News & Publications

In a recent decision, Judge David Novak of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia vacated the Chapter 11 plan confirmation order entered by the bankruptcy court in the Mahwah Bergen Retail Group (formerly known as Ascena Retail Group) case, holding that the plan's non-consensual third-party releases were unenforceable.1 The ruling arrived shortly after an opinion issued by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in the Purdue Pharma [...]

Subsection (15) of Section 523(a) was added to the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994 to expand the Section 523(a)(5) exception to discharge for marital debts. Section 523(a)(15) provides that an individual is not discharged from any debt: (15) to a spouse, former spouse, or child of the debtor and not of the kind described in paragraph (5) [related to domestic support obligations like child support or alimony] that is incurred by the [...]

1. AUTOMATIC STAY 1.1 Covered Activities 1.2 Effect of Stay 1.3 Remedies 2. AVOIDING POWERS 2.1 Fraudulent Transfers 2.1.a Imposition and payment of a tax penalty is not a fraudulent transfer. While insolvent, the debtor incurred and paid tax penalties before bankruptcy. A transfer of property of the debtor while the debtor was insolvent for less than reasonably equivalent value is avoidable as a constructively fraudulent transfer. By referring to an exchange for value and defining when [...]