By Porter Wright on Distressed commercial tenants and their landlords may find themselves in tense situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As those parties consider how to handle their lease obligations, they should consider, among other things, the varying contours of recent executive and emergency orders. As shown below, orders from various jurisdictions have taken different approaches to addressing the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Background In loan agreements, lenders customarily require the borrower to make various financial covenants whereby the borrower promises to achieve certain financial metrics, often requiring the borrower to stay above or below certain thresholds based on its operations. Since financial covenants are based on past financial performance, breaches of financial covenants typically cannot be cured … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Ohio Judicial Conference has issued a bench card, a copy of which is attached, that gives Ohio’s Common Pleas Court judges a checklist they may use when presented with an order seeking judgment on a note containing a warrant of attorney. While the bench card is merely advisory, it represents a victory for those … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In this blog, we have described some of the original concerns with the “high volatility commercial real estate” loan regulation as well as some suggestions for change. These rules apply to certain real estate loans for acquisition, development and construction. Recently, there have been suggestions that changes are possible regarding “high volatility commercial real estate” loans … Continue Reading
By Walter Reynolds on Most of us are familiar with that old saw “location, location, location”. While location might enhance the value of real estate, including the location as part of the collateral description in the UCC financing statement can limit the protections provided to a secured creditor and may provide a strategy for attack by a bankruptcy trustee. … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying on Last year, as noted by this blog, the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve imposed harsher capital requirements on certain “high volatility commercial real estate,” or HVCRE, exposures, in accordance with the Basel III international banking standards. These new requirements were opposed not only by the real estate industry but also by banking associations, particularly the … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying and Porter Wright on The Ohio General Assembly is currently considering a bill that would greatly restrict creditors’ ability to ask debtors to sign cognovit notes. A cognovit note allows a creditor, upon a debtor’s default, to enter judgment against the debtor without the usual notice or hearing. Current Ohio law, specifically Ohio Revised Code Section 2323.13, generally enforces … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying and Porter Wright on Lenders who finance commercial real estate exposures should be aware of new regulations that impose harsher capital requirements on certain “high volatility commercial real estate,” or HVCRE, exposures. In June 2013, the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve jointly approved proposed rules intended to implement new international banking standards, known as the Basel III Capital Accords, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Determining whether a security interest is properly perfected by using a state’s online lien search may be leading you astray. Perfecting a security interest in collateral establishes the priority of the secured party’s claim to such collateral, providing the perfected secured party with an interest in such collateral superior to the rights held by most … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In K One Limited Partnership v. Salh Khan, et al., 10th Dist. No. 13AP-830, 2014 Ohio 2079, the Tenth District Court of Appeals for Franklin County, Ohio reexamined the limited meritorious defenses available to obtain relief from a cognovit judgment under Civ. R. 60(B) and held that such defenses are restricted “to the integrity and … Continue Reading
By Brad Hughes on Last Spring, we discussed on this blog a trifecta of noteworthy lending cases pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. Today, the Court resolved one of them, and in doing so also resolved a certified conflict among Ohio’s appellate districts regarding whether Ohio’s Statute of Frauds bars a party from relying on an oral forbearance agreement … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Commercial leases often lack leasehold financing provisions despite the significant impact such provisions can have on the business dealings of the tenant during the term of the lease. Long-term, creditworthy tenants, those who have value in their leaseholds such as restaurants and hotels, are often prime candidates for leasehold financing. A leasehold mortgage is very … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A recent change to Ohio’s agricultural lien law clarifies the interplay between security interests governed by Article 9 of the UCC and those governed by Ohio’s agricultural lien statutes, and confirms the ruling of the Sixth Appellate Court of Erie County in Ohio Dept. of Agriculture v. Central Erie Supply & Elevator Association, 2013-Ohio-3061. Central … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Secured lenders extending financial accommodations to borrowers whose collateral includes perishable food items should consider certain specific risks associated with such collateral. Notably, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930 (PACA) creates a statutory trust for the benefit of persons who originally sell the perishable agricultural commodities to such borrowers and are not paid. The … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In this hypothetical, we will consider the following circumstances. “Farmer Bob” grows wheat (i.e., crops) “AgBank” has loaned Farmer Bob money secured in part by his wheat “Massive Grain Elevator” wants to purchase Farmer Bob’s wheat Can Massive buy the wheat and not get the shaft from AgBank? It depends. In 1985 Congress passed the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In mid-September, an Ohio appellate court rendered a decision in a long-pending dispute that raises an important issue for health care lenders: the impact of a contested certificate of need application. The impact of such a contest should be carefully considered by health care lenders. On September 18, 2012, the Ohio Tenth District Court of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on From time to time we deviate from our normal prose on the banking and finance industry and give you, our reader, insight into other areas of the law that impact your business. A recent post regarding overhauling the Ohio employee-friendly employment discrimination law, Senate Bill 383, tops our list of quality reading material. The post, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article is Part Two in a seven-part series on how to structure sales and what to do when your customer fails to pay. You can find Part One of this series here: Structuring Sales to Ensure Payment. Please subscribe to this blog by entering your email in the box on the left, or check … Continue Reading