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.
The requirement that courts read statutes literally has resulted in the erosion of the equitable powers of bankruptcy courts. Most notably, the Supreme Court held in Law v. Siegel, 571 U.S. 415 (2014).....
Falsifying financial records to defraud clients does not result in the denial of discharge under Section 727(a)(3) if the records are accurate and allow the trustee to ascertain the debtor’s financial.....
The Eleventh Circuit ruled that the debtor’s discharge barred the holder of a nondischargeable debt from suing the debtor for fraudulently transferring estate property, even though the trustee had.....
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.....
The Eleventh Circuit wrote a decision on September 29 narrowly reading Husky International Electronics Inc. v. Ritz, 136 S. Ct. 1581 (2016), where the Supreme Court held that a debt can be.....
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.....
If a chapter 13 debtor commits an unauthorized post-petition transfer and the case is converted to chapter 7, is there property of the estate that the chapter 7 trustee is entitled to recover?
The.....
Here’s a cautionary tale from the liquidation of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme: For having lost a discovery motion, Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein of Manhattan directed the lawyer to pay the.....
The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel eliminated a split among the lower courts by reversing the bankruptcy court and ruling that the failure to report increased income can lead to the.....
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.....