The court sustained the unsecured creditor's objection to the Debtor's Disclosure Statement and Chapter 11 Plan, because of unreasonable and/or unnecessary expenses claimed by the Debtor on Schedule J. Also, the court denied the unsecured creditor's request for dismissal, finding no bad faith in the Debtor's filing of her petition.
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Patrick M. Flatley
Date: 07/29/2009
The court dismissed the Plaintiff's complaint, finding no grounds upon which to except from discharge the debt owed to the Plaintiff under sections 523(a)(2)(A), (4), and/or (6), and no grounds upon which to deny the Debtor a discharge under section 727(a)(4).
Date: 07/29/2009
Debtors' horse boarding and training operation did not qualify them as family farmers eligible for Chapter 12 relief.
Date: 07/24/2009
The creditor's motion for summary judgment on its section 727(a)(4)(A) cause of action to deny discharge is granted. The debtor made false oaths on his schedules and statements regarding his receipt of income and business ownership interests.
Date: 07/14/2009
Debtor's motion to turnover collateral repossessed by the secured creditor pre-petition is granted. The secured creditor's motion for relief from the automatic stay is continued, and the debtor is ordered to make adequate protection payments to the secured creditor pending a confirmation hearing on the debtor's proposed Chapter 13 plan.
Date: 07/02/2009
The court denied the trustee's proposed order, which set forth a procedure for the court to authorize payments from the corpus of the Debtor's 401(k) Plan to cover the costs of terminating the Plan. The court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to enter the order, because the Plan is not an asset of the bankruptcy estate and the proceedings to be conducted under the order would have no effect on the administration of the bankruptcy case.
Date: 05/29/2009
The filing of the LLC's bankruptcy case is an authorized act under its operating agreement. The Chapter 11 case is converted to Chapter 7 under section 1112(b) for gross mismanagement and failure to timely file operating reports.
Date: 05/19/2009
Automatic stay extended to non-debtor third parties when the third parties share an identity with the debtor such that the debtor may be said to be the real party defendant
Date: 04/17/2009
Creditor's complaint to except a debt from discharge under sections 523(a)(2) and 523(a)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code is denied.
Date: 03/31/2009
Cross motions for summary judgment asserted the issue preclusive effects of a default judgment taken from state court in the context of a section 523 adversary proceeding. Court applied California's issue preclusion doctrine and found that a default judgment did not expressly or necessarily decide the issue of fraud under section 523(a)(2)(A) or willful and malicious injury under section 523(a)(6).
Date: 03/25/2009
Creditor's motion to convert under section 1112(b) of the Bankruptcy Code is conditionally granted because the Debtors have not proposed a plan that is capable of meeting the confirmation requirement of section 1129(a)(10).
Date: 03/16/2009
Creditor is entitled to an allowed claim against the debtor’s estate on an unjust enrichment theory of recovery.
Date: 03/13/2009
The court granted creditor's motion to exercise its setoff rights against the debtor's general deposit accounts pursuant to section 553.
Date: 02/09/2009
Debtor's adversary proceeding seeking damages against a former employee for breach of an employment agreement with the debtor's company is denied. Pro se employee's claim against the Debtor for unpaid wages is denied.
Date: 02/04/2009
Motion for relief from the automatic stay to pursue litigation against the debtor in state court is granted.
Date: 01/28/2009
The debtor did not wholly exempt her real property by declaration when she listed the property's value at $21,000, and claimed an exemption in the property in the amount of $21,000. The claimed exemption was proper considering that the West Virginia Code's statutory bankruptcy homestead exemption is $25,000, and there were an absence of "red flags" to communicate to the debtor's Chapter 7 trustee that the debtor intended to exempt her real property regardless of its actual value.
Date: 01/12/2009
The court denied the Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on causes of action arising under sections 523(a)(2)(A), (4), (6), and 727(a)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code.
Date: 12/22/2008
Collection agent's motion for summary judgment on the debtor's causes of action for violation of the automatic stay and discharge injunction is granted. The debtor did not include the collection agent's correct address in her mailing matrix, and when the debtor informed the collection agent that she filed bankruptcy, it immediately took step.
Date: 12/22/2008
Service of process is quashed because the trustee served process at the wrong address; the trustee is given an additional 30 days to effect service of process at the correct address in accordance with Bankruptcy Rule 7004(b)(3). The trustee's claims for illegal pre-petition debt collection practices are not time-barred because under section 108 of the Bankruptcy Code, the causes of action were still viable with the debtor filed bankruptcy, and the trustee has two years from the filing of the petition to assert those causes of action. Because knowledge of a principal is not imputed to the agent, a communication that the debtor sent to the principal requesting that further debt collection contacts be through his attorney has no effect on the debt collecting agent unless the agent also had knowledge of that communication.
Date: 12/22/2008
Creditor recorded a judgment lien without knowledge of the debtors' bankruptcy. Creditor subsequently received notice of the bankruptcy filing and received a copy of the debtors' discharge order, but did not undertake any affirmative act to release its judgment lien. Creditor's motion to dismiss the debtors' causes of action for violation of the automatic stay is denied because such inaction could be construed to be an attempt to collect a discharged debt. Debtors' motion for summary judgment is denied because the uncontested facts fail to establish that the creditor's inaction was an attempt to collect on the debt.