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New Cases For the Week of January 19, 2003 -
January 23, 2004
Brought to you by BKINFORMATION.COM
- The Source for Business Bankruptcy Information on the Internet
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January
23, 2004
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Mirant Corp.
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
N.D. Tex. |
Bankruptcy
court has authority and
discretion to establish
tailored fee application
procedures in mega cases. |
In
re Salls
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
D. Vt. |
A
creditor who engaged in a
secured transaction is not
entitled to treatment as a
secured creditor in a
subsequently filed bankruptcy
case if the debtors no longer
own the pledged collateral on
the date they file for
bankruptcy. |
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January
22, 2004
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Malden Mills Industries,
Inc.
(DBN Subscription Required) |
1st
Cir. BAP |
Assumption
or rejection of an executory
contract or unexpired lease is
explicitly subject to the
court's approval while
abandonment of property does
not require court approval
unless challenged by a party
in interest. Where abandonment
has been challenged and thus
is subject to review by the
court, the date of any
approved abandonment should be
the date the notice or motion
for abandonment was filed.
The
bankruptcy court had no
authority to condition
approval of abandonment of
personal property left by a
debtor/tenant at a rejected
leasehold premises on payment
by the debtor to the landlord
of the costs of removal of the
property.
A
tenant who does not remove its
property from the leased
premises after a tenancy is
terminated may be liable to
the owner for the expenses of
storage. The bankruptcy
court did not err in awarding
administrative rent to the
landlord for only the portion
of the building occupied by
the personal property which
the debtor had failed to
remove. However, the
bankruptcy court failed to
properly account for the
landlord's duty to mitigate
damages. A landlord can
mitigate damages in several
ways, which can include
removing a holdover tenant's
personal property, reletting
the premises, and even selling
the property. |
In
re Global Industrial
Technologies
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
W.D. Pa. |
An
insurance coverage declaratory
judgment action initiated by
insurance companies against
non-debtor insureds was void
ab initio as a violation of
the automatic stay to the
extent that the action
implicated insurance coverage
which the non-debtor insureds
shared with a bankrupt
debtor. |
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January
21, 2004
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Bunyan
(DBN Subscription Required) |
9th
Cir. |
The
bankruptcy court lacked
jurisdiction to determine the
amount or legality of IRS
claims because such claims had
been contested before and
adjudicated by a judicial or
administrative tribunal of
competent jurisdiction before
the commencement of the
bankruptcy case. |
In
re Farmland Industries, Inc.
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
W.D. Mo. |
Creditor
will be allowed to amend proof
of claim after the bar date to
state a claim in quantum
meruit, even though original
claim was based on an alleged
written contract |
In
re MacLaughlin
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
W.D. Mo. |
Chapter
7 Debtors who purchased two
new automobiles on eve of
bankruptcy, who had relatively
little dischargeable unsecured
debt, and whose expense
schedule the Court found
overinflated, had sufficient
income to fund a Chapter 13
plan with some
"belt-tightening,"
and case will be dismissed for
substantial abuse of the
Bankruptcy Code. |
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January
20, 2004
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Silver
(DBN Subscription Required) |
10th
Cir. BAP |
A
trustee's status as a
hypothetical judicial lien
creditor pursuant to §
544(a)(1) does not make her a
"purchaser" of or a
"holder of a security
interest" in a debtor's
stock within the meaning of §
6323(b)(1). |
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January
19, 2004
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Patriot Company
(DBN Subscription Required) |
8th
Cir. |
A
sole shareholder who was not
listed as a creditor on the
corporate debtor's schedules
was not entitled to separate
notice of a compromise between
the debtor's Chapter 7 trustee
and a secured lender. |
Congress
Financial Corp. v. Airwalk
International, LLC (In re
Airwalk International, LLC)
(DBN Subscription Required) |
Bankr.
Colo. |
Involuntary
petitioners failed to present
sufficient evidence to support
theories that junior secured
debt should be equitably
subordinated or
recharacterized as an equity
contribution and a secured
creditor's motion for relief
from stay was granted. |
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