United States Fifth Circuit

In a challenge to a confirmed Chapter 11 reorganization plan, the confirmation of the plan is affirmed in part where: 1) certain noteholders did not preserve their challenge to the plan's treatment of their secured claims; and 2) the plan did not create a substantive consolidation. However, the order is reversed in part where: 1) the equitable mootness doctrine did not bar review of issues raised on appeal concerning the treatment of noteholders' secured claims, it did not bar re-evaluation of whether their administrative priority claim was correctly calculated, and it did not bar review of the plan's release clauses insulating multiple parties from liability; and 2) the bankruptcy court may have made a mathematical error and deprived noteholders of a post-petition administrative priority claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/29/2009
• Published 09/29/2009

Judges

• EDITH H. JONES, Chief Judge:, Before JONES, Chief Judge, and OWEN and SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judges:

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Oscar Rey Rodriguez, Toby L. Gerber, Ryan E. Manns, Louis Raymond Strubeck, Jr., Greg Michael Wilkes, Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P., Dallas, TX, R. Andrew Black, Zack A. Clement, William Richard Greendyke, Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P., Houston, TX, Roy Theodore Englert, Jr. (argued), Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck & Untereiner, Washington, DC, for Bank of New York Trust Co., NA, Appellant., Isaac M. Pachulski, Jeffrey H. Davidson, Eric D. Winston, Stutman, Treister & Glatt, Los Angeles, CA, for Angelo Gordon & Co., LP, Aurelius Capital Management, LP and Davidson, Kempner Capital Management, LLC, Appellants., Eric J. Fromme, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, L.L.P., Irvine, CA, for Scotia Pacific Co., LLC, Appellant., Murry B. Cohen, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Roger Dale Townsend, Alexander, Dubose & Townsend, LLP, Houston, TX, Joseph Carl Cecere, Charles R. Gibbs, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., Dallas, TX, for CSG Investments and Scotia Redwood Foundation, Inc. Appellants., Hugh Matthew McDonald, Thacher, Proffitt & Wood, New York City, for The American Securitization Forum, Amicus Curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Maxim Boris Litvak, Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl, Young, Jones, San Francisco, CA, for Official Unsecured Creditors Committee, Appellee., Steven M. Schwartz, David Neier, Winston & Stawn, New York City, John David Penn, Haynes & Boone, L.L.P., Fort Worth, TX, for Marathon Structured Finance Fund, LP, Appellee., Allan S. Brilliant (argued), Brian D. Hail, Goodwin Procter, New York City, Frederick Craig Schafrick, Richard Michaels Wyner, Goodwin Procter, Washington, DC, for Mendocino Redwood Co., LLC, Appellee., Nathaniel Peter Holzer, Jordan, Hyden, Womble, Culbreth & Holzer, Corpus Christi, TX, for Pacific Lumber Co., Appellee., Bradford T. McLane, James C. Kilbourne, Alan S. Tenenbaum, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Div., Washington, DC, for U.S. Justice Dept., Appellee., Paul J. Pascuzzi, Felderstein, Fitzgerald, Willoughby & Pascuzzi, LLP, Sacramento, CA, Michael W. Neville, San Francisco, CA, for California State Agencies, Appellee.