From the Editor – Appeals • NACTT Academy

From the Editor – Appeals

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

District court had discretion to deny stay pending appeal. The district court affirmed denial of the credit card issuer’s motion to compel arbitration in the putative class action concerning alleged violation of the discharge injunction. The district court had held that violation of the discharge injunction is such a substantive issue essential to the proper functioning of the Bankruptcy Code that arbitration would not adequately protect. The card issuer moved for a stay of the bankruptcy proceeding pending further appeal, and the district court applied the traditional four . . .

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Critical Case Comment – Although a Mess, Month-to-Month Lease Assumed

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 4, 2023

A month-to-month residential lease can be assumed and defaults cured in a Chapter 13 plan. (Rucker) In re Mattoon, 2022 WL 2080184 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. June 9, 2022) Case Summary Sarah Mattoon executed a lease with Open Doors in September of 2019. Several of Ms. Mattoon’s family members lived with her in the rented apartment including her “companion” and her...

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Conflicting Interpretations: A Chapter 13 Trustee’s Compensation After Pre-Confirmation Dismissal or Conversion* Part 3 of 3

Brittani Bushman

February 13, 2022

(Used with expressed permission from the MI Bankruptcy Journal and the Steven W. Rhodes Consumer Bankruptcy Conference)By Brittani Bushman, Judicial Law Clerk to the Hon. John T. Gregg, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan B. Illustrative Decisions (Minority Approach) The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit recently issued a comprehensive unpublished decision adopting the minority...

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Critical Case Comment – Bad Faith to Not Pay Both Tests?

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

February 27, 2022

Chapter 13 debtor is not obligated to pay both the disposable income pool and the best interest of creditors test pool to achieve confirmation, only the larger of the two; it is not a manifestation of bad faith that the debtor does not pay both the disposable income pool and the best interest of creditors test amounts. (Altenberger) In re...

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Bankruptcy Courts Grapple with the “COVID-19 Discharge”

April 18, 2021

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction Analyzing the new "COVID-19 discharge" provision added to Chapter 131 by Congress on December 27 as part of the coronavirus emergency response legislation, the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California decided in In re Ritter2 that, in order to receive such a discharge, debtors must still comply...

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The Hunt for Deductible Interest – Money Too Often Left on the Table

February 16, 2020

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) One of the mysteries of Chapter 13 is why mortgage lenders don’t send an IRS 1098 for mortgage payments made through a Chapter 13 plan. And without that reminder piece of paper, our clients don’t realize that much of what the trustee pays to mortgage creditors is deductible interest. Miss that deduction and...

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Mary Ida Townson Appointed U.S. Trustee for Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Guy A. Van Baalen

January 2, 2022

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland recently appointed Mary Ida Townson as the U.S. Trustee for Florida, Georgia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Region 21). Ms. Townson assumed her duties in June and replaced Nancy Gargula, who is the U.S. Trustee in Region 10 and who had served as the interim U.S. Trustee in Region 21...

Mortgage Loan Modification Does Not Alter Lien Priority

December 6, 2020

By Scott F. Waterman, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Reading) Modifying a first mortgage is one of the most common loss mitigation tools available to bring a loan current to prevent foreclosure. In this case the first mortgage was modified twice by capitalizing the unpaid interest, reducing the interest rate, and reducing the monthly payments...

TMI: Too Much Information

Marie-Ann Greenberg

August 6, 2023

Practice Point: Just because it is an unsecured claim does not mean that it should be ignored. Review all claims for inappropriate violations and disclosure of personal identifiers! Keep track of serial violators for possible use in future requests for contempt and sanctions. With all of the emphasis these days on transparency and the requirement for more and more information...

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Is a CARES Act Stimulus Payment Exempt?

April 26, 2020

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction Since April 1, 2020, many unemployed people in the United States have begun to receive "a recovery benefit" in the amount of $1,200.1 These payments, under the CARES Act2 stimulus program, were intended to provide some relief to suffering Americans. However, the most financially distressed Americans, perhaps with existing,...

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Critical Case Comment – Debtor’s Counsel’s Fee Reduced to $48k

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

February 4, 2022

Chapter 13 debtor’s counsel’s fee award was reduced to $48,116 from the requested $95,480 due to pre-petition payments, confusing and “lumped” time entries, and excessive hourly rates for some services performed, even though the debtor’s Chapter 13 plan was never even proposed much less confirmed. The debtor never attended a meeting of creditors, but the debtor managed to recover his...

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