Someone Claiming to Represent Oil & Gas Company v. Harold T. Duryee, Successor in Interest to George Fabe, as the State of Ohio Liquidator
Opinion
Opinion
Kozinski, J.
A. In Ohio, as in other states, when an insurance company gets into financial trouble, a state court may appoint a rehabilitator to run it and try to get it back on track. In May 1990, under increasing pressure from creditors, the Ohio Court of Common Pleas placed Oil & Gas Insurance Company into rehabilitation — with management’s agreement — and appointed George Fabe as reha-bilitator.
On August 30, 1990, the state court granted the rehabilitator’s motion for liquidation of Oil & Gas and issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Clive Becker-Jones, the company’s former president, from filing for bankruptcy on its behalf. Undaunted, Beeker-Jones filed anyway.
The bankruptcy court dismissed the petition because “domestic insurance companies” are precluded from seeking bankruptcy relief. 11 U.S.C. § 109 (b)(2). Don Rothman, an attorney purporting to represent Oil & Gas, filed an appeal in district court, contending Oil & Gas was free to file for bankruptcy because the liquidation order terminated the company’s status as a domestic insurance company. Oil & Gas Brief at 13. The district court affirmed and Rothman filed a notice of appeal with us.