August 2021 Bar Bulletin
By Ben Ellison
In 2004 Washington’s Receivership Act1 was substantially revised, and since then, a common question arises: what is the proper way to gap-fill generic or missing receivership procedure? As the commentary to the amendments by (future bankruptcy judge) Marc Barreca make clear,2 the Receivership Act is based in substantial part on the Bankruptcy Code.3 However, at 28 pages in total length, it is considerably shorter than the federal Code.
Local receivership practice is notorious for lacking publicly-available judicial decisions clarifying procedure, and practitioners are left to guess (and argue over) whether statutory silence as to particular procedures means lack of authorization or implied approval....