Appeals Court Denies Emergency Motion in Vitro Case
January 25, 2012

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling yesterday denying an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal in a case filed by a group of Vitro SAB noteholders against the company. The case originated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

In addition, the court ordered that the appeal will be scheduled for expedited treatment.

" … Otherwise the appeal-which presents an issue of first impression regarding whether the automatic stay extends to protect Vitro's non-debtor subsidiaries-may be rendered moot by a pending Mexican bankruptcy proceeding," writes the court in its January 24 order.

Vitro officials have released a statement applauding the court's decision.

"The Fifth Circuit's denial is significant because the dissident bondholders, who are highly sophisticated investors, have demonstrated a pattern of highly litigious behavior that destroys companies and jobs for self-enrichment," says Alejandro Sanchez Mujica, Vitro's executive vice president and legal counsel. "These vulture funds have made numerous efforts to attack Vitro's Mexican restructuring proceedings through collateral litigation in U.S. courts, and have now filed seven separate motions seeking to stay the effect of the automatic stay order pending their appeal from the order, which have all been rejected (including three rejections by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals). Each and every time, the U.S. courts have determined this process would be handled through Mexican bankruptcy law."

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