In TMT Procurement Corp. v. Vantage Drilling Co. (In re TMT Procurement Corp.), 764 F.3d 512 (5th Cir. 2014), the Fifth Circuit ruled that a provider of DIP financing lacked the required “good faith” by taking a lien on stock, pledge by a non-debtor, where the stock was subject to an adverse claim as among affiliates of the debtor. In reaching that decision, the court overruled express findings by the lower courts that the DIP lender has demonstrated that good faith; in overruling those lower findings, the 5th Circuit found that the appeals were not moot and that the lower courts lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to enter the particular DIP financing orders. Of enduring importance is the court’s determination about the lack of good faith (which is not the same as affirmative bad faith). The case contains several important additional holdings regarding the scope of “property of the estate” in bankruptcy and of the jurisdiction of bankruptcy courts. But of particular is the finding that the knowledge of an adverse claim to non-estate property offered to secure a DIP financing is inconsistent with a lender acting good faith.
