By John P. Gustafson, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division Click here for Part 1 Click here for Part 2

By Nicholas Miller, Third-Year Student, University of Texas School of Law, and Madison Haueisen, Second-Year Student, University of Texas School of Law The second issue at hand in this year’s Duberstein moot court problem involves a matter of statutory interpretation—specifically, whether §503(b) of the Bankruptcy Code allows a creditor to recover costs and expenses incurred in making a substantial contribution...

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Confirmation - Debtors could not deduct ownership costs for vehicle secured by non-purchase money lien. The above-median debtors claimed ownership deduction of $497 from projected disposable income, when the title loan payments on the vehicle were only $66.67. The difference in these amounts meant unsecured creditors could receive $25,819.80 over the...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Sanctions for including foreclosed property in petition. On creditor’s motion, sanctions for attorney fees and costs were awarded against Chapter 13 debtor’s attorney for scheduling as property of estate real property that had been foreclosed and on which debtor’s redemption period had expired. Under Rule 9011(c), a safe harbor letter from the creditor...

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...

By Kathryne M. Shaw1 Boleman Law Firm, P.C. (Virginia Beach, VA) Click here for Part 1 In Part I of this article, we reviewed In re Holman, in which the debtors violated their confirmation order and exhibited bad faith . . . It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members. Join...

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Discharge - Section 523(a)(8)(A)(ii) does not include “loan.” Denying Navient’s motion to dismiss debtors’ complaint, reviewing the split of authority on whether § 523(a)(8)(A)(ii)’s “educational benefit” included loans, and finding no controlling authority in the Tenth Circuit, the Court concluded that Congress made a distinction between “loan” in § 523(a)(8)(A)(i) and...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Recordation of divorce judgment created secured claim. In Chapter 13 case, the debtor objected to former spouse’s secured claim, with pre-bankruptcy divorce judgment awarding former marital home to the husband but ordering equalization payments to the wife. No security was mentioned in the judgment, but its recordation created a lien under Wisconsin law....

NCLC’s Executive Director Rich Dubois and NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson are calling on Congress and federal regulators to take action to prevent an impending foreclosure crisis in communities of color, in an opinion editorial published yesterday in The Hill. The op-ed highlights how the cumulative impact of decades of housing policy discrimination on African American homeownership, coupled with...