argue in new bankruptcy court papers, Bloomberg News reported. Their argument comes as Purdue is seeking approval to collect creditor votes on its bankruptcy plan at a hearing scheduled for this week. Certain details of the settlement with its owners aren’t yet finalized, and more than 20 U.S. states still don’t support the plan. The Sackler family is large, fragmented, and scattered across the globe. Its wealth -- recently estimated at $11 billion -- is concentrated in “dozens” of trusts in the U.S. and abroad, including islands off the coast of France, according to court papers. To get to the money, the company and others would “have to separately sue, prevail, and collect against each of these individuals, and expend considerable resources in the process without any guarantee of success,” Purdue’s attorneys wrote.

The group representing individuals and government entities with opioid-related claims against Mallinckrodt Plc say the pharmaceutical company needs to provide more information and time for them to determine whether they will vote in support of its proposed restructuring plan, Reuters reported. A virtual hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in Wilmington, Del. The official committee of opioid claimants on Friday filed objections to Mallinckrodt’s disclosure materials and motion to begin soliciting plan votes. Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy in October with $5.3 billion in funded debt to resolve widespread litigation brought by states, local governments and private individuals accusing it of deceptively marketing opioids. The company is now pursuing a reorganization plan that would set up a $1.6 billion trust to resolve opioid-related claims. The plan would put unsecured noteholders in control of the company and eliminate $1.3 billion in debt. General unsecured creditors would split $150 million in cash. In court papers filed on Friday, the committee took issue with the provisions of the plan that would restrict opioid claimants’ ability to bring future claims against certain parties, including current and former officers and directors of the company. At the same time, the committee said, the disclosure materials don’t adequately explain opioid claimants’ recoveries. The committee argued that they need more details beyond the $1.6 billion figure attached to the trust. Additionally, the committee contends that claimants are not being given enough time or adequate notice of their rights. The U.S. departments of Health & Human Services and Veterans Affairs also filed an objection to the disclosure materials, saying that Mallinckrodt needs to explain how the opioid trust funds will be allocated. Mallinckrodt’s unsecured creditors’ committee and the U.S. Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog, among others, have filed objections as well. The unsecured creditors' committee and trustee demanded more information about estimated creditor recoveries and challenged the plan's proposed releases for officers and directors.

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.

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.

Facing a key bankruptcy court hearing and broad objections from attorneys representing child-sex-abuse victims and insurance companies, attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America have submitted a revised reorganization plan with details about the finances of its local councils, the Associated Press reported. The BSA submitted the latest revisions to its plan and an accompanying disclosure statement late Sunday as attorneys prepare for a Wednesday hearing that could determine whether the organization can meet its goal of emerging from bankruptcy this fall. The Boy Scouts are seeking approval of the disclosure statement formally explaining its bankruptcy plan to creditors. The judge must approve the disclosure statement before the BSA can begin soliciting votes on its plan, but it has been roundly criticized by other parties for lacking necessary details. Seeking to address some of the objections, the BSA updated its plan with balance sheet summaries for local councils and appraisals on properties they own.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has earmarked up to $454 million in his revised budget to clean up lead and arsenic spread throughout southeast Los Angeles county by the former Exide battery recycling plant, the L.A. Daily News reported. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control estimates the toxic chemicals produced during Exide’s decades of operation spread up to 1.7 miles away, contaminating schools, parks and thousands of homes in the largely working-class, Latino neighborhoods of Bell, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Maywood, Huntington Park and Commerce. The Exide battery recycling plant, which produced a host of hazardous wastes as part of the process, operated for 33 years in Vernon without a permanent permit. It closed in 2015 as part of a nonprosecution agreement that allowed the company to avoid criminal charges. Last year, a federal bankruptcy court and the Department of Justice allowed Exide to abandon the property without fulfilling the terms of the agreement, which required the company to demolish and clean up the shuttered facility. A court-appointed trustee with about $30 million in funds from the bankruptcy settlement is now in charge of remediating the property. If that money runs out, Newsom’s proposal would provide $132 million in one-time funding to finish the work. California already has spent $251 million on residential cleanup and other costs, according to the Governor’s Office. Under the proposal, the state would earmark another $322 million over three years to remove contamination from additional properties. DTSC estimates that money will allow the clean up of “roughly 2,740 properties with the highest levels of contamination and the highest risk of exposure being cleaned up to 200 parts per million,” according to a spokesperson.

After suffering a legal defeat in a Texas bankruptcy court and the possibility that one of its board members will appeal the decision, the National Rifle Association has some options moving forward, but bankruptcy experts are skeptical that many of them will turn out well for the gun rights organization, Reuters reported. In a 38-page decision issued on May 11, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale made clear that he did not think the NRA’s January bankruptcy filing was made in good faith. He threw out the chapter 11 case, saying the NRA was trying to use bankruptcy to gain an unfair advantage in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that aims to dissolve the organization. Though the NRA itself has not indicated that it will appeal, a lawyer for one of its board members said during a virtual status conference before Judge Hale on Friday that he was considering an appeal. But overturning Hale’s decision seems unlikely, said Anthony Casey, a bankruptcy and business law professor at the University of Chicago Law School. An appeals court would have to consider “whether he abused his discretion in deciding to dismiss it rather than doing something else like appointing a trustee,” Casey said. “But that would be a very high standard for someone to get the judge reversed on.” The board member, Phillip Journey, who is also a Kansas state judge, had been critical of the manner in which the NRA filed for bankruptcy. The board and many top officials were unaware that CEO Wayne LaPierre was making the move until after the fact. Journey asked Judge Hale to appoint an independent examiner to investigate management, but Hale denied that motion in conjunction with his dismissal of the bankruptcy.

Five years ago, the first of several former Agat altar boys came forward to publicly accuse then-Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexually abusing him, the Guam Times reported. In five years, there have been nearly 300 Guam clergy sex abuse claims for abuses dating back to the 1960s. The archdiocese's bankruptcy case suspended litigation of the civil cases, but approved compensation to law firms and other professionals has now been estimated at $4.8 million. This includes the nearly $414,000 approved last week for services rendered from Dec. 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. Two other firms' proposed billings are pending.