As we posted about back in November, the Supreme Court granted cert in the In re The Village at Lakeridge, LLC case. We’ve been following that case since March of 2016 regarding insider status in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Originally, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took up the broader issue of how bankruptcy courts should determine “non-statutory insider” status. Last year, the Supreme Court took on the narrow issue of whether the standard of review for determining insider status should be de novo review (as used by the 3rd, 7th, and 10th Circuits) or clearly erroneous review (as used by the 9th Circuit). Today, the Court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the standard of review for that determination is a clearly erroneous standard. You can read the decision here. In particular, we found very interesting Justice Kagan’s discussion of “mixed questions of law and fact,” a phrase that my senior partner loathes. We’ll be back with more detailed coverage, likely long after you’ve read all about it from other sources!

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