March 2023

Miami trucking company files for bankruptcy protection

A Miami-based trucking company and freight brokerage, which also owns a CDL training school, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection recently.

Soler & Soler Hauling Inc. filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida on March 10.

According to its website, Soler & Soler Hauling was founded in 2011 by two brothers, Edisley Soler Negrin, 37, of Miami, who serves as its president, and Elisbel Soler Negrin, 38, who is the vice president of the company. The company’s broker authority was granted in March 2019, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration SAFER website

The company, which has 22 tractors and 42 drivers, hauls mainly refrigerated freight throughout the U.S. and Canada. Its website states it also hauls general freight, building materials and paper products. 

In court filings, Soler & Soler Hauling cited “financial hardship in the past 12 months, with the most recent months being particularly difficult,” as one of the main reasons it was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. The owners listed that “negative cash flow in the past eight months, high fuel prices and a higher than usual cost to keep their fleet active” were also contributing factors. 

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March 31, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Bankruptcy judge rejects fire victims’ new attempt at full compensation

In December, a giant hedge fund known as the Baupost Group told a federal bankruptcy court judge that it could be entitled to additional compensation from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. because false company statements inflated its stock value ahead of its 2019 bankruptcy.

But wildfire victims who tried the same gambit were denied by the same judge on Friday and were told PG&E will not be required to add money to the underfunded Fire Victim Trust.

“Victims have been taken advantage of throughout this bankruptcy case,” Tubbs Fire victim and advocate Will Abrams said. “This (was) a way to maybe get a little more justice and a little more money going to victims who have suffered enough from these fires.”

Lawyers for thousands of fire victims joined Abrams in asking Judge Dennis Montali for time to compose a plan for PG&E to bolster its payments to fire victims, based on the impact its alleged misrepresentations had on stock prices.

But, Montali ruled that allowing victims to amend their claims went against legal precedent and could undo the bankruptcy agreement.

“I find that Mr. Abrams’ motion, though well intended perhaps, is absolutely without any foundation in the law and facts,”

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March 30, 2023 by ATTORNEY

South Loop Hotel Owners File for Bankruptcy

Owners of the Chicago South Loop Hotel have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as their property faces foreclosure, much to the dismay of its loan servicer.

Rialto Capital Advisors initiated foreclosure proceedings in Illinois federal court in September, alleging nonpayment on a $6.8 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan initially issued in 2013 that is set to mature in 2028. Attorneys for the 231-room hotel’s owners, Louis Dodd and Vickie White, filed a bankruptcy petition on Feb. 27, court records show.

Attorneys for Rialto responded March 8 by asking the court to dismiss the bankruptcy petition, calling it improper and in bad faith. Rialto’s filing claims Dodd and White made the bankruptcy filing just hours after both parties in the foreclosure case had agreed upon a receiver for the property following almost three months of negotiations and thus prevented the order appointing the receiver from being entered in court, according to public records.

Additionally, the motion to dismiss claims that the bankruptcy filing was made without proper corporate authorization and that Dodd and White have no ability to confirm a reorganization plan for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Rialto did not respond to a request for comment. An attorney for the

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March 29, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Crypto Winter Means Hard Work for Bankruptcy Lawyers (Podcast)

Bankruptcy law is the ultimate countercyclical industry: business is booming when when things get bad. And things have almost never been worse in the crypto world, with even the most prominent coins down more than 40% in just the past year.

Listen here and subscribe to On The Merits on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Megaphone, or Audible.

Numerous crypto platforms—Voyager Digital, Celsius, BlockFi, and, most famously, FTX—have filed for Chapter 11. That means bankruptcy attorneys have a lot of work on their plates.

Bloomberg Law spoke to more than half a dozen of the attorneys working on these cases to hear if managing a crypto bankruptcy is just another day at the office. They say nothing in their careers prepared them to unwind what were essentially quasi-banks dealing with some of the most volatile financial assets known to humankind.

“I knew that they would present novel issues of law and technology,” White & Case lawyer Greg Pesce, who’s working on the Celsius bankruptcy, told us. “And that couldn’t begin to describe what we confronted.”

On this special episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, we hear what it’s like to be an attorney

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March 28, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Landlord Josh Bruno presses fight to reclaim complexes | Courts

Cypress Park and the other properties that Bruno placed in bankruptcy still have some tenants. They include Forest Park, Liberty Park and Washington Park on the city’s east bank, and the 45-unit Riverview apartments in Kenner.




NO.oakmont.042922_116.JPG

Ashonta Hoffman said the pool at Oakmont Apartments in Algiers used to be beautiful and clear when she first moved there. It’s now full of algae and mosquitoes on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)




All of them are now managed by a trustee appointed by Grabill last summer. Grabill has set hearing dates over the first two weeks of April to air the competing plans before deciding to approve Bruno’s reorganization or liquidate.

The fight is over control and management of properties that advocates claim Bruno ran into the ground while attempting to illegally evict some tenants during the height of COVID.

Fannie Mae, the lender, pushed in 2021 to foreclose, claiming Bruno failed to make timely payments on his notes. Bruno alleges that Fannie Mae duped him while he was working out a forbearance.

In Thursday’s court filing, Bruno says he aims to repair, renovate and redevelop

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March 26, 2023 by ATTORNEY
March 2023
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