Modell’s Bankruptcy Suspended as Virus Keeps Shoppers Home (1)

Modell’s Sporting Goods Inc.'s Chapter 11 case is on hold through April 30 after a bankruptcy judge approved the retailer’s emergency request to invoke a rarely used provision of the law in the wake of the new coronavirus pandemic.

The decision Friday by Judge Vincent F. Papalia of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey grants a March 23 request from Modell’s, which relied on bankruptcy code section 305(a). The provision allows courts to “mothball” a bankruptcy case if “the interests of creditors and the debtor would be better served.”

Just days after the court authorized Modell’s ...