From the Editor’s Desk – Priority Claims • NACTT Academy

From the Editor’s Desk – Priority Claims

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Periodic alimony is domestic support obligation. The debtor filed an adversary proceeding contesting that his obligations under a divorce settlement were domestic support obligations. The portion of the obligation that was called periodic alimony was a domestic support obligation, which the debtor had treated as alimony deductions on tax returns. Moreover, that obligation met the factors, beyond merely the label in the settlement agreement, found in In re Benson, 441 Fed.Appx. 650 (11th Cir. 2011), and that obligation was a priority claim. However, another obligation to . . .

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Critical Case Comment

June 13, 2021

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of TN (Nashville) In awarding attorneys’ fees in a Chapter 13 case, a court is not limited to establishing the fee by use of the lodestar method; fees for services rendered should be based on the reasonable and customary fees charged by other attorneys performing the same...

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Memorial Day 2023

The Academy

May 28, 2023

Memorial Day 2023 Honoring the Sacrifices of All Who Served

2020 Vision

February 14, 2021

By Jan Sensenich, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of Vermont I think it was in junior high school when I first started wearing glasses. I remember not liking the idea of having to wear glasses. I thought I could see just fine. As far as I knew, I was seeing what I needed to see. But I also...

One Woman’s Opinion

December 13, 2020

By Margaret A. Burks, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati) Chapter 13 works. Some people wish to continually criticize Chapter 13. They criticize the success rate. They criticize racial bias. They criticize how Chapter 13 works. They also criticize the fact that Chapter 13 appears less voluntary than it was before access to Chapter 7...

Is Nunc Pro Tunc Really Sunk?

December 20, 2020

By James M. Davis, Staff Attorney to Chapter 13 Standing Trustee Henry E. Hildebrand, III (Nashville, TN) Bankruptcy Courts take determinations from the Supreme Court seriously. And rightfully so. But sometimes, some bankruptcy courts are guilty of reading too much into the Court’s statements. The latest example is the soul searching around “nunc pro tunc” (“now for then”) orders. Earlier...

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Critical Case Comment – You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

December 10, 2023

An over-median Chapter 13 debtor, in calculating projected disposable income, may deduct the higher of the projected plan payment for secured debts or the IRS allowance, but the debtor may not deduct the higher payment under the original contract.

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From the Editor – Avoidance

September 22, 2019

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Tax foreclosure sale avoided as preference. Affirming the District and Bankruptcy Courts, at 571 B.R. 662 and 588 B.R. 394, the Third Circuit held that the Chapter 13 debtors could avoid a pre-petition tax foreclosure sale as a preferential transfer. The township held a properly noticed tax sale at public auction, which resulted...

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Meet a New Trustee

The Academy

December 19, 2021

One of our very newest trustees is very familiar to many of us. After serving ten years as Chief of Staff (a/k/a Staff Attorney) to Martha Bronitsky, on August 1, 2021, Nima Ghazvini was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Districts of Hawaii, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands. What you may not know is that Ghazvini was born in...

If You’re Gonna Bet the Farm, Maybe Play Against the House

Danielle N. Gueck-Townsend

January 30, 2022

Gambling is inherently risky, but that rings even more true when a bankruptcy is involved. Section 727(a)(5) allows for denial of discharge if “the debtor has failed to explain satisfactorily, …. any loss of assets or deficiency of assets to meet the debtor’s liabilities.” 11 U.S.C. §727(a)(5). Recently, Bankruptcy Judge Timothy A. Barnes in Chicago wrote an opinion in which...

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In re Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc., 60 F.4th 73 (4th Cir. 2023), pet. for cert. granted, Truck Ins. Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc., 2023 WL 6780372, (U.S., October 13, 2023).

The Honorable William Houston Brown

October 29, 2023

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a plan proposal to create an asbestos trust through Chapter 11 bankruptcy was “insurance neutral,” and the debtor’s insurer was not a party in interest under Code § 1109(b), which contains a noncomprehensive list of parties in interest to a Chapter 11 case. Whether the insurer was a party in interest determined whether...