Sixth Circuit Split Decision Upholds Equitable Mootness in Chapter 9
Dissenter implores appeals court to sit en banc and reject equitable mootness.
Judge Name - Do not use it.
Alice M. Batchelder
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Legal Fees Surpass $300 Million in Contentious Caesars Case
The legal bill for Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s year-and-a-half-long battle with creditors has come in at $301.3 million, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The casino company disclosed the cost in a bankruptcy court filing on Friday, days after announcing a settlement that will bring peace to the $18 billion restructuring. The fees and expenses, which Caesars paid between the date of its Jan. 15, 2015, bankruptcy filing through Aug. 31, 2016, have gone to the roughly two dozen law, investment-banking, consulting and other professional firms on its chapter 11 payroll. The chapter 11 case of CEOC, the operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp., has been a battle from the start, when a group of junior bondholders, including hedge funds Appaloosa Management LP and Oaktree Capital Management LP, sought to force CEOC into involuntary bankruptcy.
Pro Se Debtors Entitled to Different Notice Before Sua Sponte Dismissal
Pro se debtors must be told explicitly of the right to request a hearing.
Judge Name - Do not use it.
Jackson L. Kiser
Attempt at Reviving Frenville Fails in Delaware
Widespread notice obviated need for allowing a class proof of claim.
Judge Name - Do not use it.
Richard G. Andrews
Religious Court Had No Pecuniary Interest and Thus Lacked Standing to Appeal
Rabbinical court was barred from attaching an injunction under the First Amendment.
Judge Name - Do not use it.
Cathy Seibel
Bankruptcy Code
Caesars’ Bankruptcy Tussle with Creditors May Be Near the Finale, Judge Responds to Mediator’s Resignation
Caesars Entertainment Corp. is the closest it’s been to ending two years of rancorous court battles with bondholders over who should pay to fix the casino giant’s insolvent operating unit, which can’t afford to pay almost $20 billion in debt, Bloomberg News reported today. The company is giving creditors until midnight in New York to accept a sweetened offer of more than $5 billion in cash, new debt and stock in a reorganized company. A group of bondholders that have been the biggest obstacle to the company’s plan has agreed on the framework of a deal, people familiar with the talks said Thursday. Now the question will be whether the company’s more senior lenders — who were on board with previous iterations of the plan — will be willing to give up some of the gains they won at the negotiating table in order to get the plan approved. Those creditors, who hold Caesars’ bank loans and first-lien bonds, would need to give up “hundreds of millions of dollars” in recoveries, according to the offer Caesars disclosed on Wednesday. A deal would put the unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., on track to exit one of the biggest bankruptcies of the past decade. Creditors including David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management have been battling the private-equity titans that acquired the company in a 2008 leveraged buyout, Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital. Read more.
In related news, Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar provided comments on Wednesday regarding the resignation of the mediator in the case. Judge Goldgar offered clarification on some of the critical comments and misunderstandings he found within the resignation letter. Click here to read the court excerpt.
