ATexasBankruptcyLawyersBlog

Fifth Circuit Upholds Injunctive Relief Against Single-Member Limited Liability Company

03/08/22

 One of the benefits of holding property or doing business through a limited liability company is that "entry of a charging order is the exclusive remedy by which a judgment creditor of a member or of any other owner of a membership interest may satisfy a judgment out of the judgment debtor's membership interest." Tex.Bus.Org. Code Sec. 101.112(d). But just how exclusive is that right? A recent Fifth Circuit opinion holds that a court may impose additional conditions on a judgment debtor's LLC in the name of carrying out the court's orders.  Thomas v.

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A Look at the Jurisprudence of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (Bankruptcy and Otherwise)

03/04/22

Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has played a variety of roles in her legal career. She has been a public defender, an attorney in private practice, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a U.S. District Judge and a Court of Appeals Judge. Unfortunately, these jobs have given her scant exposure to bankruptcy law. I will explore all three of her bankruptcy related opinions (out of a total of about 600) as well as a handful of her other jurisprudence.

A Small Exposure to Bankruptcy

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Class Proofs of Claim Involve Procedural Minefield

02/22/22
Bankruptcy has been likened to a class action. In a typical class action, a class representative files suit against a defendant seeking relief on behalf of a class of plaintiff. If class certification is not granted, the suit continues as a conventional suit. In bankruptcy, a debtor files for relief against his or her creditors. However, as shown by Fed.R.Bankr.P. 7023, it is possible to have a traditional class action within the collective proceeding of a bankruptcy. Sometimes this is done through the vehicle of filing a class proof of claim.
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Fifth Circuit Opinion Upholds Limits on Actions Between Non-Debtors

02/11/22

 In a case involving multiple parties and proceedings, the Fifth Circuit has affirmed lower court rulings which prohibited one non-debtor from suing a second non-debtor and awarded sanctions against a party that told a state court to disregard the Bankruptcy Court's orders. In the Matter of PFO Global, Incorporated, Case No. 20-10885 (5th Cir. 2/9/22), which can be found here.

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District Court Finds Plan Provision So Broad It Exceeded Jurisdiction

02/02/22

While bankruptcy subject matter jurisdiction is broad, sometimes an order can just go too far as shown by the recent opinion from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Patterson v. Mahway Bergen  Retail Group, Inc., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7431 (E.D. Va. 2022).

The Three Types of Jurisdiction

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Defaulting Auction Bidder Finds Evidentiary Mess

01/21/22

A new opinion from the Fifth Circuit shows multiple mishaps in connection with a bankruptcy-related auction. However, its most important holding has to do with authenticating evidence. The bottom line is that a trial court decision limiting a defaulting bidder's damages based on a webpage found on the Wayback Machine was reversed. Weinhoffer v. Davie Shoring, Inc., Case No. 20-30568 (5th Cir. 1/20/22).  You can find the opinion here. 

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Could A Texas Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog Be Sued for Defamation in Idaho Bankruptcy Court? A Discussion About In Personam Jurisdiction

12/26/21

Consider the following hypothetical:

Assume that I wrote a story about a restaurant patron from Oklahoma who filed a claim in the case of a Texas restaurant claiming that he got food poisoning from eating a batch of bad French fries. In the course of describing the patron's travails, I state that the patron must have felt like he was living in his own private Idaho hell and then quote the following lyrics from the B-52s:

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Meet Judge Parker

12/11/21

 Judge Michael Parker was sworn in as the newest Bankruptcy Judge in the Western District of Texas on November 1, 2021. He was a law clerk to Judge Ronald B. King, the judge who he replaced and practiced in San Antonio with Norton Rose Fulbright for many years. He was kind enough to answer some written questions that I sent him and I did some research on my own. Here are some things you should know about Judge Parker. 

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A Cautionary Tale for Zoom Depositions

12/11/21

 By now, we have grown used to Zoom hearings, Zoom mediations and Zoom depositions. However, a case I heard discussed at the ABI Winter Leadership Conference points out that as ubiquitous as these technologically assisted interactions are, they can pose both challenges and perils to the unprepared. 

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When Is That Answer Due? It Depends On What Court You Are In

12/07/21

Knowing when to answer a lawsuit is important to avoid a default judgment. However, different types of courts have different rules for how to serve a complaint and when the answer is due. While I have long known about the rule for Texas state courts, I did not realize that federal bankruptcy courts and district courts have different rules. 

Bankruptcy Court

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