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.
Based on the broad definition given the word “claim,” a creditor has standing to bring a nondischargeability suit against an individual debtor for embezzlement when the debtor didn’t embezzle from the.....
On an important issue about judicial estoppel in bankruptcy cases, the Fifth Circuit handed down a nonprecedential opinion on January 13 raising exactly the same issue coming before the Supreme Court.....
The Fifth Circuit expanded Bartenwerfer by holding a debt to be nondischargeable when the debtor was neither a partner nor an agent nor the person who himself committed the fraud.
The October 16.....
The settlement of a lawsuit where the debtor does not expressly admit liability may nevertheless result in automatic nondischargeability under Section 523(a)(19) if the complaint was properly drafted.....
Ruling in favor of the debtor on an issue similar to the question before the Supreme Court this coming term in Bartenwerfer, Bankruptcy Judge Joshua P. Searcy of Tyler, Texas, held that a debt is.....
Even when the facts tug on the heartstrings, the law is the law. Representing that a business is profitable and lucrative is a representation about “financial condition” that must be in writing to.....
Holding that “the reasonable reliance requirement is a low hurdle for creditors to satisfy,” the Fifth Circuit decided that the bankruptcy court’s findings of fact were clearly erroneous, and directed.....
In chapter 13, creditors – not just the debtor – may sometimes lose out if the debtor had concealed the existence of a personal injury claim and the defendant invokes judicial estoppel to bar.....
Fifth Circuit Stretches Equitable Notions to Bend Plain Language
A nonprecedential opinion from the Fifth Circuit raises the perennial question: When, if ever, may the court ignore the plain language.....
Fifth Circuit Muses on the Split over Pleading Standards for Fraudulent Schemes
The Fifth Circuit wrote a primer on pleading standards for claims of fraudulent transfer, preference, equitable.....