Recently in Bankruptcy Law Category

The Supreme Court's bankruptcy court-based decision in Stern v. Marshall has made headlines partially because of the case's major players: Anna Nicole Smith, the now-deceased Playboy Playmate and E. Pierce Marshall, son of the billionaire tycoon she was married to.

But the Supreme Court 5-4 decision also narrows the authority of U.S. bankruptcy courts - state-law based decisions will not be allowed by bankruptcy court judges.

Smith married her late husband, J. Howard Marshall, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died not too long after their nuptials. Smith was then embroiled in a legal battle with E. Pierce Marshall, her late husband's son, for part of the $1.6 billion estate that Howard left behind.

In a narrow decision by the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, the Court sided against a student-loan company, saying that the company could not collect interest on an erroneous student loan discharge by the Bankruptcy Court.

The student, Francisco Espinosa, had filed bankruptcy several years earlier. At that time, the Bankruptcy Court discharged the $5,000 in interest remaining on the loan, allowing Espinosa to pay back the $13,000 in loan principal. 

During the bankruptcy process, the student loan company, United Student Aid Funds, was given a chance to object to student loan discharge and had been alerted to Espinosa's bankruptcy petition. United, however, came after Espinosa for the interest, claiming that the notice of the bankruptcy petition was not adequate process for the student loan discharge. 

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Melinda Harmon ended one more suit which ignited as a result of that atom bomb known to all as Enron. Plaintiffs in the Enron class action suit, Newby, et al v. Enron Corp, et al, were persuing recovery from the banks involved with Enron including among others, B of A's Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays, and Credit Suisse. Defendants in this case also included usual suspects Jeff Skilling, Richard Causey and Mark Koeing. The claims against all parties were dismissed.