General Development Corporation Sipes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “GDC concedes that although state law generally governs questions of property rights in bankruptcy in the absence of any conflict between state law and bankruptcy law, this deferral to state law gives way where there is a specific federal interest governing the relationship between the parties in bankruptcy. Such a federal interest exists here, GDC maintains. As recognized by one court “Congress has expressed an overriding federal interest in certain executory contracts, i.e., collective bargaining agreements and real property sales contracts when the debtor is the seller ...” In re Buchert, 69 B.R. 816 (Bankr.N.D.Ill.1987), affirmed, 1987 WL 16019 (N.D.Ill.1987) (emphasis added). The distinction between a debtor as the seller versus a buyer of real property is fundamental to the determination of whether the sales contract may or may not be deemed executory, GDC asserts. This is because: ... non-debtor vendees, by virtue of Sections 365(i) and 365(j), may receive more favorable treatment in bank ruptcy than debtor/vendees. And debtor/vendors, because of other policies and provisions in the Code, may fair better than debtor/vendees. It may be argued that this disparity in treatment is warranted because of the risk of default when debtor is vendor, or because the non-debtor ... is an innocent victim. In re Booth, 19 B.R. 53, 63 (Bankr.D.Utah 1982). The court concluded that: ... it is the consequences of applying Section 365 to a party, especially in terms of benefits to the esta”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Curtis

2. “While it does not appear that the Eleventh Circuit has adopted the “functional approach” over the “Countryman approach”, the Eleventh Circuit in In re Martin Brothers Toolmakers, Inc., 796 F.2d 1435 (11th Cir.1986) appears more inclined to embrace the “functional approach.” In In re Martin Brothers Toolmakers, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit stated in dicta: It is true that a real estate lease, as well as an installment sales contract, may be the functional equivalent of a secured financing transaction, [citations omitted] The determination in bankruptcy, however, of whether a particular agreement is in fact a lease or a security agreement for purposes of § 365 often depends on which characterization will best serve the interests of the estate. Section 365 enables the bankruptcy trustee to affirm or reject leases and executory contracts, and is based on the trustee’s longstanding power to abandon obligations burdensome to the estate, (emphasis added).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Curtis

3. “[I]n the final analysis, executory contracts are measured not by a mutuality of commitment but by the nature of the parties and the goals of reorganization. A debtor as vendee is free from the constraints of Section 365, and is thereby afforded flexibility in proposing a plan, but meanwhile must provide, upon request, adequate protection to vendors. A debtor as vendor may use Section 365 as a springboard to rehabilitation, but not at the expense of vendees. Thus, it is the consequences of applying Section 365 to a party, especially in terms of benefit to the estate and the protection of creditors, not the form of contract between vendor and vendee, which controls. This conclusion is supported by many statutory provisions and much judicial gloss.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Curtis