In re Mississippi Valley Livestock, Inc., 745 F.3d 299 (7th Cir. 2014) –
A debtor sold cattle for the account of a cattle producer and then remitted the proceeds to the producer. A chapter 7 trustee sought to recover the payments as preferential transfers. The trustee lost in both the bankruptcy and district courts, and then appealed to the 7th Circuit. Continue reading
A chapter 11 debtor operated a small private airport. The debtor and an adjacent landowner had a long running dispute that led to the debtor suing the landowner pre-bankruptcy for trespass. After the bankruptcy petition was filed, the case was removed to the bankruptcy court. The court’s decision provided an extensive discussion of the back and forth between the parties. Continue reading
Field v. Bank of America, N.A. (In re Gibbs), 522 B.R. 282 (Bankr. D. Hawaii 2014) –
A bankruptcy trustee sued a mortgage lender to recover for defects in a prepetition non-judicial foreclosure sale. The lender brought a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The primary focus of the court was on claims under the state Unfair and Deceptive Acts or Trade Practices (UDAP) law. Continue reading
In re Brandywine Towhouses, Inc., 524 B.R. 889 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. 2014) –
The debtor was a nonprofit that owned a low and moderate income housing cooperative. It proposed a plan of reorganization that contemplated deferring payments to its mortgage lender for six months, using the available cash during that period for renovation of 29 vacant apartments instead. The mortgagee, which was the debtor’s largest creditor, objected. Continue reading
In re Betchan, 524 B.R. 830 (Bankr. E.D. Wash. 2015) –
A mortgagee was the highest bidder at a foreclosure sale that took place shortly before the debtor filed bankruptcy. The lender requested relief from the automatic stay in order to evict the debtor on the basis that transfer of the property was completed prepetition so that it was not part of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate. Continue reading
Walro v. The Lee Group Holding Co., LLC (In re Lee), 524 B.R. 798 (Bankr. S.D. Ind. 2014) –
A chapter 7 trustee sought a court determination that (1) a debtor’s voting rights in a limited liability company (LLC) were property of the bankruptcy estate, and (2) other members of the LLC violated the automatic stay by taking action to remove the debtor as a member and terminating his voting rights. Continue reading
Bankruptcy-RealEstate-Insights 