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.
In a split decision, the Fourth Circuit upheld Bankruptcy Judge Paul M. Black, who had denied a motion to compel arbitration in a purported class action alleging violations of the automatic stay in.....
Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner of Baltimore decided that a mortgage servicer who barred the chapter 13 debtor from using the servicer’s online payment platform had violated the automatic stay ab.....
Over a dissent, the majority on a Fourth Circuit panel laid down a bright-line rule in holding that “Section 327(a) does not authorize former trustees, following conversion, to file an after-the-fact.....
Alleging that a debtor was a net winner in a Ponzi scheme doesn’t state a claim for nondischargeability, even when the debtor has realized an “impossibly high” profit of $93,000 on an investment of $2.....
Although the lower courts are split, the Fourth Circuit became the first court of appeals to rule that the Bankruptcy Code does not preempt claims under state law for violation of the discharge.....
Bankruptcy Judge Klinette H. Kindred of Alexandria, Va., embraced the concurring opinion in this term’s Bartenwerfer opinion from the Supreme Court by holding that a poor schlub who was an unwitting.....
Yesterday, we reported how the courts are split on whether a trustee can step into the shoes of the Internal Revenue Service to bring a fraudulent transfer suit going back 10 years under Section 544(b.....
The Fourth Circuit has ruled emphatically that Taggart applies to all contempt citations in bankruptcy court.
However, the Richmond, Va.-based appeals court held that advice of counsel is not a.....
In the wake of Taggart, an appellate decision from North Carolina demonstrates how lawyers and courts must draft orders and plans with specificity, otherwise allegedly offending creditors can’t be.....
Although she would have reached “a very different conclusion” if a dissent had been governing authority in the Fourth Circuit, Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner of Baltimore temporarily halted.....