Puerto Rico to appeal ruling voiding bankruptcy law

SAN JUAN (Reuters) – Puerto Rico on Monday said it would appeal a U.S. ruling that voided the island’s restructuring law, saying it left the U.S. commonwealth in legal limbo.

Late on Friday a U.S. federal judge ruled that Puerto Rico’s so-called Recovery Act, which made some of its agencies eligible for court-supervised debt restructuring, violated the U.S. constitution by allowing a state government to modify municipal debt.

“We believe that it is incorrect in law and has the effect of leaving Puerto Rico without a legal framework to allow our public corporations to comply with their obligations in an orderly manner without affecting the continuity of essential services that the citizenry receive,” Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said in a statement.

(Reporting by Reuters in San Juan; Writing by Edward Krudy and Megan Davies; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)