The ongoing Puerto Rico bankruptcy-like proceeding, which commenced in May 2017 following Congressional enactment of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), has been mired in controversy and litigation since its birth, surviving such assaults as a constitutional challenge quashed by the Supreme Court just this past June (see Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment (140 U.S. 1640 (2020)). It has also been the source of several interesting decisions in regard to Uniform Commercial Code matters.

Last year this column discussed the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision in In re Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for P.R., 914 F.3d 694 (1st Cir. 2019), regarding UCC financing statement collateral descriptions that cross-reference unattached documents (see Must You Attach to Perfect?, 261 N.Y.L.J. 64, p. 5 (April 4, 2019)). That case involved the validity of security interests in favor of holders of pension funding bonds issued in 2008 (“2008 Bondholders”) by the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (ERS), one of several debtors in the proceeding.