Alvarez v. HSBC Bank, USA, No. MJG-11-2886, 2011 WL 6941670, at *2 (D. Md. Dec. 28, 2011) (Garbis)

Disagreeing with Strausbough v. Co-op Services Credit Union (In re Strausbough), 426 B.R. 243 (Bankr. E.D. Mich. Mar. 25, 2010) (Rhodes), and agreeing with Hunter v. Citifinancial, Inc. (In re Hunter), 284 B.R. 806 (Bankr. E.D. Va. Sept. 30, 2002) (Mayer), debtor may not avoid mortgage lien on tenancy by entirety property as to nondebtor spouse. “[A]s to property owned by tenants by the entireties, the debtor and the nondebtor spouse each have a bundle of rights. Each has, for example, a survivorship interest and ownership rights in the event the tenancy is severed. If [debtor were] correct, in a tenants by the entireties context, not only would the debtor Husband end up with an ownership interest in a property no longer subject to the second lienholder’s security interest, but the nondebtor spouse would also.”

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Deconstructing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: Obduskey Says Lawyers Conducting Nonjudicial Foreclosure Are Not “Debt Collectors”

April 7, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction On March 20, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP1 that actions required by state law in a nonjudicial foreclosure are not regulated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).2 The decision resolved a split in the circuits. In addition to the...

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Finding Your Village: An Introductory Guide to Bringing Fair Credit Reporting Act Claims for Clients Post-Bankruptcy

Emily Connor Kennedy

July 24, 2022

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the articles from Mark Leffler and Steve Relyea discussing how our firm began litigating against creditors in bankruptcy court and mortgage servicers in federal district court. In this (final) installment, I will discuss our entry into Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation. Our firm’s history with Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation is intertwined with the relationships...

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What, Exactly, Is the Trustee’s Percentage Fee

Rebecca Herr

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In recent years, a handful of cases have discussed the issue of what happens to the trustee’s percentage fee, collected from debtor plan payments, upon the dismissal or conversion of a case prior to confirmation. This is an emerging area of law, with decisions on both sides. However, with this new issue, there appears to be at least some confusion...

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Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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In examining the effect of vesting of property of the estate at confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan, bankruptcy court examines the impact of five different theories on how post-confirmation property is to be treated, settling on the “Estate Replenishment Theory,” but does not decide if the debtors can receive the proceeds. (Fenimore) In re Marsh, 2023 WL 215263 (Bankr....

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Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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Meet a New Trustee

The Academy

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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...

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Dollar Amount Increases in Bankruptcy Code

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Ms. Ps & Qs

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