Selected U.S. Supreme Court Bankruptcy Decisions

• Katchen v. Landy , 382 U.S. 323 (1966) (Bankruptcy court has summary jurisdiction to order the surrender of voidable preferences asserted and proved by the trustee in response to a claim filed by the creditor who received the preferences).
• United States v. Security Industrial Bank , 459 U.S. 70 (1982) (Section 522(f)(2) was not intended to be applied retrospectively to destroy pre-enactment property rights).
• Northern Pipeline Co. v. Marathon Pipeline Co. , 458 U.S. 50 (1982) (Section 1471's broad grant of jurisdiction to bankruptcy judges unconstitutionally conferred Art. III judicial power upon judges who lacked life tenure and protection against salary diminution).
• Central Trust Co. v. Official Creditors' Comm. of Geiger Enterprises, Inc. , 454 U.S. 354 (1982) (Rule 11-42(a) must be read in conjunction with 403(a) to permit dismissal and refiling in certain cases, and that the operative test was whether the estate's interest would be served by such a procedure).
• United States v. Whiting Pools, Inc. , 462 U.S. 198 (1983) (Reorganization estate includes property of the debtor that has been seized by a creditor prior to the filing of a petition for reorganization).
• National Labor Relations Board v. Bildisco & Bildisco , 465 U.S. 513 (1984) (Language "executory contract" in 365(a) of the Code includes collective-bargaining agreements subject to the NLRA, and the Bankruptcy Court should permit rejection of such an agreement under 365(a) if the debtor can show that the agreement burdens the estate and that the equities balance in favor of rejection).
• Ohio v. Kovacs , 469 U.S. 274 (1985) (Respondent's obligation under environmental cleanup order is a "debt" or "liability on a claim" subject to discharge under the Bankruptcy Code).
• Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. Weintraub , 471 U.S. 343 (1985) (Trustee of a corporation in bankruptcy has the power to waive the corporation's attorney-client privilege with respect to prebankruptcy communications).
• Midlantic Nat. Bank v. N.J. Dept. of E.P. , 474 U.S. 494 (1986) (Trustee in bankruptcy may not abandon property in contravention of a state statute or regulation that is reasonably designed to protect the public health or safety from identified hazards. Congress did not intend for 554(a) to pre-empt all state and local laws. A bankruptcy court does not have the power to authorize an abandonment without formulating conditions that will adequately protect the public's health and safety).
• Kelly v. Robinson , 479 U.S. 36 (1986) (Section 523(a)(7) preserves from discharge in Chapter 7 any condition a state criminal court imposes as part of a criminal sentence. Thus, restitution obligations, imposed as conditions of probation in state criminal proceedings, are not dischargeable).
• Norwest Bank Worthington v. Ahlers , 485 U.S. 197 (1988) (Absolute priority rule did not bar respondents from retaining their equity interest if they contributed "money or money's worth" to the reorganized enterprise, and that their yearly contributions of "labor, experience, and expertise" would constitute such a contribution, therefore permitting confirmation of a reorganization plan over petitioners' objections).
• United Savings Assn. of Texas v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, Ltd. , 484 U.S. 365 (1988) (Undersecured creditors are not entitled to compensation under 362(d)(1) for the delay caused by the automatic stay in foreclosing on their collateral).
• United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc. , 489 U.S. 235 (1989) (Section 506(b) entitles a creditor to receive postpetition interest on a nonconsensual oversecured claim allowed in a bankruptcy proceeding).
• Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg , 492 U.S. 33 (1989) (Provided that Congress has not permissibly assigned resolution of the claim to a non-Article III adjudicative body that does not use a jury as factfinder, the Seventh Amendment entitles a person who has not submitted a claim against a bankruptcy estate to a jury trial when sued by the bankruptcy trustee to recover an allegedly fraudulent monetary transfer).
• Langenkamp v. Culp , 498 U.S. 42 (1990) (Trustee's preference action became an integral part of the claims-allowance process, which is triable only in equity. As such, there is no Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. In contrast, a party who does not submit a claim against the estate is entitled to a jury trial as a preference defendant, since the trustee could recover the transfers only by filing what amounts to a legal action).
• Pennsylvania Dept. of Public Welfare v. Davenport , 495 U.S. 552 (1990) (The Code's language and structure demonstrate that restitution obligations constitute "debts" within the meaning of Section 101(11) and are therefore dischargeable under Chapter 13).
• United States v. Energy Resources Co. , 495 U.S. 545 (1990) (Bankruptcy court has the authority to order the IRS to treat tax payments made by Chapter 11 debtor corporations as trust fundpayments where the court determines that this designation is necessary for the success of a reorganization plan).
• Begier v. IRS , 496 U.S. 53 (1990) (Trust-fund tax payments from general accounts were transfers of property held in trust and therefore cannot be avoided as preferences).
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System v. MCorp Financial, Inc. 502 U.S. 32 (1991) (Litigation is controlled by 1818(i)(1)'s plain, preclusive language: "[N]o court shall have jurisdiction to affect by injunction . . . the issuance or enforcement of any [Board] notice or order." That language is not qualified or superseded by the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay [502 U.S. 32, 33] provision, 11 U.S.C. 362).
• Farrey v. Sanderfoot , 500 U.S. 291 (1991) (Section 522(f)(1) requires a debtor to have possessed an interest to which a lien attached, before it attached, to avoid the fixing of a lien on that interest).
• Owen v. Owen , 500 U.S. 305 (1991) (Judicial liens can be eliminated under 522(f) even though the State has defined the exempt property in such a way as specifically to exclude property encumbered by such liens).
• Toibb v. Radloff , 501 U.S. 157 (1991) (Bankruptcy Code's plain language permits individual debtors not engaged in business to file for relief under Chapter 11).
• Johnson v. Home State Bank , 501 U.S. 78 (1991) (A mortgage lien securing an obligation for which a debtor's personal liability has been discharged in a Chapter 7 liquidation is a "claim" within the meaning of 101(5), and is subject to inclusion in an approved Chapter 13 reorganization plan).
• Holywell Corp. v. Smith , 503 U.S. 47 (1992) (Trustee is required by the Code to file income tax returns and pay taxes on the income attributable to the property of both corporate and individual debtors. Trustee is an "assignee" of "all" or "substantially all" of the "property . . . of a corporation," and therefore is required by 6012(b)(3) of the Code to file returns that the corporate debtors would have filed had their property not been assigned to him).
• Taylor v. Freeland & Kronz , 503 U.S. 638 (1992) (A trustee may not contest the validity of a claimed exemption after the Rule 4003(b) 30-day period has expired, even though the debtor had no colorable basis for claiming the exemption).
• Dewsnup v. Timm , 502 U.S. 410 (1992) (Section 506(d) does not allow Dewsnup to "strip down" respondents' lien to the judicially determined value of the collateral, because respondents' claim is secured by a lien, and has been fully allowed pursuant to 502, and, therefore, cannot be classified as "not an allowed secured claim" for purposes of the lien-voiding provision of 506(d)).
• Conn. Nat'l Bank v. Germain , 503 U.S. 249 (1992) (Interlocutory order issued by a district court sitting as a court of appeals in bankruptcy is appealable under the unambiguous language of 28 U.S.C. 1292. That section provides for review in the courts of appeals, in certain circumstances, of "[i]nterlocutory orders of the district courts," and does not limit such review to orders issued by district courts sitting as bankruptcy trial courts, rather than appellate courts).
• Patterson v. Shumate , 504 U.S. 753 (1992) (The plain language of the Bankruptcy Code and ERISA establishes that an antialienation provision in a qualified pension plan constitutes a restriction on transfer enforceable under "applicable nonbankruptcy law" for purposes of 541(c)(2)).
• Pioneer Invest. Services Co. v. Brunswick Assoc. Ltd. , 507 U.S. 380 (1993) (An attorney's inadvertent failure to file a proof of claim by the bar date can constitute "excusable neglect" within the meaning of Rule 9006(b)(1)).
• Nobelman v. American Savings Bank , 508 U.S. 324 (1993) (Section 1322(b)(2) prohibits a Chapter 13 debtor from relying on 506(a) to reduce an undersecured homestead mortgage to the fair market value of the mortgaged residence).
• Rake v. Wade , 508 U.S. 464 (1993) (Chapter 13 debtors who cure a default on an oversecured home mortgage pursuant to 1322(b)(5) of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. 1322(b)(5) must pay postpetition interest on the arrearages under 506(b) and 1325(a)(5) of the Code).
• Things Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca , 514 U.S. 300 (1995) (If an order remands a removed bankruptcy case to state court because of a timely raised defect in removal procedure or lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, a court of appeals lacks jurisdiction to review the order under 1447(d). That section, a provision of the general removal statute, bars appellate review of any "order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed.")
• Citizens Bank of Maryland v. Strumpf , __ U.S. ___ (1995) (Petitioner's refusal to pay its debt to respondent upon the latter's demand was not a setoff within the meaning of 362(a)(7), and hence did not violate the automatic stay).
• Celotex Corp. v. Edwards , ___ U.S. ___ (1995) (Well-established rule that "persons subject to an injunctive order issued by a court with jurisdiction are expected to obey that decree until it is modified or reversed, even if they have proper grounds to object to that order," applies to bankruptcy cases.)

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