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.
Drawing on Harris v. Viegelahn, Bankruptcy Judge LaShonda L. Hunt of Chicago held that a chapter 13 debtor’s attorney cannot be paid allowed compensation from funds in the hands of the chapter 13.....
Surveying recent authorities from around the nation, Bankruptcy Judge Mary Jo Heston of Tacoma, Wash., laid out the factors that control categorizing a lien as judicial or statutory.
The distinction.....
Concluding that recent Ninth Circuit authority gives the debtor an absolute right to dismiss a chapter 13 case, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit held “that ineligibility to be a.....
Welcome to a law student’s nightmare: the convergence of property law and bankruptcy.
If a debtor owns property as a joint tenant with right of survivorship, the trustee can’t sell the property if the.....
The Ninth Circuit handed down a terse opinion on a homestead exemption that seemed on cursory reading to validate the practice of buying and burying an unfavorable decision.
The debtor owned a limited.....
The Ninth Circuit and its Bankruptcy Appellate Panel have been at the forefront in criticizing Kelly v. Robinson, where the Supreme Court arguably departed from the language of the statute to achieve.....
Because the secured lender gave the debtors no viable method for curing a default arising from the filing of a bankruptcy petition, Bankruptcy Judge Mike K. Nakagawa of Las Vegas held the lender in.....
Who gets the appreciation in a home when a chapter 13 case converts to chapter 7 after confirmation? Does the debtor keep the appreciation, or does it belong to the chapter 7 trustee?
It’s one of the.....
The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held in a nonprecedential opinion that consumer debtors in chapter 7 have neither constitutional nor prudential standing to appeal an order selling their.....
In a state where an award of attorneys’ fees is reciprocal in an action on a contract, the prevailing party is not entitled to attorneys’ fees in a dischargeability suit if the court wasn’t required.....