Amicus brief on wage theft filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

October 17, 2023 – The Appellate Project filed a brief in Benshot, LLC v. 2 Monkey Trading, LLC, which is currently pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The issue in this case is whether Subchapter V of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, which makes certain kinds of debt non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, applies to corporate and individual debtors. The bankruptcy court held it did not, and the case was certified for direct appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.

This issue directly impacts the PJC’s client communities because too often, employers will use bankruptcy to shield them from employees’ wage-theft claims. For this reason, ensuring that Subchapter V applies with equal force to corporate and individual debtors is critical.

The brief adapts two amicus briefs authored by former Murnaghan Fellows Michael Abrams (In re Cleary, 36 F. 4th 509 (4th Cir. 2022)) and Hayley Hahn (Avion Funding, LLC v. GFS Industries, LLC, 23-50237 (5th Cir. filed Apr. 7, 2023)). While we are still waiting for a decision from the Fifth Circuit, we did get a favorable result in the Fourth Circuit, where the Court held that the discharge exceptions of Chapter 11 apply to individual debtors and corporate debtors. This brief urges the Eleventh Circuit to hold the same.

The Appellate Project is grateful for our wonderful co-counsel, Christine E. Webber of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, for her and her paralegal, Heijin’s assistance in filing the brief. We are also grateful to our excellent co-amici—Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Florida Legal Services, Georgia Legal Services Program, National Center for Law and Economic Justice, National Employment Law Project, and Southern Poverty Law Center—for their support. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Lee and Nadrat for their help with cite-checking and tables as well as Sabrina and Becky for their help with brief production.