Despite public perception to the contrary, our American judicial system usually fulfills its purpose of providing a mechanism by which justice is achieved. Most recently, justice has occurred over the course of more than two months in the Texas Rangers bankruptcy proceedings.
As in most large bankruptcy cases, there were many adverse parties. Major League Baseball was at odds with the federal bankruptcy court over who had power to choose the team’s owner. The defaulting Hicks entities were at odds with their creditors, who in turn were at odds with the original deal struck by the Chuck Greenberg-Nolan Ryan partnership, as prospective purchasers. Greenberg-Ryan, in turn, became at odds with another prospective buyer, led by Mark Cuban and Jim Crane, in an auction governed by imperfect rules.
Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn designed and executed a satisfactory and timely plan for resolution. The essential components of Lynn’s dispute plan:
Read more: Rangers resolution is a home run for team - Dallas Business Journal
As in most large bankruptcy cases, there were many adverse parties. Major League Baseball was at odds with the federal bankruptcy court over who had power to choose the team’s owner. The defaulting Hicks entities were at odds with their creditors, who in turn were at odds with the original deal struck by the Chuck Greenberg-Nolan Ryan partnership, as prospective purchasers. Greenberg-Ryan, in turn, became at odds with another prospective buyer, led by Mark Cuban and Jim Crane, in an auction governed by imperfect rules.
Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn designed and executed a satisfactory and timely plan for resolution. The essential components of Lynn’s dispute plan:
- Knowing the Hicks parties were impossibly conflicted, he appointed an independent chief restructuring officer to maximize recovery for the creditors.
- Knowing certain tasks had to be performed by someone else during the course of the proceedings, Lynn appointed Fort Worth bankruptcy Judge Russell Nelms, to serve first as mediator, and then as auction arbiter. He ruled that the Cuban-Crane bid qualified for the auction given questions raised about the certainty of their financing, and that the Cuban-Crane bids had to be adjusted because of certain uncertainties. Those uncertainties included a lengthier closing process and the league owners’ approval, as compared with the certainty of Greenberg-Ryan’s all-cash financing and certain MLB approval.
- Knowing the timetable involved in running a team, and mindful of when Greenberg-Ryan’s financial commitments to purchase the team would expire, Lynn set a schedule that kept the proceedings on track while giving all participants a reasonable amount of time to do what they needed to do in a constantly evolving litigation landscape.
- Knowing the financial strength, power and egos involved in the proceedings, including many of the country’s finest bankruptcy lawyers, Lynn kept in line all these high-powered individuals, establishing both his court’s total control of the case and his refusal to be intimidated by media or public reaction.
Read more: Rangers resolution is a home run for team - Dallas Business Journal
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