Environmental Claims: Twenty Years Later

In re Solitron Devices, Inc., 510 B.R. 890 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2014) –

A Chapter 11 debtor moved to reopen its bankruptcy case more than 15 years after it was closed in order to enforce the plan confirmation order to prevent claims by a state environmental agency and other potentially responsible parties for clean-up costs at a landfill.

The threshold issue was whether the state environmental agency (NYSDEC) had a "claim" that could have been discharged. Section 101 of the Bankruptcy Code defines "claim" as a "right to payment, whether or not such right is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, legal, equitable, secured, or unsecured ..." The court noted that the 11^th Circuit held in the context of a products liability case that "claims" should be read broadly to include all legal obligations "no matter how remote or contingent."