Practice and Procedure

Because dismissal under Section 521(i)(1) is automatic and does not result from an order, there’s no rule to vacate dismissal for excusable neglect.

The Ninth Circuit hasn’t decided whether bankruptcy courts are ‘courts of the U.S.’ authorized to exercise powers under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a).

Although it makes sense and would require fewer judicial resources, the governing statute does not permit withdrawing a lawsuit directly to the bankruptcy court in another district or another state, as explained by Bankruptcy Judge Elisabetta G.M. Gasparini of Columbia, S.C.

The corporate debtor filed a voluntary chapter 7 petition in South Carolina. Two days later, someone (whom we shall refer to as the plaintiff) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Georgia against several of the debtor’s insiders and a nondebtor corporate affiliate of the debtor. The debtor was not named as a defendant in the Georgia action.

The debtor and the nondebtor defendants in Georgia filed a notice of removal. As Judge Gasparini said in her December 16 opinion, they “purportedly remov[ed] the matter from the Georgia District Court to this Court [i.e., the bankruptcy court in the District of South Carolina].”

Although a suit for punitive damages resembles a claim for which there would be a jury under common law, Pennsylvania’s Judge Mayer decided that the enactment of Section 362(k) gave rise to the public rights exception allowing bankruptcy courts to award damages without a jury.

Delaware’s Bankruptcy Judge Horan gives examples of preference complaints that adequately plead performance of due diligence.

When a trustee doesn’t file a notice with the adjourned date of a creditors’ meeting, equitable considerations govern when or whether the time expired for objecting to exemptions.

The Ninth Circuit will sit en banc, presenting the possibility of a circuit split that could end up stripping bankruptcy trustees of qualified judicial immunity.

Only one circuit court has opined on the ability of a bankruptcy court under Rule 9006(b) to extend the deadline for filing avoidance actions.

Amicus briefs are needed so the Supreme Court sees the big picture and understands that creditors can suffer if judicial estoppel is applied indiscriminately.

The lack of ‘pecuniary interest’ may deprive a chapter 7 debtor of constitutional standing, even though the debtor is a ‘party in interest.’