On Bankruptcy and Mediation
By Donald L. Swanson Every now and then a battle shapes up between two heavyweights: --Think Muhammed Ali v. George Forman; Magic Johnson v. Larry Bird; Bart Starr v. Roger Stauback. It looks like such a battle is shaping up between two Federal court heavy-weights on bankruptcy issues: --It’s between the Second Circuit Court of Appeals... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L Swanson Ancient History Millenia ago, advanced civilizations flourish around the Mediterranean, across east Asia, and in portions of the Western Hemisphere. Mediterranean and east Asia civilizations communicate and trade, back then, across silk roads but remain isolated from the Western Hemisphere. That isolation continues for a very-long time: until 1492. In the... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson The U.S. Government continues to prop up a high-price model of higher education, forcing students to bear the brunt of such foolishness! News reports are filled these days with student loan crisis stories. We hear how: --"the number of Americans severely behind on payments on federal student loans reached roughly 4.6 million... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L Swanson On Friday, January 12, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Lamar, Archer & Cofrin, LLP v. Appling (In re Appling), Case No. 16-1215, to resolve an indistinct legal standard. The case is about a statute of frauds for nondischargeability. Generally, a statute of frauds requires that certain promises be in... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L Swanson When ABI’s Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 issued its Final Report in 2014, one creative approach it recommended is to authorize a new bankruptcy position: the "estate neutral." The Final Report says that chapter 11 "needs to offer tools to resolve a debtor’s financial distress." The estate neutral would... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson Individuals can, and often do, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Three professors recently published an article in the ABI Law Review on a ground breaking study of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases for individual debtors. --The three professors are Richard M. Hynes (University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Va.), Anne Lawton (Lansing, Mich.), and Margaret Howard (Washington &... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson The case is In re Sunnyslope Housing Ltd. Partnership, 859 F.3d 637 (9th Cir. 2017). It’s before the U.S. Supreme Court on Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, which is set for conference on January 5, 2018. In Sunnyslope, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling is based on a Chapter 13 valuation standard established... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson “For the reasons set forth below, the Court holds that S corporation status is not ‘property’ for the purposes of 11 U.S.C. §§ 544(b), 548.” --Judge Kevin R. Huennekens in Arrowsmith v. USA (In re Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc., Case No 17-04300, Doc. 54 (Bankr.E.D.Va., December 6, 2017). The reasons identified by... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson It’s a decade-or-more ago. I’m sitting in a continuing legal education seminar on bankruptcy law hoping to learn something new-and-useful for my day-to-day practice. Threatening Bankruptcy Attorneys With Criminal Prosecution?!! What we get, instead, is an hour-long warning from a representative of the U.S. Government on, (i) how attorneys in bankruptcy cases... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson The consensus I’ve been reading these days is that a split of authority is shaping up between the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals on enforcability of make-whole premiums in bankruptcy. --The first of two cases is from the Third Circuit: In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., 842 F.3d 247 (3rd... Continue Reading →
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