As we have noted in another post, Non-Final Finality: Does One Interlocutory Issue Resolved in a Bankruptcy Court Order Render All Issues Addressed in the Order Non-Appealable?, not all orders in bankruptcy cases are immediately appealable as a matter of right.  Only those orders deemed sufficiently “final” may be appealed without additional court authorization.  See 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3) (interlocutory order may be appealed only with leave of the court).  Appeals from “final” bankruptcy-court orders usually are first heard by a United States district court or a bankruptcy appellate panel (a “BAP”), which have jurisdiction “to hear appeals from final judgments, orders, and decrees” from bankruptcy courts.  Id. § 158(a)(1).

What happens when a district court or a BAP properly exercises appellate jurisdiction over a bankruptcy court’s

As the Supreme Court recently reminded us in Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, not all orders in bankruptcy cases are immediately appealable as a matter of right.  Only those orders deemed sufficiently “final” may be appealed without leave under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a).  In light of the numerous parties and controversies involved in a typical bankruptcy case, determining whether an order is “final” can be complicated affair.  Thus, finality in bankruptcy is a “flexible standard” applied to discrete disputes that arise within the larger case. See generally 14 Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3926.2 (collecting examples of final and non-final orders).  That flexibility, however, has led to disparate results.

In In re Wolff, B.A.P. No. CO-16-016 (B.A.P. 10th

Estate professionals are under continued scrutiny. Unlike other professionals, getting paid is not simply a matter of sending a bill.  The bankruptcy court, appropriately so, closely oversees the amount and timing of payment of estate professional fees.  And proper disclosure under the Bankruptcy Code and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (the “Bankruptcy Rules”) is critical for all estate professionals.

Recently, in In re Wilkerson, Case No. 14-00582, Docket Entry No. 127 (Bankr. D.D.C. Jun. 13, 2016), the Bankruptcy Court declined to award a significant portion of attorneys’ fees and expenses to counsel for a chapter 13 debtor due to counsel’s failure to disclose the work being done by a contract attorney under Bankruptcy Rule 2016(b).  This lack of disclosure

In an appeal certified directly from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Bankruptcy Court”) to the Court of Appeals, the Third Circuit issued a ruling upholding Judge Kevin Gross’s decision that a chapter 11 debtor-employer may reject the continuing terms and conditions of a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) under 11 U.S.C. § 1113, despite that the CBA expired post-petition.

The Bankruptcy Court’s Decision

In December 2014, the Bankruptcy Cave first reported on the Bankruptcy Court’s decision in In re Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. (the “Bankruptcy Opinion”).  The controversy centered around whether provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) that maintain the status quo of an expired CBA during negotiations for a new CBA mean that the expired CBA still exists as a contract that can be “rejected” under section 1113 of the Bankruptcy Code.  The Bankruptcy Opinion held in the affirmative –

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently clarified the meaning of “reasonably equivalent value” in a complex fraudulent transfer case.  Its decision in In re PSN USA, Inc., Case No. 14-15352 (11th Cir. Sept. 4, 2015), provides particular insight on fraudulent transfers in the context of parent-subsidiary and other triangular payment arrangements.  The Eleventh Circuit held that even though the debtor, a cable television channel, was not a party to the underlying satellite services contract at issue, payments made from the debtor to the satellite services company pursuant to its parent company’s contracts constituted “reasonably equivalent value” and could not be avoided as constructive fraudulent transfers.

PSN USA, Inc. (the “Debtor”) operated the PSN Channel, a cable television station that broadcasted live and recorded sporting events throughout Latin America. 

In In re Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., a bankruptcy case currently pending before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware at Case No. 14-12103, the union at a famous Atlantic City casino made a bet on its ability to “hold up” the casino’s bankruptcy process and force hard line negotiations on an expired collective bargaining agreement. Ultimately, this gamble did not pay off, as the Honorable Judge Kevin Gross held that the casino was permitted to reject the expired collective bargaining agreement as an “executory contract” under the Bankruptcy Code. Put succinctly, the union’s negotiation tactics resulted in the loss of all benefits under the collective bargaining agreement for union members

While the holding in Trump is predicated on extreme factual circumstances, it serves as a reminder that parties seeking to “stiff-arm” negotiations may face serious repercussions, particularly in the context of bankruptcy.

Introduction

The circuits are

In Ryerson, the court held that a debtor’s burden of showing a successful reorganization changes depending on the timing in the case. The court found that early in the case, a debtor must show that reorganization is “plausible,” near the expiration of the exclusivity period a debtor must show that reorganization is “probable,” and, after expiration of the exclusivity period, the debtor must show reorganization is “assured.”

I. Short Factual Background.

In 2003, the debtor, a real estate developer, used funds from a line of a credit to purchase acres of contiguous lakefront land on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. The debtor’s obligations under the line of credit were restated and evidenced by three promissory notes secured by liens on the property. In 2013, the debtor defaulted on his obligations and filed for chapter 11 relief less than two weeks prior to the scheduled foreclosure sale for the property. Twenty-six