Justia Bankruptcy Opinion Summaries

Debtor appealed the bankruptcy court's order overruling her objection to the chapter 7 trustee's final report and denying her motion to compel the chapter 7 trustee to abandon $16,893.44 he had received from the Ruth E. Thompson Revocable Trust. The court agreed with the bankruptcy court that pursuant to paragraph 5.3.4 of the trust agreement, debtor's interest in the Trust was fully alienable by her on the petition date, and her interest in the Trust was not excluded from the bankruptcy estate under 11 U.S.C. 541(c)(2). Accordingly, the court affirmed the bankruptcy court's order. View "Thompson-Rossbach v. Doeling" on Justia Law

Creditor appealed from the bankruptcy court's order denying his motion to dismiss debtor's bankruptcy petition. The bankruptcy court ruled that the Bankruptcy Code merely requires the debtor to establish that she had received a briefing regarding credit counseling in compliance with 11 U.S.C. 109(h)(1). The bankruptcy appellate panel concluded that the bankruptcy court properly found that the certificate of counseling was sufficient to meet the statutory requirements and denied creditor's contention to the contrary because it was based on an erroneous interpretation of law. The panel lacked jurisdiction related to creditor's appeal of an order granting debtor's motion to sell certain real property and the panel declined to address creditor's remaining issues because they were not presented to the bankruptcy court in the first instance or are unrelated to the issue on appeal. Accordingly, the panel affirmed the judgment. View "Curtis v. Segraves" on Justia Law

Debtors appealed the bankruptcy court's confirming of their amended Chapter 13 plan. The court held that when a Chapter 13 debtor’s treatment of a creditor under one subsection of 11 U.S.C. 1322(b) falls within the contours of another subsection of that statute, all standards of both subsections must be satisfied. Specifically, the court examined whether the maintenance of regular payments for unsecured non-priority student loan debt by debtors in this case, while they paid substantially less to other unsecured non-priority debt, satisfied the requirements of Bankruptcy Code 1322(b)(1) and (b)(10). The court held that those requirements were not met. The court agreed with the bankruptcy court’s holding that debtors’ plan was unfairly discriminatory. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Jordahl, Jr. v. Burrell" on Justia Law

This case arose out of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding filed by debtor. Debtor appealed from the bankruptcy court's order sustaining the bankruptcy trustee’s objection to her claim of an exemption in certain real property and limiting the exemption to $155,675.00. The court concluded that debtor did not acquire the property in which she claims her homestead exemption within the 1215-day period preceding the filing of the petition pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 522(p)(1)(A), thus limiting her homestead exemption to $155,675.00. In this case, the trustee presented evidence from three sources to the effect that instead of recording the deed immediately after execution, Donn Bruess, debtor's father, left it with his attorney until he determined whether to go forward with that conveyance. Upon consideration of the trustee’s evidence, the bankruptcy court found that Donn Bruess had not surrendered control of the deed with the intent to irrevocably convey the property. The court concluded that the bankruptcy court's findings were not clearly erroneous and affirmed the judgment. View "Bruess v. Dietz" on Justia Law