Joining the Tenth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit also has held that chapter 13 trustees are not paid their fees when cases are dismissed before confirmation. The identical issue was argued on February 15 before the Second Circuit.
In short order, we’ll have either unanimity or a split of circuits. A split will give rise to an issue worthy of a grant of certiorari by the Supreme Court.
Notably, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion on June 12 adopted reasoning in an amicus brief filed in support of the debtor by the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center and National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.
To deny an individual’s discharge under Section 727(a)(5) for failure “to explain satisfactorily” a loss of assets, the First Circuit held that the missing assets need not be substantial.
Objecting to.....
Brooklyn Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth S. Stong nixed sophistic arguments that would have gutted Sections 109(g) and 362(b)(21) by allowing the automatic stay to halt foreclosure against a debtor whose.....
A chapter 7 debtor kept a chose in action that arose from the dead after filing, for reasons explained by Bankruptcy Judge Alan S. Trust of Central Islip, N.Y.
The debtor filed a chapter 7 petition in.....
Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro has written another gem.
For the Third Circuit in an opinion on September 3, Judge Ambro drew the boundaries between the rules of preclusion and the Rooker-Feldman doctrin.....
In Tyler v. Hennepin County, 598 U.S. 631 (2023), the Supreme Court held that a real estate tax foreclosure can violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment when a municipality takes title but.....
Following Second Circuit precedent holding that denial of a debtor’s motion to dismiss a chapter 7 case is not a final, appealable order, a district judge on Long Island, N.Y., decided that an order.....
Affirming the bankruptcy court, a district judge in Brooklyn identified a loophole allowing chapter 13 debtors in some states to assert a homestead exemption without having the exemption prevent the.....
On an issue where the circuits are divided, Bankruptcy Judge Patricia M. Mayer of Reading, Pa., decided that she could not employ equity to extend a deadline that had expired — in this case, the.....
While most courts more recently are allowing the debtor to dismiss a chapter 13 case even when creditors prefer conversion to chapter 7, a decision by Bankruptcy Judge Michael A. Fagone of Bangor.....
Holding that a debtor’s lawyer has no Seventh Amendment right for a jury to decide what the debtor owes for fees in connection with a chapter 7 case, the Third Circuit upheld bankruptcy courts’ power.....