A case that almost seemed to stump the justices
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022
MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Monday, January 2nd! Glad to have you along for the first edition of The World and Everything in It of 2023. Good morning and happy new year. I’m Mary Reichard.
NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Happy new year to you! It’s time for Legal Docket. And for that, we turn to legal reporter Jenny Rough, reporting from Washington.
JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: Our first case, appropriately enough coming out of the holidays, involves shopping malls.
And specifically the biggest mall in the country, The Mall of America in Minnesota.
To understand the case, we have to go back three decades and mention another retailer: Sears, Roebuck, and Company.
Sears leased space in the Mall of America for just the token amount of $10 per year. But in 2018, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, that’s known as a reorganization bankruptcy.
And as part of the restructuring, Sears assigned its lease to another company called Transform Holdco.
The Mall’s parent company—MOAC Mall Holdings—objected to the lease assignment. And now it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether a provision in the bankruptcy code bars the court of appeals from hearing the case.
At oral argument, Eric Brunstad argued on behalf of Transform. He went all the way back to that time in 1991, when Sears and Mall of America first partnered up.
BRUNSTAD: Sears built the building, not MOAC....
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