In its New Year’s Eve decision in Serta Simmons Bedding, the Fifth Circuit underscored the importance of drafting debt documents with clarity and precision and cautioned against borrowers’ reliance on ambiguous language to...more
Fifth circuit rules that serta simmons uptier violated credit agreement, rejects equitable mootness as bar to review of chapter 11 plan confirmation order and excises plan indemnification provision...more
In In re Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, 125 F.4th 555 (5th Cir. 2024), as amended, No. 23-20281 (5th Cir. Jan. 21, 2025), revised and superseded, No. 23-20181 (5th Cir. Feb. 14, 2025), reh'g denied, No. 23-20181 (5th Cir. Feb....more
In MOAC Mall Holdings LLC v. Transform Holdco LLC, 134 S.Ct. 927, 937 (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court recently resolved a debate that has long divided Circuit Courts throughout the U.S: whether section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy...more
In Matter of Texxon Petrochemicals, L.L.C., 67 F.4th 259 (5th Cir. 2023), the Fifth Circuit held that even if an appeal is equitably moot, the appellate court nonetheless has appellate jurisdiction to consider the merits of...more
The doctrine of equitable mootness is in the news again. The Supreme Court recently denied a cert. petition in a case where the petitioner wanted the doctrine ruled unconstitutional. KK-PB Financial LLC v. 160 Royal Palm...more
The Fifth Circuit recently dismissed an appeal of a confirmation order as equitably moot. The decision was based on three key factors: the appellant hadn’t obtained a stay pending appeal, the plan had been substantially...more
The finality of sales of assets in bankruptcy is an indispensable feature of U.S. bankruptcy law, designed to maximize the value of a bankruptcy estate as expeditiously as possible for the benefit of all stakeholders....more
IRS Chief Tells Elizabeth Warren: More Transparent Bank Data Can Fight Tax Evasion - "Rettig, a Trump administration holdover, touted a provision in the American Families Plan that would require banks to report on their...more
At a conference to be held at the end of the summer recess on September 27, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to grant petitions seeking review during the new Term that begins on October 4 of three notable...more
Earlier this month – citing the “virtually unflagging obligation” of an Article III appellate court to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction – the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decried the pervasive overreliance by...more
The court-fashioned doctrine of "equitable mootness" has traditionally been invoked to bar appeals of orders confirming "substantially consummated" chapter 11 plans. Some appellate courts, however, have applied it to bar...more
In In re Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Inc., 834 Fed. App'x 729 (3d Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed down a long-awaited ruling that could have addressed, but ultimately did not address,...more
In In re Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Inc., Case No. 18-3084, the Third Circuit affirmed the opinion of the District Court for the District of Delaware denying the confirmation appeal of an unsecured noteholder as...more
In Drivetrain LLC v. Kozel (In re Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas LLC), 18-3120 (10th Cir. May 5, 2020), the Tenth Circuit held that the doctrine of equitable mootness applies to appeals of confirmed Chapter 11 plans of...more
Courts reviewing a bankruptcy court’s decision to approve a chapter 11 reorganization plan over the objections of an interested party must consider not only the merits, but also (if implementation of the plan was not stayed)...more
On August 9, 2019, in a unanimous decision (written by a former bankruptcy judge), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the confirmation of the Peabody Energy Chapter 11 plan (“Plan”) with a prominent backstopped...more
In Trinity 83 Dev., LLC v. ColFin Midwest Funding, LLC, 917 F.3d 599 (7th Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code does not moot an appeal involving a...more
In Tanguy v. West (In re Davis), 2018 WL 4232063 (5th Cir. Sept. 5, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revisited the circumstances under which section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code moots an appeal of a...more
The consummation of a plan of reorganization typically involves a series of complex actions by the debtor and its stakeholders (for example, existing debt and equity are extinguished and new debt and equity issued in their...more
In an April 6, 2018 memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl dismissed an appeal challenging the Chapter 15 recognition of a Cayman Islands restructuring of an offshore drilling contractor, holding...more
On October 20, 2017, the Second Circuit issued its long awaited ruling on several appeals from a U.S. District Court (Bricetti, J.) determination affirming the United States Bankruptcy Court (Drain, J.) in the MPM Silicones,...more
In Beem v. Ferguson (In re Ferguson), 2017 BL 101650 (11th Cir. Mar. 30, 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed the distinction between constitutional mootness (a jurisdictional issue that...more
The "Devil's Dictionary" is a quick-reference guide for commercial lenders and other restructuring professionals. In this series, we highlight many of the buzz words found in the Dictionary and used in today's bankruptcy...more
The doctrine of equitable mootness provides that Chapter 11 reorganization plans will be deemed moot, and therefore not subject to appellate review, if a plan has been substantially consummated and granting appellate relief...more