All posts in Current Events

Nationally, 1 in every 666 housing units received a foreclosure filing last month.  In California, it was 1 in 288.  Click here for the top ten states.

So the LENDER filed bankruptcy!  The automatic stay goes into effect as to it.  Limitations on doing business “outside of the ordinary course of business” without court orders now exist.  No one can “commence or continue any act” AGAINST GMAC without permission from GMAC’s bankruptcy court.  So does that affect all the motions for relief brought by the lender accross the country that are opposed by debtors, RESPA claims made to the lender, loan modification negotiations, demands relating to unkept promises by the lender etc etc.  How does that affect pending loss mitigation programs, settlements already reached with GMAC, pending foreclosures and evictions, pending litigation against GMAC etc etc.

On July 13, 2012, the GMAC bankruptcy court entered a 19 page Order Granting Relief designed to cover these and lots more issues.  NACBA got involved negotiating the order on behalf of the consumer bankruptcy lawyers throughout the country – good job.  The order is here.  GMAC Order 7.24.12

On July 3, 2012 the Town of Mammoth Lakes filed its anticipated Chapter 9 petition. Unlike other municipal bankruptcies triggered by employee related liabilities, Mammoth’s problem is a $43 million judgment held by Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition arising from a breached development agreement for land near the Mammoth airport. Debtor’s papers also cite the dry 2011/2012 winter as an additional financial pressure leading to the need for Chapter 9 relief. CALPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, is the second largest unsecured creditor owed $4.2 million. Debtor filed a chapter 9 disclosure statement and plan concurrently with its petition and seeks to create a trust funded with Contributed Real Estate that will be liquidated and treat the MLLA claim as a general unsecured claim projected to receive 5% to 12% on its Allowed Claim. The petition, disclosure statement and plan are available here: http://db.tt/PJ5muS2F.

Debtor’s counsel is Kenneth Klee and Michael Tuchin of Klee, Tuchin, Bodganoff and Stern, LLP and Zack Clement of Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP. MLLA is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.  The case was assigned by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Kozinski to Bankruptcy Judge Thomas C. Holman of the US Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California and is pending as case number 12-32463.

•   Motion/Application for an Order Directing and Approving Form of Notice; and to Set Deadlines for Filing Objections to Petition [OHS-2]
•   Motion/Application to Limit Notice; and to Permit Debtor to Establish and Maintain a Publicy-Available Internet-Accessed Website in Lieu of Notice to Certain Parties [OHS-3]
•   Motion/Application for Leave to Introduce Evidence Relating to Neutral Evaluation Process Under Government Code Section 53760.3(q) [OHS-4]