SCOTUS Denies Cert in Borders Gift Cardholder Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t be ruling on the dispute between Borders’ gift cardholders and the now bankrupt bookseller. The high court denied cert earlier this month.
The issue Borders gift cardholders and their attorneys hoped to resurrect was the status of $210 million in unredeemed gift card funds when the company liquidated in 2011. The plaintiffs believed their claims should have had priority over general and unsecured creditors.
Earlier, the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of the gift cardholders’ appeal largely because their claims were filed too late—a position with which the Supreme Court concurred.
Fortunately, there have been only a few significant retailer bankruptcies in the U.S. that have deprived cardholders of the ability to spend their gift card funds, but even so, this is a sensitive issue defined by challenging and sometimes inconsistent bankruptcy rules of priority.
