Bankruptcy Consolidation Action

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., et al. v. Ira Bodenstein, et al.

Case No.: 16-3424; 16-3425

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Bankruptcy Consolidation Action

This is a consolidated appeal from judgments entered by the bankruptcy court and affirmed by the district court, in favor of the defendant Ira Bodenstein, the Chapter 7 trustee of the estate of Peregrine Financial Group (“Peregrine”). On appeal, the plaintiffs in this consolidated action challenge the decisions of the bankruptcy court and the district court.  The Secured Leverage plaintiffs assert that: their funds were held in a resulting trust and therefore were not included in the bankruptcy estate; the forex and spot metal contracts constituted commodity contracts under the similar contracts clause, 11 U.S.C. § 761(4)(F)(i); and the bankruptcy court erred in precluding the expert testimony of Martin Doyle.  The Miller plaintiffs allege: that the courts erred in holding that the Miller plaintiffs’ claim was untimely and did not constitute an amended claim; and that a constructive trust is a proper remedy.

In a thorough and well‐reasoned opinion, the district court properly resolved all of those challenges, and nothing that is argued in the briefs to this court leads us to disagree with the district court’s analysis.  Because we agree with the reasoning and conclusions of the district court as to all of the issues raised on appeal, we hereby adopt the district court’s opinion set forth at Secure Leverage Grp., Inc. v. Bodenstein, 558 B.R. 226, 231 (N.D. Ill. 2016) as our own in this appeal, a copy of which is attached hereto.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.