Category Archives: Bankruptcy

State-run Power Finance Corp. plans to file an insolvency plea against RattanIndia Powers 1350MW Nashik power plant within this year, said two people aware of the development.

The plant has a 8,000 crore debt, while PFC, the lead financier in the project, has an exposure of around 3,000 crore.

Most of our stressed plants have been resolved. The one which needs to be resolved is the Sinnar (Nashik) project. We have to take it to NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal). We will take it to NCLT this year. The debt of the project is about 6 crore per megawatt," said one of the two officials.

The Nashik thermal power plant in situated near Sinnar, 40 km from Nashik city in Maharashtra. The plant has an installed capacity of 1,350MW, with coal linkages from Coal India Ltd (CIL) subsidiaries.

The other official noted that PFC was in talks with the Maharashtra government to take over the stressed project but that the state government was not interested.

The officials noted that Nashik is the last major project where PFC is the lead financier and needs to be taken for insolvency.

The move follows PFCs successful resolution of the 600 MW thermal power project of Jhabua Power Ltd, situated in the Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, last month.

The project was resolved through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) mechanism, with ownership being transferred to a consortium of NTPC Ltd, PFC, REC Ltd and other lenders.

Last month, PFC successfully resolved the countrys largest stressed asset in the power transmission sector South East UP Power Transmission Company Ltd.

The transaction involved a one-time upfront settlement amount of 3,251 crore along with a payout of part of the existing cash balance.

The board of PFC, on 12 August 2022, approved the creation of Power Asset Management Co. (PAMC) to take over stressed power assets.

PAMC will be a 50:50 joint venture between PFC & REC. The REC board also approved the proposal for subscribing to 50% equity in PAMC on 5 August.

PAMC will be a professional organization which will have the expertise to acquire stressed power assets and operate, maintain and complete them.

Other projects under CIRP include the 3,600MW KSK Mahanadi Power project and the 1,920MW Lanco Amarkantak Power project. Bids have come for Lanco Amarkantak but the committee of creditors (CoC) are yet to select the winning bid.

For KSK Mahanadi, PAMC, the consortium of PFC and REC, along with NTPC, plan to jointly submit a bid as the CoC has sought fresh bids for the project.

The process is being restarted, and there is time for bid submission till October-November. PFC, REC and NTPC together will put in the bid. We have kept NTPC as a partner in that. We need technical expertise also. We are a financial institution. We will look into the structuring, but the operations will have to be done by someone else, and so NTPC would also take a stake in that," said the first official mentioned above.

This is a decision to ensure that none of the projects are taken at throwaway prices," the official added. PMAC has also bid for the Amarkantak project.

Queries sent spokespeople for PFC, RattanIndia, NTPC, REC and the union ministry of power remained unanswered till press time.

rituraj.baruah@livemint.com

Go here to read the rest:

PFC to take RattanIndia plant to bankruptcy court this year | Mint - Mint

New fees are soon to be introduced by The Insolvency Service in respect of the insolvency deposit required to commence a creditors bankruptcy petition and winding-up petition which will make it harder for many businesses to collect their debts.

Each bankruptcy or winding-up order administered by the Official Receiver is partly funded through a deposit paid by the creditor when filing the petition. The deposit contributes towards the Official Receivers administration costs, which include liaising with the bankrupt or insolvent company and investigating their assets. The Official Receivers remaining costs are recovered through fees charged against assets realised during the bankruptcy or winding-up proceedings. If there are sufficient assets to recover all the fees and costs, then the insolvency deposit is returned to the creditor that initiated the bankruptcy or winding-up proceedings.

The Insolvency Service has recently confirmed that the insolvency deposit for the purpose of obtaining a bankruptcy or winding-up order will be increasing in all cases where a petition is filed at court on or after 1 November 2022. Although, there will be no change to the adjudicator petition deposit where the individual debtor applies for their own bankruptcy.

Changes being made to deposits

The changes will mean the overall fee to issue the above petitions (including the court fee) will be:

Bankruptcy Petitions - increase from 1,292 to 1,802

Winding-Up Petitions - increase from 1,902 to 2,902

The Insolvency Service has clarified that these increases will be implemented as a direct result of the number of insolvency cases falling to a historically low level in recent years and the remaining cases having insufficient asset values to recover the Official Receivers administration costs. It is noted that the fees have remained the same since April 2016 and the current low level of cases is still a result of the temporary measures introduced regarding the presentation of winding-up petitions following the COVID-19 pandemic. These temporary measures were removed and the insolvency regime returned to its pre-pandemic position with immediate effect from 1 April 2022.

It is anticipated that the fee increases will enable the Insolvency Service to continue to administer and investigate insolvencies effectively, maximising outcomes for creditors whilst mitigating the risk of cost recovery being passed on to the taxpayer.

These fee increases may deter creditors from presenting bankruptcy and/or winding-up petitions. We are therefore encouraging creditors to take prompt action whether by way of issuing a bankruptcy or winding-up petition without further delay to take advantage of the current fee levels prior to the 1 November 2022 implementation date. For any creditors with outstanding debts or problematic debtors, there is benefit in acting prior to the 1 November 2022 date.

We can assist creditors and provide cost-effective advice following the fee increase announcement. We offer a fixed fee service in respect of the presentation of bankruptcy and winding-up petitions which may reduce the impact of the insolvency deposit fee increases.

View post:

Significant Fee increases for Bankruptcy and Winding-Up Petitions on the way - Lexology

US Bankruptcy Court NJ - Live Database

Welcome to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for theDistrict of New Jersey

District of New Jersey - Document Filing System

CHAMBERS EMAIL ACCOUNTS:Chief Judge Michael B. Kaplan: chambers_of_mbk@njb.uscourts.govJudge Rosemary Gambardella: chambers_of_rg@njb.uscourts.govJudge Kathryn C. Ferguson: chambers_of_kcf@njb.uscourts.govJudge Christine M Gravelle: chambers_of_cmg@njb.uscourts.govJudge Andrew B. Altenburg, Jr.: chambers_of_aba@njb.uscourts.govJudge Vincent F. Papalia: chambers_of_vfp@njb.uscourts.govJudge John K. Sherwood: chambers_of_jks@njb.uscourts.govJudge Jerrold N. Poslusny, Jr.: chambers_of_jnp@njb.uscourts.govJudge Stacey L. Meisel: chambers_of_slm@njb.uscourts.gov

From time to time, you may experience significant slowness with the system. Some of it is due to technical difficulties and some is due to network congestion. When you encounter such an event, please log off the system and wait 10 minutes before retrying. Please be reminded that clicking on the "submit" button twice may result in duplicated filings. To work around problems of network congestion, filing in the following time period is encouraged: early in the morning, around lunch hours, and late afternoon.

More:

US Bankruptcy Court NJ - Live Database

13 October 2022

Nossaman LLP

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com.

Chris Hughes co-authored the article "It is Time to Change BankruptcyForum Laws" for the California Lawyer'sAssociation. The article provides an overview of the impact offorum shopping and how it could be reformed.

The article begins:

"Forum shopping, the act of seeking the most favorablejurisdiction or court in which a claim might be heard, has a longhistory in the United States dating back to at least 1842 in thecase of Swift v. Tyson, 41 U.S. 1 (1842). For more than 250 years,courts and legislatures have taken steps to rein in rampant forumshopping. Nevertheless, forum shopping continues to be prevalent intwo sectors of the law.

The first is patent litigation where in 2021, approximately 23%of all patent cases were filed in Waco, Texas. This issue wasapparently noted by Chief Justice John Roberts in his 2021 year-endreport on the Federal Judiciary, highlighting 'an arcane, butimportant matter of judicial administration: judicial assignmentand venue for patent cases in federal trial court.'

The second sector of the law involves corporations using thecurrent venue statute to file bankruptcy petitions in only a smallhandful of districts such as the Southern District of New York orDelaware rather than where the corporation is headquartered. Intestimony provided at a House Judiciary Committee hearing,Georgetown Law professor Adam Levitin testified that in 2020'57% of all large, public company bankruptcy cases ended upbefore just three of the country's 375 bankruptcy judges.'Currently, bills have been proposed in both the House and theSenate intended to curtail bankruptcy forum shopping."

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Intellectual Property from United States

Go here to see the original:

It Is Time To Change Bankruptcy Forum Laws - Patent - United States - Mondaq

Oct. 13ALBUQUERQUE A federal bankruptcy court judge has set a potential timeline for survivors of clergy sexual abuse to begin receiving financial compensation in a wide-ranging case involving the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Survivors could begin receiving payment between late January and early February, said Tom Walker, an Albuquerque attorney for the archdiocese.

At a Wednesday status conference hearing, Judge David Thuma gave the parties involved in the case, which has been weaving through the courts for years, until the end of October to raise objections to the archdiocese's bankruptcy organization plan to compensate nearly 400 survivors of abuse.

Assuming no objections are raised, Thuma scheduled a Nov. 3 hearing for all parties to approve the archdiocese's plan and its accompanying disclosure statement.

The plan then will be sent to all the survivors for approval a process that will likely take at least

30 days but which still needs to be worked out. A majority of those people need to approve it, said Walker, who was present for the status hearing. If victims approve the plan, it would go back to Thuma for a final OK.

"Everybody is working together and working hard to get it done," Walker said of the case, which started late in 2018 when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The plan calls for the archdiocese to pay out about

$75 million, for six insurers to pay $46.5 million, and for the Servants of the Paraclete and three other religious orders that have been sued for clergy abuse to pay close to $8 million about $130 million in all.

The plan also includes nonmonetary covenants that among other measures allow for public access to an archive of abuse documents at the University of New Mexico's Zimmerman Library to "provide transparency as to how these decades of widespread abuse occurred and to try to prevent any future abuse going forward."

Names of the survivors will be redacted from the collection.

Story continues

Another provision in the covenants requires priests and deacons to undergo child protection training and a background check every five years.

Attorney Brad Hall, who represents some of the survivors who filed claims in the archdiocese bankruptcy suit, said after Wednesday's hearing he wished the case had moved more quickly.

"Anytime there are a half dozen insurance companies and 20 lawyers, it takes a little time," he said, adding survivors "can see a light at the end of the tunnel."

Wednesday's status hearing moved quickly, with little discussion and only a few questions posed by lawyers for the various parties a result, perhaps, of Thuma setting deadlines to overcome some of the obstacles that came with negotiations.

One of those barriers came from a conflict between the archdiocese and the insurers over how much they should pay.

Sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy emerged as a nationwide issue more than 30 years ago. In New Mexico, the crisis may have been exacerbated by the presence of a rehabilitation center for priests in Jemez Springs. That center, run by the Servants of the Paraclete, started 75 years ago primarily as a haven for priests struggling with emotional issues and alcoholism. Over time, more and more pedophile priests were sent there. Some were then allowed to serve in New Mexico parishes on weekends or for longer periods.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has sold individual pieces of property and sought a mortgage on the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi to help raise money for the settlements. Other small, vacant properties were bundled and sold at two auctions. Walker told Thuma during the hearing the archdiocese is still finalizing some of the exhibits that go with the final plan a task that should be completed by Monday at the latest, he said.

Thuma thanked the parties involved for finding a way to what seems to be a conclusion to the case. He told them they performed "lots and lots of hard work, and you all are to be commended."

As a result, he said, the process is "moving much more quickly now."

Although Wednesday's hearing ended on a note of optimism, the disclosure statement for the bankruptcy plan says if the plan is not confirmed in a timely manner, "it is not clear that the transactions contemplated in the plan could be implemented and what holders of Tort Claims would ultimately receive ... moreover, failure to confirm the plan may result in dismissal of the case in its entirety."

See the original post:

Judge in Archdiocese of Santa Fe bankruptcy sets proposed timeline to pay abuse victims - Yahoo News

The sale of bankrupt Iowa-based QHC facilities may be blocked again this time by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The federal agency is concerned the deal will not cover $1 million owed to it.

Blue Diamond Equities, a New Jersey-based privately owned real estate holdings and management company, proposed to buy the facilities, but the deal would only pay off between $509,000 and $730,600 of debt to the federal agency, according to a report in the Iowa Capitol Dispatch.

QHC Management filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before the end of 2021 following some of the largest federal fines assessed on any skilled nursing operator in the state; the operator originally claimed $1 million in assets and $26.3 million in liabilities.

The sale to Blue Diamond was held up in July when three of the eight QHC nursing homes were closed down prior to the proposed sale. Two assisted living facilities were due to be included in the sale to Blue Diamond as well.

QHCs debt was closer to $2.1 million prior to the closures, according to the Dispatch.

While CMS isnt opposed to the sale as a whole, representatives did cite precise amounts in Covid-19 Accelerated and Advanced Payments (CAAP) that need to be returned, related to three facilities. Crestridge Care Center in Maquoketa still owes $32,182; QHC Fort Dodge Villa owes $935,705; and QHC Humboldt North owes $75,100.

The operator also has racked up roughly $3.9 million in outstanding fees to the state Department of Health and Human Services; Iowa hasnt filed any written objections with the court.

QHC has asked the state to treat this debt as lower priority, as more than 300 other creditors are seeking payment.

Cedar Health Group was another potential buyer for the distressed QHC properties, but exited a deal in March when one of the operators lawyers raised concerns regarding some of the facilities losing Medicare funding as a result of care quality issues.

The Iowa operator said in court filings it faced crippling staffing and employee retention issues since the pandemic began. QHCs original eight-SNF portfolio had a maximum capacity of 700 residents.

The operator provides skilled nursing, restorative nursing, respite care, physical therapy, long-term care, occupational therapy, hospice, dementia care, Alzheimers care and rehabilitation therapy across its facilities.

Married owners Jerry and Nancy Voyna took over the business after working within the company home office for 20-plus years, QHCs website said. Their son inherited the company this year and has pursued the sales.

The group was founded in 1977 as Quality Health Care Specialists Corp.

Excerpt from:

CMS Protests QHC Bankruptcy Plan Will Not Cover $1M Owed to Agency - Skilled Nursing News

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

As the Connecticut jury deliberates damages for the second set of Sandy Hook parents labeled as crisis actors by right-wing podcaster Alex Jones after their children were murdered in the 2012 school shooting, his companys bankruptcy in Texas seems to have gone well and truly off the rails. Again.

For background, Jones tried every way he could to get out of facing the Sandy Hook plaintiffs in court. Along the way his persistent refusal to cooperate with discovery earned him default judgments in both Connecticut and Texas, at which point his company Free Speech Systems (FSS) suddenly remembered that it owed $55 million to its supplement supply company PQPR, which is wholly owned by Alex Jones and his parents. FSS then executed promissory notes, securitizing the debts, prioritizing PQPR as a creditor, and allowing FSS to start shoveling mountains of cash out the door and off its books.

On the eve of the first trial in Connecticut, Jones placed three all-but worthless shell companies in bankruptcy. Because they were named defendants in the tort suits, this had the short-term effect of staying the state cases. Jones offered to fund a $10 million trust if the two dozen tort plaintiffs would drop all their claims. But the plaintiffs non-suited the LLCs, and the US Trustee accused Jones of filing a sham bankruptcy. In the end, the lawyer representing the LLCs, Kyung Shik Lee, and the proposed resettlement officer, Marc Schwartz, flounced out of court indignant at the suggestion that theyd abused the bankruptcy proceeding for litigation advantage.

But they werent gone for long. Almost as soon as the Texas case began, they were back representing FSS in its own bankruptcy filing. From the outset of the proceeding, US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez flagged the potential conflict posed by Lee and Schwartz representing the LLCs and FSS representation which overlapped chronologically, although the two were somewhat less than forthcoming about the issue. Meanwhile, Texas and Connecticut plaintiffs and the US Trustee were screaming bloody murder that the attorney and the accountant were in cahoots with Jones to loot FSS of assets, not just because theyd okayed the specious PQPR notes, but also because they were using FSS money to pay for Joness travel and legal expenses for the Connecticut trial in which he and FSS are co-defendants.

The matter came to a head in six-hour hearing on September 20, in which Judge Lopez ordered the US Bankruptcy Trustee to investigate FSSs books, particularly the PQPR notes. He also disqualified Lee and Schwartz, while saying that he hoped never to have to do anything like it again during his judicial tenure. Famous last words!

On October 4, Schwartz and Lee, along with Lees partner, R.J. Shannon, filed companion motions for reconsideration with the goal of proving that they are not biased in favor of Jones or PQPR. And the way they intend to prove their disinterestedness is to burn Jones to the ground and air a bunch of attorney work product on the public docket.

In defense of the $80,000 outlay for Joness travel costs, Lee and Shannon argue that Jones threatened to tank FSSs revenues for October by staying in Connecticut and refusing to do his show during the entire trial if FSS didnt cough it up. In the end, Jones agreed to attend just three days of the trial, ensuring that FSS would be able to sell the $40,000 of product he moves every day hes on air.

Lee makes similar allegations about Jones playing hardball to get FSS to foot the entire bill for attorney Norm Pattis, who represents both Jones and FSS in the Connecticut case. With Jones threatening revoke his consent to the joint representation, forcing FSS to find new counsel on the eve of the trial, Lee says he had no choice but to hand over the money.

Finally, Lee and Shannon accuse Pattis of giving them bad legal advice about remanding the case to Connecticut from bankruptcy court, citing an email exchange in which Shannon rebuffed Joness attempt to get him to fight the remand.

I dont think the Debtor would have removed if we had an accurate view of the situation. Norm misunderstood when he reported to us that the state court was proceeding to jury selection on the claims against the Debtor, he wrote on August 16. What the state court actually did is bifurcate the trial so that it was proceeding only as to Alex Jones and not the Debtor.

[FSS] needs to focus on things that will preserve and increase the value of its estate and not fall into the trap that the Plaintiffs are in of just fighting everything for the sake of fighting, he added later.

Well! Alex Jones hasnt been this apoplectic since he found out that the government was turnin the freakin frogs gay. After he washed the soothing barbecue sauce out of his chest hair, he and his new lawyer filed an objection to Schwartz and Lees motions for reconsideration.

Purporting to be the true representatives for FSS, Jones accuses the companys former representatives of publishing the privileged communications were to further their self-serving suggestion at a narrative on behalf of Movants, contrary and not supported by the common interest parties or communication, in an effort to apparently disclose the substantial debate among these common interests.

Although he does concede in a footnote that its unclear whether Lee and Schwartz ever signed the Common Interest Agreement which would put them in privity with tort counsel.

Indeed, Jones professes himselfshocked at the ad hominem attacks both personal and professional occasioned by the US Trustees objection to employing Shwartz and Lee, as well as their dishonest and unethical motives in filing same (filed without even showing, much less consulting, Alex Jones or co-counsel to the Debtor about the inflammatory and incorrect nature of this Response).

Swing for the fences, kids!

In response, Shannon and Lee argue that they are the real representatives of FSS, not Jones. That FSS and Jones are separate entities with separate counsel. And that, absent their signoff, there was no privity between the parties.

And tomorrow, the parties are due back in court at 10 a.m. for a motion to consider Joness preferred candidate for chief restructuring officer, which should be absolutely batshit.

Good luck, Judge Lopez!

FSS Bankruptcy Docket [via Court Listener]

Liz Dyelives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Visit link:

As Jury Deliberates In CT, Alex Jones And His Lawyers Are Setting Fire To Each Other In TX Bankruptcy Court - Above the Law

Its always been a struggle for student loan borrowers to discharge their higher-ed debt in bankruptcy. Now they may have an easier go of it thanks to a new bill introduced by Democrats in Congress.

The Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2022, introduced earlier this month by House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler and Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, eliminates the section of the bankruptcy code that makes the loans some of the only consumer debt that is nondischargeable.

That would make it possible to get both private and federal loans discharged in bankruptcy court.

Under current law, federal student loans can only be discharged in extremely rare cases, according to the Congressmen, if the borrower demonstrates that repaying the loanwould cause undue hardship. Thats a higher standard than the one applied to other consumer debt, like credit card or medical debt. Congress made private student loans nondischargeable in bankruptcy in 2005.

Cumulative student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt to become the second largest category of private consumer debt after mortgages, the Congressmen said in a statement. Nondischargeable student debt is constraining the career and life choices of student borrowers.

Additionally, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, also a Democrat, recently reintroduced the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act in the Senate, a broader bill that would also allow student loan borrowers to get relief in bankruptcy proceedings. Among other changes, her proposal replaces the current two bankruptcy chaptersChapter 7 and Chapter 13with a single system.

In the past, bills to make student loan debt dischargeable have received bipartisan support. The U.S. Department of Education is also weighing potential policy changes.

Sign up for theFortune Features email list so you dont miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.

More here:

Student loans are notoriously difficult to discharge in bankruptcy. A new bill could change that - Fortune

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Media Contact: Elizabeth Gosney | CAS Marketing and Communications Manager | 405-744-7497 | egosney@okstate.edu

Miguel Pineda Soto graduated in July as one of the first to earn an online computer science degree from Oklahoma State University. The recent graduate credits the CS program for helping him get to where he is now working full time at Goldman Sachs but it wasn't an easy journey.

Originally from Venezuela, Soto and his family were forced to move to Kuwait when he was 8 due to tightening governmental restrictions.

While it was a tough thing to deal with, moving was a blessing in disguise, said Soto, whose fathers career as a petroleum engineer prompted his early interest in STEM. I learned English and a lot of Arabic and French, and I also got to grow up with an entirely different perspective of the world.

Soto finished high school in Kuwait and followed his dads footsteps, enrolling in pre-engineering at Northeastern A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma. He was able to finish his associate degree there, but during his first year of community college, his parents went bankrupt.

I reached out to hundreds of universities trying to find a way to get enough financial aid to finish my studies given my situation, Soto said. Sadly, none were able to offer enough aid to cover the cost of a foreign student looking to study engineering.

Although Soto did receive a few financial aid offers from a couple of universities, none of them had an engineering program. He took advantage of the opportunities anyway and ended up getting associate degrees in business administration and chemistry at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma.

After marrying the girl I had been dating for basically the entire time I had been in the U.S., I had the chance to continue pursuing my dream of being in a STEM field, Soto said. I spent all summer researching the best program for me and I decided to go with OSUs online computer science program. I learned an immense amount from the online faculty while living and working full time in OKC and I am honestly so grateful for the fact that this program was available to me.

Soto expressed his gratitude for the programs dynamic and challenging coursework, and the opportunities hes received as a result. Soto also said that regardless of the fact that he was in a different city, he always felt he had immediate access to his professors.

I had him as a student in a couple of my classes, said Dr. Blayne Mayfield, interim head of the Department of Computer Science. He was very enthusiastic and very involved in the class. Some students I dont hear from them all semester long, but I would hear from him quite frequently. He was a very pleasant student to work with.

The CS online program has been progressively implementing online classes for the bachelor's degree for the past four years. Now published and available, students have the ability to work for their degree anywhere they can.

To learn more about the CS online program, visit the Department of Computer Science website here.

Story By: Bella Vu, CAS student intern | bella.vu@okstate.edu

See the original post:

Pioneering computer science alumnus battles bankruptcy and more on road to graduation - Oklahoma State University

Johnson & Johnsons controversial use of Chapter 11 to handle widespread asbestos-related litigation is under review by the Third Circuit, which will weigh whether a financially healthy company can use bankruptcy to resolve mass tort cases.

The dispute stems from J&Js decision last year to shift billions of dollars in mass tort liabilities to a newly created entity, LTL Management LLC. The health care giant then immediately placed LTL into bankruptcy to consolidate all its asbestos litigation in one place.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Monday is hearing oral arguments on whether a solvent company can spin off an entity to handle mass tort claims. The court will also review the extent of bankruptcy courts powers to shield non-bankrupt companiesincluding Johnson & Johnsonfrom being sued for those injuries.

The Third Circuit ruling will likely be watched closely as more companies resort to similar ways to cabin mass tort liability in a spun-off company with few assets.

Victims who allegedly suffered asbestos-related injuries from using J&Js baby powder appealed to the Third Circuit a ruling by the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in February that declined to dismiss LTLs bankruptcy. The court also barred any further litigation against J&J and other co-defendants.

In siding with LTL and J&J, the bankruptcy court said handling complex mass tort litigation is a valid purpose for bankruptcy, even if a debtors assets are greater than its liabilities.

But the tort claimants will argue that J&J, with a market capitalization of about $450 billion, is an enormous financial success, and its bankruptcy filing for LTL was done in bad faith. The US Trustee, the Department of Justices bankruptcy watchdog, has agreed with the claimants.

The claimants also argue that the bankruptcy courts ruling violates their constitutional rights to due process and to a jury trial.

The bankruptcy code exists to give the honest but unfortunate debtor a fresh start, said Monique Hayes, a partner of DGIM Law and adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law.

When theres a catastrophe, you need redress thats fair and equitable, but you also have the idea that people and businesses should be able to get a fresh start, she said.

At the heart of the case is J&Js use of a Texas state law that allows companies to split into two, with one of those new entities exclusively housing tort liability. The maneuver is commonly called the Texas Two-Step.

Facing tens of thousands of claims alleging J&Js product caused mesothelioma or ovarian cancer, J&Js affiliate that sold the baby powder split into two new entities. One of those entities, LTL, assumed the liabilities but none of the operations or assets.

J&J funded LTL with $2 billion to pay tort claimants. Shortly after its creation, LTL filed Chapter 11.

J&J is using this bankruptcy as a tactic to force an agreementan attempt to remove the jury trial, said attorney Jonathan Ruckdeschel of Ruckdeschel Law Firm, LLC, who represents a mesothelioma claimant.

Its not per se bad faith to use the Texas Two-Step, said Bruce Markell, a bankruptcy professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and former bankruptcy judge.

But the combination of several factorsincluding J&Js quest for legal protections, the LTL spin off, and attempt to avoid jury awardsmakes it problematic for many critics of J&Js moves, Markell said.

If the Third Circuit doesnt reverse, the publics confidence in a just bankruptcy system will be further eroded as the rich get to write their own rules, Markell said.

LTL argues that bankruptcy is a more efficient way to manage mass tort debt even for the claimants, as it would likely result in quicker payouts. Many victims are dealing with serious, terminal illnesses.

Theres no way the tort system could conceivably keep up with all of victims claims, LTL said in a court filing. The bankruptcy court would proceed at a far more expeditious pace, it said.

Damage awards can also vary widely among state courts. Talc litigation has already proven inequitable, LTL said in court filings.

The New Jersey bankruptcy court said in its ruling that tort claimants would have to engage in an uneven, slow-paced race to the courthouse if their claims werent handled through LTLs bankruptcy.

LTL has also argued that a bankruptcy court is the least expensive and most expedient forum for handling mass tort litigation.

The bankruptcy court agreed, finding that without Chapter 11, the company would spend between $100 and $200 million a year litigating the claims. Such litigation could take decades, the New Jersey bankruptcy court said.

Counsel for LTL didnt respond to a request for comment.

Read the rest here:

J&J Talc Bankruptcy 'Bad Faith' Claims Go Before Third Circuit - Bloomberg Law