University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies College of Law Student Work Spring 2010 Tragedy on the Descent: The Ascent and Fall of Eddie Bauer Austin Fleming Bryan C. Hathorn Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_studlawbankruptcy Part of the Bankruptcy Law Commons Recommended Citation Fleming, Austin and Hathorn, Bryan C., "Tragedy on the Descent: The Ascent and Fall of Eddie Bauer" (2010). Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_studlawbankruptcy/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law Student Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tragedy on the Descent: The Ascent and Fall of Eddie Bauer Austin Fleming1 and Bryan C. Hathorn2 1 B.A. University of Memphis; J.D. University of Tennessee College of Law (expected). 2 B.A. Haverford College; Ph.D. California Institute of Technology; J.D. University of Tennessee College of Law (expected). 1 Contents I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4 II. Corporate History .................................................................................................................... 5 III. The Pre-Petition Economic Storm ..................................................................................... 14 IV. The Bankruptcy Filing ....................................................................................................... 19 a. The Court ........................................................................................................................... 19 b. Bankruptcy Players ............................................................................................................ 19 i. Judge .............................................................................................................................. 20 ii. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors .................................................................. 21 iii. Debtor’s Attorneys ......................................................................................................... 21 c. First Day Orders ................................................................................................................. 22 i. Joint Administration Motion .......................................................................................... 24 ii. Cross-Border Protocol Motion ....................................................................................... 25 iii. Cash Management Motion ............................................................................................. 26 iv. Critical Vendors Motion ................................................................................................ 28 v. Wages and Benefits Motion ........................................................................................... 30 vi. Taxes Motion ................................................................................................................. 32 vii. Ordinary Course Professionals Motion .......................................................................... 33 viii. KCC Motion................................................................................................................... 34 ix. Utilities Motion .............................................................................................................. 34 x. Customer Programs Motion ........................................................................................... 36 xi. DIP Motion and Adequate Protection for Secured Creditors ........................................ 38 xii. Bid Procedures/Sales Motion ......................................................................................... 53 V. Executory Contracts .............................................................................................................. 80 a. Overview ............................................................................................................................ 80 b. Treatment of Executory Contracts ..................................................................................... 81 i. Assumption .................................................................................................................... 82 ii. Assignment .................................................................................................................... 83 c. Specific Objections Raised by Creditors Relevant to Rejection ........................................ 85 d. Objections Raised by Creditors to Assumption and Assignment ...................................... 87 i. Specific Unexpired Leases ............................................................................................. 94 2 ii. Non Lease Executory Contracts..................................................................................... 95 VI. Administration of the Estate .............................................................................................. 99 a. Administrative expenses .................................................................................................... 99 i. Peter J. Solomon Company .......................................................................................... 100 ii. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ........................................................................ 103 iii. Incentive Plans ............................................................................................................. 106 VII. Claims .............................................................................................................................. 109 a. Claim Bar Date ................................................................................................................ 109 b. Objections to Claims ........................................................................................................ 110 i. Nonsubstantive Objections .......................................................................................... 110 ii. Substantive Objections................................................................................................. 112 VIII. Liquidation Plan ............................................................................................................... 113 a. Plan Confirmation, in General ......................................................................................... 113 b. Extensions of the Exclusive Period .................................................................................. 115 c. The Liquidation Plan........................................................................................................ 116 i. Classification of Claims ............................................................................................... 117 iii. Order Approving Voting on the Plan ........................................................................... 121 iv. Objections .................................................................................................................... 121 v. Confirmation ................................................................................................................ 122 vi. Order Approving the Plan ............................................................................................ 123 IX. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 123 3 I. Introduction For many entrepreneurs, bankruptcy is the unfortunate end of what began as a business dream. The birth of a business is an exciting time for the entrepreneur, but its death is often a painful process—both for the company's owners and its creditors. Those businesses that choose not to reorganize close their doors forever. However, reorganization can often salvage a business enterprise that is a good one but is impaired by debt, crisis, or simple bad luck.3 The goals of the reorganization process are clear—the idea is to produce a viable business enterprise but one not necessarily owned by the original owners. In the process of preserving the business as a going concern, the creditors are typically paid off—at least in part—frequently converting debts owed to the creditors into an ownership stake in the company or its successor. In principle, the idea behind the restructuring is to treat similarly situated unsecured creditors equally. Treating all similarly situation creditors equally prevents one creditor acting as a holdout to get a better deal or rushing to the courthouse to get liens on any unsecured assets. The bankruptcy court acts as the strong arm to force creditors to act in an organized fashion toward a goal which is supposedly in their best interest because it maximizes the value of the debtor’s estate.4 3 Frequently, these circumstances include events such as lawsuits or overexpansion of the enterprise beyond what the market can support. Often a recession will hit a business in the midst of a major expansion. Other causes could be bad business decisions, or taking on an unsupportable level of debt. In the principle case investigated here, the bankruptcy resulted from unsupportable debt, overexpansion,