Court Explains 'Less Bad' Alternative Outcome in Dismissal of Chapter 11 Case

Faegre Drinker co-chair Andrew Kassner and counsel Joseph Argentina coauthored the article “Court Explains 'Less Bad' Alternative Outcome in Dismissal of Chapter 11 Case,” which originally appeared in the January 7, 2021 edition of The Legal Intelligencer.

Kassner and Argentina highlight one sector of the economy feeling distress from the 2020 pandemic and resulting economic upheaval: the restaurant industry. They note that the difficult economic situations and the resulting tough choices this industry faces often must be addressed in the bankruptcy system.

In their article, the authors analyze the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s decision in In re The Krystal Co., Case No. 20-61065-pwb, which involves a small restaurant chain and the choices that it had made. The judge in the case addressed objections by individual employees and trade creditors to dismissal of a Chapter 11 case after the debtor’s assets were sold with court approval in an effort to keep the business operating, albeit on a smaller platform. The objectors would not receive any recovery on their claims regardless of what happened in the case. Kassner and Argentina review how this opinion explains, in layman terms, how the system produced this outcome.