Eversheds Sutherland 11th Circuit Business Blog
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Court Rejects Creditors’ Due Process Challenge to Release of Bankrupt Debtor’s Affiliates

In Jackson v. Le Centre on Fourth, LLC (In re Le Centre on Fourth, LLC), 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 33845 (11th Cir. Nov. 15, 2021), the Eleventh Circuit rejected creditors’ due process challenge to the release afforded to the debtor’s affiliates in a confirmed Chapter 11 plan. The creditors were plaintiffs in a tort suit filed after Willie Jackson was struck and injured by a vehicle driven...

Court Upholds (Again) $20 Million Punitive-Damages Verdict Against Phillip Morris

In what may be one of the last Engle progeny cases to reach the Eleventh Circuit, the court again upheld an award of punitive damages against the tobacco company defendant, rejecting Phillip Morris’s argument that the award—which was over 3 times the amount of compensatory damages awarded to the individual plaintiff—was unconstitutionally excessive in violation of due process. Cote I...

Ponzi Scheme Victims Prevail over SEC Receiver on Due Process Grounds

In SEC v. Torchia, 2019 WL 1911823 (11th Cir. Apr. 30, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit held in favor of investors victimized by a Ponzi scheme, concluding that the investors were permitted to appeal the district court’s interlocutory orders regarding receivership proceedings and that they had been denied a meaningful day in court. The appeal arose from the SEC’s case against James Torchia...

A Takings Claim By Any Other Name . . . May Not Succeed

In Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County, 2019 WL 580259 (11th Cir. Feb. 13, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit confirmed that allegedly unlawful application of a land-use ordinance does not give rise to a substantive due process claim.  As the court previously held in McKinney v. Pate, 20 F.3d 1550 (11th Cir. 1994), “executive action never gives rise to a substantive-due-process claim...