Assured Guaranty Corporation v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Assured Guaranty Corporation v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Nos. 18-1165, 18-1166

IN RE: THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO, AS REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO; THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO, AS REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE PUERTO RICO HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY,

Debtors. _____________________

ASSURED GUARANTY CORPORATION; ASSURED GUARANTY MUNICIPAL CORPORATION; FINANCIAL GUARANTY INSURANCE COMPANY; NATIONAL PUBLIC FINANCE GUARANTEE CORPORATION,

Plaintiffs, Appellants,

v.

THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO, AS REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO; FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO; PUERTO RICO FISCAL AGENCY AND FINANCIAL ADVISORY AURTHORITY; THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO, AS REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE PUERTO RICO HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY; RICARDO ROSSELLÓ-NEVARES; GERARDO JOSÉ PORTELA- FRANCO; CARLOS CONTRERAS-APONTE; JOSÉ IVÁN MARRERO-ROSADO; RAÚL MALDONADO-GAUTIER; NATALIE A. JARESKO,

Defendants, Appellees,

JOSÉ B. CARRIÓN III; ANDREW G. BRIGGS; CARLOS M. GARCÍA; ARTHUR J. GONZÁLEZ; JOSÉ R. GONZÁLEZ; ANA J. MATOSANTOS; DAVID A. SKEEL, JR.; CHRISTIAN SOBRINO,

Defendants. ERRATA SHEET

The opinion of this Court, issued on March 26, 2019, is amended as follows:

Replace the paragraph starting at page 21, line 1, and ending at page 22, line 7, with the following:

Furthermore, contrary to the Insurers' contention, our construction does not render Section 922(d) superfluous. Before Congress adopted the 1988 Amendments there was ample reason to believe that Section 362(a) stayed a creditor from accepting voluntary payments from a debtor or stayed a creditor from applying debtor funds already in the creditor's possession (as security) to the debt. See, e.g., 6 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 362.03 ("[I]nnocent conduct such as the cashing of checks received from account debtors of accounts assigned as security may be a technical violation [of Section 362(a)(6)]."). Thus, Section 922(d) made clear that a creditor holding pledged special revenues as security may apply those revenues to outstanding debt, notwithstanding the automatic stay.

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Reference

Status
Errata