Bankruptcy

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A brilliant new study on parachute use was recently published in the British Journal of Medicine. The researchers/authors presumably will go on to enjoy long careers as expert witnesses in lawsuits involving injuries related to sky-diving. The study is open access and online; it is titled: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5094 (Published 13 December 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k5094…
The robocalling epidemic is an example of the complete failure of federal and state regulation and enforcement, and the ills of shrink-wrapped “terms of service” and blanket consents.   Despite the “do not call” law and lists, the scale of robocalls is massive and growing:  “There were 5.1 billion robocalls made in November — a record 1,963 per second — meaning that the average person did in fact hear more annoying health insurance, easy-money and interest…
Checkout Holding Corp. (dba Catalina Marketing), along with ten affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-12794).  According to the First Day Declaration, Catalina, headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, is a personalized digital media and marketing company that owns and operates a proprietary dual function in-store data-gathering network and promotion publishing channel.  Catalina announced earlier this…
interTouch Holdings LLC and its affiliate, interTouch TopCo LLC, have both filed petitions for relief under chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-12772).  Holdings’ Petition reports $0 – $50,000 in estimated assets and $500 million – $1 billion in estimated liabilities.  First Day motions have not yet been filed.  The cases have been assigned to the Honorable Brendan Linehan Shannon. Contact Norman L. Pernick, G. David …
By Jaye A. Calhoun, Jason R. Brown, and William J. Kolarik, II In Smith v. Robinson, La. S. Ct., Dkt. No. 2018-CA-0728 (Dec. 5, 2018), the Louisiana Supreme Court held that the Texas franchise tax (also known as the “Texas margins tax”) was an income tax for purposes of Louisiana’s credit for tax paid to another state and held that a 2015 law that limited the credit was unconstitutional because it impermissibly…
Over the last couple of years, defense oriented commentators have used the meme “event driven securities litigation” as part of complaining about the increasing volume of class action litigation. From my perspective, there could be merit to some complaints, but the meme is far too broad and all “event driven” cases are not equal. Why? Because the events at issue may range from allegedly causing massive fires to allegedly concealing product liability risks to allegedly…
A precedential decision issued on November 28, 2018 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit highlights the limits of bankruptcy judges’ authority to transfer non-core proceedings to other courts.  The Third Circuit’s opinion in In re IMMC Corp. f/k/a Immunicon Corp., et al., Case No. 18-1177, also emphasizes the importance of choosing the right forum for filing post-confirmation litigation. The facts of the eight-year long jurisdictional dispute are procedurally complex, but are…
Yes, there is medical malpractice as to genomic information. The first real study on the topic is from ASU’s Gary Marchant (PhD in genetics and lawyer/law professor) and Rachel Lindor (physician/lawyer). A brief synopsis is provided in a December 5, 2018 post at an ASU law school blog, Bits Bots and Biomarkers.  The full paper is online and open access at this page of the Food and Drug Law Journal.…
The recent decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in In re Provider Meds, L.L.C. is a stark reminder to chapter 7 trustees that they have an affirmative obligation to examine a debtor’s assets.  A trustee’s failure to conduct a sufficient and timely examination may deprive the estate of significant value. The issue before the Court in Provider Meds was whether the assumption and assignment of an intellectual property license agreement (the “License Agreement”)…
Re Stronghold Insurance Company Limited [2018] EWHC 2909 (Ch) Mr Justice Hildyard, who continues to amass expertise on schemes of arrangements, recently ruled against convening a single meeting of creditors on a scheme of arrangement proposed by Stronghold Insurance Company Limited (Stronghold) (the Scheme). Hildyard J found that where the appropriate comparator to the scheme was a solvent run-off of the company, creditors with incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims had rights which were so…