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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have agreed to hear a bankruptcy case that the majority of justices declined to take up.
In an order released by the Supreme Court on Monday, a petition for a writ of certiorari was denied in The Hertz Corporation v. Wells Fargo Bank.
“Justice Kavanaugh would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari,” the order stated.
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Newsweek reached out to Hertz and Wells Fargo for comment.
Why It Matters
Attorneys for the U.S. government also weighed in on the case, arguing that the Supreme Court should decline to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari.
“The lack of any circuit conflict, combined with the unusual factual circumstances presented here, counsels against review by this Court,” attorneys for the United States wrote in a brief.
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What To Know
Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the travel industry rebounded after the pandemic, Hertz said it proposed a reorganization plan to give creditors, including Wells Fargo, “the remaining principal on their unsecured notes, pre-petition interest, and post-petition interest at the federal judgment rate in full.”
Hertz said respondents in the case sought additional payments totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the Bankruptcy Code not allowing claims for unmatured interest.
Hertz filed a petition with the Supreme Court on April 4, 2025, seeking review of the case. Attorneys for the company argued that courts were split on the question of “whether an unwritten pre-Code exception overrides the Bankruptcy Code’s express statutory text and allows creditors in solvent-debtor cases to recover amounts that the Code explicitly disallows.”
Attorneys for Wells Fargo alleged that Hertz was “so wildly solvent that they distributed more than $1 billion in value to pre-petition equityholders” when they emerged from bankruptcy.
“Petitioners nonetheless refused to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in post-petition interest and redemption premiums that they owed to their unsecured noteholders,” the attorneys wrote in a brief filed in April 2025.
Wells Fargo’s attorneys said statutory context reinforces the conclusion that creditors are entitled to “full repayment.”
Attorneys for Wells Fargo asked the Supreme Court to deny the petition for a writ of certiorari.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit previously held that Hertz must pay $147 million in make-whole premiums and an additional $125 million in post-petition interest.
What People Are Saying
Paul D. Clement, C. Harker Rhodes IV and Niccolo A. Beltramo, attorneys for Hertz, in a petition filed in April 2025: “This Court should grant review now, reaffirm the controlling principles of statutory interpretation that the decision below disregards, and end the confusion in the lower courts on this significant and recurring issue.”
Mark T. Stancil, Donald Burke and John B. Goerlich, attorneys for Wells Fargo, in a brief filed in April 2025: “The financial stakes of a dispute, standing along, do not justify certiorari in the absence of a circuit conflict or a particularly important issue of federal law.”
What Happens Next
With the Supreme Court declining to hear the case, lower court rulings will remain in effect.
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