Bankruptcy Blogs

The promising Senate bill needs to do more to ensure an affordable market for multifamily mortgages, aid historically underserved borrowers and protect struggling homeowners.

One of the quintessential principles of the Bankruptcy Code is that when a debtor assumes an executory contract, it must assume the contract as a whole – a debtor cannot cherry pick the contract provisions it wants to assume while rejecting others. Two recent bankruptcy court decisions – In re Hawker Beechcraft, Inc. and In re Contract Research Solutions, Inc. – demonstrate a growing trend among debtors to test the parameters of this general rule.

It is a much misunderstood truism that  a "secured creditor ‘with a loan secured by a lien on the assets of a debtor who becomes bankrupt before the loan is repaid may ignore the bankruptcy proceeding and look to the lien for satisfaction of the debt.'"     In re Howard, 972 F.2d 639, 641 (5th Cir. 1992).   Of course, the Bankruptcy Code does not say this.    In the case of a chapter 11 proceeding, what the Code does say is that 

Capitol Bancorp has gone to court seeking to protect its remaining community banks from potential closure, arguing that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is improperly pressuring state regulators and that closure would cost the government agency more than if the banks are sold at auction.