Hello, Soap Fans! Hope you’re all doing well this Monday! This blog is intended to continue demystifying the lawsuit involving Prospect Park and Disney. Both this blog and the previous one , both of which are interviews—this one being just two quick questions and a link to the legal document Trevor McBain and Karim El Masri alerted us to!—with a legal counsel colleague of ours, Troy Veenstra. We would like to thank Trevor McBain, big soap fan and blogger, and Karim el Masri, also a big soap fan, for making us aware of the legal document that this blog references.
Here is a link to it
http://www.law360.com/articles/578671/creditors-slam-one-life-to-live-producer-s-ch-11-plan.
Click here to read the full transcript in a PDF doc.pp legal jargon
Do you know, soap fans, how over this lawsuit your trusted editor and friend, Akbi Khan is? It’s starting to feel like just another way for ABC/Disney to prolong the pain of soap fans like us and you. Am I right?
So we asked our friend and legal counsel, Troy Veenstra , to help us understand the latest legal drama (if only it were as interesting, well-written, touching, etc. as a soap!).
LTAS: What, essentially, is this latest chapter in the increasingly irritating and way-too-long legal battle between ABC and Prospect Park?
TV: Because the Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan is based on PPN winning their lawsuit against ABC, Wilmington Trustee’s say that it is unfounded, unreliable as its using the basis of the payment of the suit to pay their debts, relying on funds that currently are not tangible. Meaning funds that don’t actually exist and will only exist IF PPN wins their lawsuit. (This is kind of like saying; I will pay my bills once I win the lottery.)
Furthermore, because PPN has failed to release or disclose their monthly operating cost to the Bankruptcy court, the trusties want to change the chapter 11 filing to an all-out bankruptcy, chapter seven, liquidating all assets. I have attached a copy of the Bankruptcy Docket for your reader, it includes some information you might find interesting and useful.
Trustee Blasts ‘One Life To Live’ Producer’s Ch. 11 Disclosure
Share us on: By Jamie Santo
Law360, Wilmington (December 16, 2014, 2:35 PM ET) — A U.S. Trustee on Monday blasted the disclosure statement of bankrupt Prospect Park Networks LLC, the production company that tried to revive soap operas “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” online, saying it outlines a Chapter 11 plan that doesn’t pass muster.
U.S. Trustee Roberta A. DeAngelis argues that PPN’s disclosure statement should be rejected because the plan itself is defective and would only take effect once funds are available to pay administrative and priority tax claims, a situation that seemingly depends on the company succeeding in its $95 million lawsuit against the ABC television network.
“The debtor’s disclosure statement should not be approved because the underlying Chapter 11 plan is unconfirmable,” DeAngelis said in an objection filed in Delaware bankruptcy court. “The plan has an indefinite, contingent effective date and appears to hinge on speculative litigation winnings.”
PPN launched a breach-of-contract suit against ABC in California state court in April 2013, alleging the television network sabotaged the online relaunches of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” and entered bankruptcy in Delaware this March after its online versions of the soaps failed to generate sufficient revenue.
The Hollywood-based production company unveiled a Chapter 11 plan in August that would create a liquidation trustee to wind down the estate, and filed an updated plan and disclosure statement in October.
DeAngelis contends the proposed plan violates the Bankruptcy Code requirement that administrative and priority tax claims be paid in full soon after confirmation, since holders of such claims would have to wait until PPN has raised sufficient funds, the objection said.
“The effective date can occur only if the debtor accumulates enough money — presumably from the ABC litigation — to pay administrative and priority tax claims in full,” the trustee said. “But that contingency may only come to fruition at an indefinite future date and may not come to fruition at all.”
The disclosure statement touts the ABC litigation as PPN’s most significant asset, but fails to state how much cash the estate has on hand and whether it is sufficient to cover the required claims, according to the objection.
“If the estate does not have enough money to pay administrative and priority claims in full on or around the time of confirmation, then a hearing on the disclosure statement should not go forward,” the trustee said.
Moreover, considering the disclosure statement at this time is inappropriate because PPN has failed to file its required monthly operating reports since July, said DeAngelis, who concluded with a request that the court consider converting the case to Chapter 7.
LTAS: ABC/Disney still own the rights to All My Children, we know this. But do the latest developments have anything to do with or change the fact that ABC/Disney owns the rights to One Life to Live? Will this latest development interfere in any way with ABC/Disney’s ability to reboot the soaps?
TV: No the latest development doesn’t have anything to do with or change the fact that ABC owns the rights to AMC or OLTL or their ability to reboot the soaps?”
Hope that helped! In other LTAS news, we are working on a blog on advertisers/advertising and soaps. Dr. Donald Boudreau’s interview delved into this topic often, but this upcoming blog will be dedicated exclusively to it and will feature the answers of someone who knows that industry.
We would like to thank our friend, Troy Veenstra for his continued help in understanding the lawsuit between Prospect Park and ABC/Disney. Thank you, Troy! Veenstra is also the author of a book titled, “The Murder of Jeffrey Dryden: the Grim Truth Surrounding Male Domestic Abuse,” available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Please comment on this post and anything related in the comment section below. Also, subscribe to our blog to get immediate e-mail notification when we put up a new post. And as always, soap fans: Stay Soapy!
Your Editor-in-Chief, Akbi Khan
