United States Ninth Circuit
PG&E CORP. v. PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, 02-16990
A reorganization plan proposed under 11 U.S.C. section 1123(a)(5) expressly preempts otherwise applicable non-bankruptcy laws only to the extent that such laws were already preempted before the addition of the "notwithstanding" clause to section 1123(a) by amendment in 1984. Only otherwise applicable nonbankruptcy laws relating to financial condition are preempted.
Appellate Information
- Argued 05/14/2003
- Decided 12/09/2003
- Published 12/09/2003
Judges
- Before: HAWKINS, W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges, and KING, Senior Judge.
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Robert D. McCallum, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Kevin V. Ryan, United States Attorney, William Kanter, Jeffrey Clair (argued), U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, Washington, DC, Jonathan V. Holtzman, Renne & Holtzman, San Francisco, CA; Mary H. Williams, State of Oregon Justice Department, Salem, Oregon, for amici curiae.
- For Appellees:
- James L. Lopes,Amy E. Margolin, Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk and Rabkin, Stephen L. Johnson, United States Department of Justice, San Francisco, CA; Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, MA; Michael Kessler, Weil, Gotshall and Manges, New York, NY; Alan Shore Gover, Dewey Ballantine, Houston, TX, for plaintiff-appellee/respondent Pacific Gas and Electric., Thomas Greene, Margarita Padilla, Office of the Attorney General, Oakland, CA; Steven H. Felderstein, Paul J. Pascuzzi, Felderstein Fitzgerald Willoughby, Sacramento, CA; Bruce A. Behrens, California Department of Transportation, Theresa L. Mueller, D. Cameron Baker, San Francisco City Attorney's Office, Arocles Aguilar, Gary M. Cohen, Public Utilities Commission of the State of California, San Francisco, CA; Richard Roos-Collins, Natural Heritage Institute, Berkeley, CA; Charlton H. Bonham, Trout Unlimited, Albany, CA; Alan W. Kornberg and Walter Rieman, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York, NY, for defendants-appellants/petitioners State of California, et al.