Summary judgment was appropriate where the Debtor was collaterally estopped from relitigating the State Court's factual findings that she intentionally interfered with her former husband's relationship with his daughter by falsely accusing him of child sexual abuse. Therefore, the debts arising from such willful and malicious conduct are excepted from discharge pursuant 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(6).
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Patrick M. Flatley
In re Ball, Case No. 06-1002
Date: 05/30/2007
Date: 05/30/2007
Motions for a prelimiary injunction asserted by creditors of the bankruptcy estate and by the United States trustee to prohibit the distribution of sale proceeds to a co-owner of real property, on the grounds that the co-owner may be liable to the bankrutpcy estate on either a fradulent transfer or unjust enrichment cause of action, are denied. The causes of action asserted by the parties are property of the bankrutpcy estate; without a grant of derivative standing to the creditors or the United States trustee, only the Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession has the standing to litigate those causes of action. Pursuant to Scott v. National Century Fin. Enters. (In re Baltimore Emergency Serv. II, Corp.), 432 F.3d 557 (4th Cir. 2005), a court may not issue a preliminary injunction to a party without standing to assert a cause of action against the defendant.
Nixon v. United States (In re Nixon), Case No. 06-219
Date: 05/09/2007
Date: 05/09/2007
The Chapter 13 debtor's pre-discharge complaint to determine the dischargeability of a 2002 income tax laibility is dismissed pursuant to the IRS's motion for a judgment on the pleadings. The IRS conceeded that, should the debtor receive a discharge at the end of the debtor's proposed 60 month plan, the taxes would be discharged. Therefore, although all the facts necessary for making the dischargeability determination had already occurred, the issue was not ripe for review because no hardship existed to the debtor by withholding a court order on dischargeabiltiy until after the debtor obtained his discharge.
In re Smith, Case No. 92-20159
Date: 05/07/2007
Date: 05/07/2007
Domestic support creditor's objection to the Chapter 7 trustee's final report is sustained in part and overruled in part. The creditor filed a proof of claim nearly ten years after the claim's bar date, but because part of that claim purported to be priority, and because the trustee had not begun distribution, the late filed priority claim should be considered by the trustee under section 726(a)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. The creditor's objection that she was entitled to earmark about $26,000 of estate assets for her sole benefit based on the language of an unapproved legal services agreement, that the debtor signed before the conversion of his Chapter 11 case, was overruled on the grounds that the court never approved that provision of the legal services agreement, and because the court would not approve a distribution scheme that was contrary to section 726.
Johnston v. Valley Credit Services, Inc. (In re Johnston), Case No. 06-180
Date: 04/12/2007
Date: 04/12/2007
A debtor's cause of action under section 46A-2-128(e) of the Code of West Virginia, for impermissible contact with a debtor when the debtor is represented by an attorney, is not preempted by the Bankruptcy Code's remedies for a violation of the automatic stay or discharge injunction because section 46A-2-128(e) is an independent remedy based on a separate wrong from those addressed in the Bankruptcy Code. The debtor's cause of action under section 46A-2-128(e), however, is not one that "arises under" or "arises in" the Bankruptcy Code, and is not one that is "realted to" the debtor's bankrutpcy case because win, lose, or draw, the outcome of the case will not have any effect on the bankruptcy estate. No bankruptcy court jursidiction exists to adjudicate the cause of action under the district court's supplemental jurisdiction granted by section 1367 of title 28 of the United States Code because that jurisdictional grant is not applicable to the bankrutpcy courts.
In re McNeely, Case No. 05-5512
Date: 04/09/2007
Date: 04/09/2007
The court denied confirmation of Debtors' Chapter 13 plan, which proposed to retain a $50,000 houseboat as treatment for depression, and granted relief from the automatic stay because the houseboat was not necessary for an effective reorganization.
Bayer Employees Fed. Credit Union v. Sapp (In re Sapp), Case No. 06-10, 06-63
Date: 03/26/2007
Date: 03/26/2007
Creditor's section 523(a)(2)(B) adversary complaint to except a debt from discharge is granted based on the debtor's adoption of a loan application that falsely stated his gross monthly income. Trustee's preference action against the creditor for untimely perfecting an interest in the debtor's mobile home is granted, and the trustee's fraudulent conveyance action against the debtor's father, who was listed on the mobile home's certificate of title, is granted on the grounds that the father did not pay a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for that ownership interest.
Johnston v. Telecheck Services, Inc. (In re Johnston), Case No. 06-178
Date: 03/02/2007
Date: 03/02/2007
The debtor's state law claims under sections 46A-2-124(c) and 46A-2-127(d) of the Code of West Virginia are dismissed because, as applied, they are preempted by the Bankurptcy Code's remedies for violations of the automatic stay and discharge injunciton. The debtor's cause of action for damages based on the creditor's violation of the automatic stay is dismissed because the debtor failed to demonstrate that she ever knew the automatic stay was violated; thus, she never suffered a compensable injury. The court awarded the debtor $500 in compensation for losses she sustained as a result of the creditor's violation of the discharge injunction, and awarded her attorney $2,343 in fees and costs incurred to enforce the discharge injunction against the creditor.
In re Chandler, Case No. 06-1043
Date: 03/01/2007
Date: 03/01/2007
The debtor was not a domicilarly of West Virginia for the full 730-day period preceding the date of the debtor's bankruptcy petition as required by section 522(b)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code; thus, the West Virginia exemption statutes were not applicable. Because the debtor was a domiciliary of the State of Georgia during the 180-day period preceeding the 730-day period before the filing of her petition, Georgia was the applicable State for determining what exemptions the debtor was entitled to claim. Although Georgia is an opt-out State, its opt-out statute did not include former domiciliaries such as the debtor. Since no prohibition existed under Georgia law to the debtor's use of the federal exemptions provided in section 522(d), the Chapter 7 trustee's objection to the debtor's claim of the federal homestead exemption was overruled. Additionally, the court did not find any Uniformity Clause violation in either Congress's enactment of section 522(b)(3), or in the court's conclusion that Georgia's opt-out statute would not apply to non-domicilaries like the debtor.
In re LaRosa, Case No. 03-4115
Date: 02/28/2007
Date: 02/28/2007
The motion of the debtors-in-possession to approve the employment of special counsel for the purpose of administering the death estate of one of the joint-debtors is denied. Approval of the employment application is not in the best interests of the bankruptcy estate under section 327(e) because property of the bankruptcy estate is separate and distinct from property in belonging to the decedent at the time of his death.
In re Bardell, Case No. 05-06808
Date: 02/28/2007
Date: 02/28/2007
When the debtor's bankruptcy filing intervenes between the sale of his residence at a foreclosure auction and the recording of the foreclosure sale deed, the debtor's right to cure the mortgage arrearage under § 1322(c)(1) was extinguished upon the execution of the memorandum of sale.
Robinson v. Robinson (In re Robinson), Case No. 05-137
Date: 02/05/2007
Date: 02/05/2007
Debtor's obligation under a property settlement agreement is discharged because he does not have the ability to pay it. Debtor's former spouse has a lien on the Debtor's real estate, by virtue of the divorce decree, which survives bankruptcy. Debtor's former spouse does not an equitable lien on the Debtor's real estate because she failed to demonstrate that an equitable lien arose from a writing or that an equitable lien would be necessary to prevent the unjust enrichment of the Debtor.
In re Ball, Case No. 06-1002
Date: 01/31/2007
Date: 01/31/2007
The Debtor's motion to approve the disbursement of sale proceeds to a co-owner of real property pursuant to section 363(j) of the Bankruptcy Code is continued; objections to the Debtor's motion are converted by the court into motions for a preliminary injunction under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7065, and the parties are given the opportunity to prove that the co-owner's presently defined interest in the real property should be withheld by court order pending the adjudication of a future lawsuit against the co-owner to avoid her interest.
Walters Construction, Inc. v. Cook (In re Cook), Case No. 05-231
Date: 01/22/2007
Date: 01/22/2007
Creditor's complaint to except a debt from discharge pursuant to section 523(a)(2)(A) or (B) is denied because the creditor failed to establish the requisite intent to support those claims.
Kohls v. Bank of Charles Town (In re Kohls), Case No. 06-86
Date: 01/11/2007
Date: 01/11/2007
The Bank's motion for summary judgment is granted because insufficient evidence of unconscionability exists with regard to loan terms under section 46A-2-121 of the West Virginia Code.
In re Hilling Lumber Co., et al., Case No. 05-1773
Date: 11/16/2006
Date: 11/16/2006
In a dispute between creditors over auction proceeds, the court declared that a leased commercial building was personal property. The court also determined the allocation of auction proceeds to individual items of equipment that were sold pursuant to a bulk sale, and the court denied one creditor's request for contribution from the other based on the absence of evidence supporting the alleged contribution contract.
In Re Buffalo Coal Company, Inc., et al., Case No. 06-366
Date: 11/15/2006
Date: 11/15/2006
If a sale under Section 363(b) also compromises claims, then the standards and procedures governing compromises of claims under Rule 9019 must also be adhered to in the sale process.
In re Nice, Case No. 05-5500
Date: 10/30/2006
Date: 10/30/2006
Chapter 13 debtor's motion to value automobile is granted. The presumptive replacement value is the average between the N.A.D.A. trade-in and retail value, which is to be determined as of the effective date of the debtor's Chapter 13 plan.
In re LaRosa, Case No. 03-4115
Date: 10/30/2006
Date: 10/30/2006
The Debtor's motion to stay the Chapter 11 proceeding, and associated adversary proceedings, pending the outcome of a separate dispute in arbitration is denied.
In re Lee, Case No. 06-155
Date: 10/30/2006
Date: 10/30/2006
The Debor's motion to reopen the bankruptcy case to "amend" a defective and unenforceable reaffirmation agreement is denied.