Rochelle's Daily Wire

The Third Circuit will decide whether the broad language in the Federal Magistrate Act allows magistrate judges to issue final orders on bankruptcy appeals when the parties consent.

Nondebtor releases are valid whether the creditor votes for or against the plan, as long as notice to opt out was clear and conspicuous.

The Delaware district court affirmed Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Horan, who ruled that a creditor cannot sue a chapter 15 debtor in bankruptcy court on a prebankruptcy claim.

The new J&J filing starkly raises the issue of venue-shopping. If the new case remains in Houston, the Texas court would not be bound by the Third Circuit’s ‘financial distress’ requirement.

The opinion by Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro reads Jevic as animating the solvent-debtor exception to the disallowance of unmatured interest.

Extraordinary collection efforts do not preclude invoking the ‘ordinary course’ defense to a preference.

A noncompetition agreement that would preclude finding other sources of revenue can be the basis for showing irreparable harm and entitlement to a preliminary injunction.

Tyler was applied retroactively because the debtor’s efforts to set aside a tax foreclosure judgment were ‘in the pipeline’ when bankruptcy began.

The ‘attenuated possibility of insolvency’ in the future does not establish ‘financial distress,’ Circuit Judge Ambro said, interpreting his own prior opinion.

Bankruptcy Judges Wiles in New York decided that insiders were not entitled to releases under Section 503(c), but not for the reasons contained in Purdue.