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.
Aligning itself with the Fifth Circuit plus dicta from the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit held in a nonprecedential opinion that a bankruptcy court, and by extension a.....
To obtain a “bad faith” judgment against an insurer for the plaintiff’s damages in excess of policy limits, the plaintiff must continue the suit nominally against the defendant. When the defendant is.....
The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel painted itself into a corner in 2002 when it held that a bankruptcy court has no discretion to modify a discharge injunction under Section 524(a).
To avoid.....
Counsel in California, beware: The state’s reciprocal fee-shifting statute means that the losing side — whether it be the debtor, the trustee or the creditor — pays the adversary’s attorneys’ fees if.....
Applying analogies to tort law, the Seventh Circuit held that comparative fault requires a reduction of a debtor’s recovery of compensatory damages for a violation of the discharge injunction.
For the.....
An attorney’s disciplinary proceeding offends neither the automatic stay nor the discharge injunction, for reasons explained by the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
The same is true even when.....
Debtors and trustees should read a Fifth Circuit opinion to understand how the sale of a debtor’s claims should be structured to prevent the sale from being champertous and void.
The debtor severely.....
Personal misconduct unrelated to someone’s activities as a chapter 7 trustee can result in removal as a panel trustee for “cause” under Section 324(a), according to a nonprecedential opinion from the.....
On a question where the circuits are split, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel hewed to Ninth Circuit precedent by holding that a debtor’s bad faith in chapter 11 does not preclude the.....
As a more effective and targeted remedy for dismissal of a chapter 13 petition filed in bad faith, New York’s Bankruptcy Judge Philip Bentley dismissed, but with a proviso that the automatic stay in a.....