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.
Regarding the right of a chapter 13 debtor to dismiss a case filed in bad faith, Bankruptcy Judge Stacey L. Meisel of Newark, N.J., said it all in the second paragraph of her opinion:
A Chapter 13.....
Reversing the bankruptcy court, a district judge in San Antonio explained why making estimated tax payments isn’t a fraudulent transfer to the Internal Revenue Service.
For 2020, a couple’s tax.....
On January 8, we reported on a decision where Chief Bankruptcy Judge Catherine J. Furay of Madison, Wis., held that a judgment creditor must docket the judgment to have a judgment lien on real.....
At least in the Third Circuit, it’s permissible for a bankruptcy judge to give the debtor a grace period to cure a default beyond the five-year life of a chapter 13 plan, according to a decision by a.....
In Tyler v. Hennepin County, 598 U.S. 631 (2023), the Supreme Court decided in May 2023 that a real estate tax foreclosure can violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment when a municipality.....
A troubling decision from a district court in New Jersey seems to have disregarded the power of a bankruptcy court under Section 329 to rule on the adequacy of disclosures and the amount of.....
Student loans consolidated after filing cannot be discharged even on a showing of “undue hardship,” for reasons explained by Bankruptcy Judge Shad M. Robinson of Austin, Texas.
The debtor filed a.....
The commission of a serious crime doesn’t necessarily give rise to a nondischargeable debt, as Bankruptcy Judge Robert L. Jones of Lubbock, Texas, explained in an opinion on July 7. The opinion shows.....
A district judge in New Jersey held that a chapter 7 trustee isn’t entitled to a commission based on disbursements to the trustee’s own counsel. The judge believes that counsel for a trustee is not a.....
For authority, Bankruptcy Judge Kathryn C. Ferguson of Trenton, N.J., could have cited Bob Dylan, who sang, “For the times, they are a-changin’.”
The debtor had been fired by his employer, allegedly.....