The First Circuit Joins Several Other Circuit Courts in Finding That Creditors’ Committees Have an Unconditional Right to Intervene in Adversary Proceedings
by | posted in: Bankruptcy Administration and Jurisdiction | 0

By Todd E. Phillips, Kevin C. Mackley and Sally J. Sullivan (Caplin & Drysdale).

In September, the First Circuit Court of Appeals joined several other Circuits in holding that section 1109(b) of the Bankruptcy Code provides an official creditors’ committee with an “unconditional right to intervene” in an adversary proceeding related to a bankruptcy. The case, Promesa Financial Oversight and Management Board, was the appeal of an order from the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, which had denied an intervention motion in a debt adjustment case brought under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”). The First Circuit reversed the order, distinguishing the case from the First Circuit’s own precedent In re Thompson upon which the District Court had relied.  The Promesa Financial Oversight and Management Board decision aligns the First Circuit with the Second and Third Circuits and evidences a growing Circuit trend toward recognizing the unconditional right of a creditors’ committee to intervene, rejecting the Fifth Circuit’s contrary analysis in the Fuel Oil case, which had previously represented the prevailing view for many years.

The full paper can be found here.

 

Fiduciary Duties in Bankruptcy and Insolvency
by | posted in: Bankruptcy Administration and Jurisdiction, Fiduciary Duties | 0

By John A. E. Pottow (University of Michigan Law School).

Although discussed nowhere in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, fiduciary duties play a central role in guiding the administration of an insolvent debtor’s assets. Regulatory oversight of trustees is only loosely circumscribed by statute, but significant lacunae exist regarding specification of the duties of loyalty.  In assessing what fiduciary obligations are owed to secured creditors, unsecured creditors, and debtors, some courts build upon the general principle that the trustee’s fiduciary duty of loyalty flows to all creditors. Other courts, though, work from the premise that secured creditors are better situated to look after themselves and that a trustee’s primary obligation is to unsecured creditors, perhaps especially non-priority general creditors. The Supreme Court has also weighed in, stating that a DIP’s fiduciary duties run directly (if somewhat delphically) to “the corporation.” How then does a trustee choose between beneficiaries of the estate, and what remedies are there for losing parties disappointed with this allegiance decision?  This book chapter explores the fiduciary obligations of trustees (including DIPs) under both statute and common law. There is a special focus on the intrinsic conflicts that arise within the “menagerie of heterogeneous creditors” that constitute the claimants of a bankruptcy estate.  A single normative theory seems unlikely to explain the results (so much for the “residual fiduciary beneficiary”!).  What does seem clear is that trustees are “more fiduciary” for some constituencies than for others.  Fortunately, U.S. bankruptcy courts are accustomed to shifting allegiances and disalignments of interest. Thus, the bankruptcy system may be well-suited to handle the endemic conflicts of interest between corporate constituencies through various bankruptcy-specific mechanisms, such as the institution of the Creditors Committee and the norm of engaged judicial oversight.

The full article is available here.