Strategic Bankruptcy: How Corporations and Creditors Use Chapter 11 to Their Advantage

by Kevin J. Delaney

Book Overview

In 1982 Johns-Manville, a major asbestos manufacturer, declares itself insolvent to avoid paying claims resulting from exposure to its products. A year later, Continental Airlines, one of the top ten carriers in the United States, claims a deficit when the union resists plans to cut labor costs. Later still, oil powerhouse Texaco cries broke rather than pay damages resulting from a courtroom defeat by archrival Pennzoil. Bankruptcy, once a term that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520073592
• ISBN13: 9780520073593
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.7" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Corporate bankruptcy can be a STRATEGY!

I wanted to learn more about the asbestos problem and the bankruptcy filing of John-Mansville since I knew someone who had lung problems from asbestos. I heard about this book and got it. This is the first thing that I have read that really helped me to understand what happened when Mansville, the biggest asbestos company went bankrupt. The book is clear and explains complicated bankruptcy cases to the lay person. Now, I finally understand why people with asbestosis ended up going through years of delay in BANKRUPTCY court of all places! What is most amazing is how people who get asbestos end up being treated like "unsecured creditors" as if they lent their life to the corporation like a bank loan! Truly amazing.

Great book

I read this book for a college class. I expected it to be boring because it was about bankruptcy but instead it was really interesting... The cases do come alive and you realize bankruptcy means something different than you thought it did. This book has me interested in taking bankruptcy classes in law school, something I thought I'd never do!

The politics of corporate bankruptcy: top-rate

This book is not about the financial aspects of bankruptcy and it is not about how to turn around companies. It is about the politics of major corporate bankruptcies. It is clearly written and well documented. It is amazing how prescient the book is given what has happened at WorldCom and at Enron. For anyone that is interested in politics and the ways that Chapter 11 can be used as a strategy, this book is the best. If you want to understand why some huge companies might actually CHOOSE bankruptcy and gain some advantages by doing so, check out this book.

Excellent to understand corporate strategies

This was a very clear and cleverly written overview of the ways in which corporations and commercial creditors use bankruptcy in new ways-- as strategies to gain things they desire. The author makes a very convincing argument that bankruptcy does not mean that you are broke anymore. In fact, if you hear about a company declaring bankruptcy, there is a good chance that there is some strategy behind it. After reading this book, you will never look at business bankruptcy the same way again.

Of course the lawyer doesn't like it

Delaney is a sociologist not a lawyer! This is done through a sociological perspective meaning it is intended as something of an exposee not the "How-To" guide that the lawyer was looking for. The point of the book is to show how corporations use bankruptcy to their own ends, i.e. escape liability and court ordered settlements.