Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Thursday, March 20. In today's briefing, a bankruptcy judge approved a settlement between Prospect Medical Holdings, landlord Medical Properties Trust, and other creditors over how to split proceeds from hospital sales. And we summarize the key takeaways from Purdue Pharma filing a new bankruptcy reorganization plan to resolve mass lawsuits alleging that the drugmaker and its Sackler family owners contributed to the opioid crisis. 

A bankruptcy judge approved a compromise between Prospect Medical Holdings, its landlord Medical Properties Trust and its other creditors that settles disputes over how to divide up the proceeds from selling its hospitals in several states.

MPT asserted hundreds of millions of dollars in claims against Prospect Medical, including a $190 million mortgage loan to the company’s Pennsylvania hospitals, which are at risk of being shut down. The landlord’s claims stem from the mortgage loan and unpaid rent originating from its lease agreements with Prospect Medical.

Pension insurer Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has also asserted approximately $300 million in competing claims against Prospect Medical tied to the hospital operator’s closure of some of its hospitals in Pennsylvania, Thomas Califano, Prospect Medical’s lawyer said at a bankruptcy hearing Wednesday.

Purdue Pharma on Wednesday filed a new bankruptcy reorganization plan to resolve mass lawsuits alleging that the OxyContin maker and its Sackler family owners contributed to the opioid crisis. Here are the key takeaways and what happens next.

Who gets the money? Individuals who claim they were harmed by Purdue’s products are expected to receive more than $850 million assuming they all say yes to the offer. The remainder of the settlement funds will go to state, municipal and tribal governments; hospitals and insurance plans; as well as other Purdue creditors.

A federal appeals court once again scaled back protections in Highland Capital Management's bankruptcy plan for board directors, officers, and advisors to the company against liability.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said a bankruptcy court exceeded its power by trying to extend liability releases to certain non-bankrupt parties connected  to the former fixed income manager’s chapter 11 case.

Dallas-based Highland’s chapter 11 plan, filed in 2019, followed lawsuits by investors and former employees for allegedly delaying the high-yield fund’s liquidation and wrongfully paying itself $30 million. An independent board took the reins from the company’s co-founder James Dondero, who was ousted from the business. Dondero has since contested Highland’s restructuring via his investment firm, NexPoint Advisors.

Liability releases are regularly granted to companies, independent directors hired to oversee the bankruptcy, and creditors committee members, exculpating them for their actions related to the case.

But the Highland bankruptcy plan was more expansive, applying these releases to a larger group of people that included the company’s successors, employees, general partner Strand Advisors, chief executive officer, chief restructuring officer, and trusts established in the chapter 11 case.

According to this so-called gatekeeper injunction, if an outsider wanted to sue one of these parties, they would have to ask the judge overseeing the bankruptcy case.

A three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit said that Highland had obtained “perhaps the broadest gatekeeper injunction ever written into a bankruptcy confirmation plan." The gatekeeper injunction improperly gave the bankruptcy court the power to block lawsuits against non-debtors involved in a bankruptcy case, according to the panel opinion.

“The bankruptcy court lacks the power to shield non-debtors from liability in this way,” the Fifth Circuit said.  — Alicia McElhaney

Shares of Ollie's Bargain Outlet jumped after the company accelerated the pace its new store openings plan at a time when other retailers are closing locations.

The stock was up 10% at $108.88 in the morning session. Shares were trading at around $75.35 this time a year ago.

The discount retailer said before the bell that it is targeting 75 store openings in fiscal 2025, up from a previous plan for 50 openings. Ollie's recently said it would acquire 40 former locations of the chain Big Lots, which filed for bankruptcy in September.

Chief Executive Eric van der Valk said the closures and bankruptcies of other retailers has left behind "abandoned customers, merchandise, real estate and talent in the marketplace."

"We think there is a unique opportunity to take on some of these assets in a manner that strengthens our competitive positioning, broadens our footprint, and bolsters shareholder returns for years to come," he said. — Dean Seal

Greenpeace will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, after a North Dakota jury found the environmental group liable for defamation and trespassing in connection with protests against the project nearly a decade ago.

The lawsuit, filed by pipeline company Energy Transfer, centered on the 2016 protests in which Greenpeace, Native American tribal groups and other activists camped in North Dakota to block the pipeline’s construction. The monthslong protests impeded the completion of the project, a 1,172-mile pipeline that transfers crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

The Federal Reserve extended its wait-and-see posture on interest rates while marking up its forecasts for inflation and revising down its outlook for growth and employment this year.

The central bank held steady its benchmark federal-funds rate at around 4.3% at its policy meeting as it assesses how a blitz of policy changes—on trade, immigration, spending, and taxes—by the Trump administration could reshape the economic outlook. Consumer sentiment has slumped in recent weeks amid headlines on federal cutbacks and higher tariffs.

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