{"id":8568,"date":"2013-05-27T00:28:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T00:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/?p=8568"},"modified":"2013-05-27T00:53:42","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T00:53:42","slug":"debtor-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/2013\/05\/27\/debtor-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Debtor Math"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Helen M. Morris, Chapter 13 Trustee, Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"debtormath\"<\/a>Debtor math baffles me. \u00a0\u00a0I work base 10 daily; I am even competent in base 6 and can do binary.\u00a0 But I just can\u2019t get the hang of debtor math.<\/p>\n

For example, in a motion filed by an experienced debtor attorney:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debtors request permission to settle with the insurance carrier for $7,974 and to use $8,995 of the proceeds to purchase a replacement vehicle.\u201d (No, the figures weren\u2019t transposed.\u00a0 The insurance settlement was $7,974.00.)<\/p>\n

In an order drafted by the same attorney with respect to the treatment of a Special Class unsecured claim:<\/p>\n

\u201c[Creditor\u2019s] claim will be kept at $188.71 times 28 months or $4,975.88.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, $188.71 times 28 is $5,283.88.\u00a0\u00a0 Every staffer who handled that order came to me with a question\u2014is the claim to be paid at $188.71 for 28 months or a total of $4,975.88?\u00a0 I raised the issue at confirmation and the answer from the Court was that the creditor was to be paid $4,975.88 at the rate of $188.71 for as many months as necessary.<\/p>\n

That same attorney filed a motion to modify a confirmed plan (He always calls it amending the plan, but that\u2019s another story.) in which he wanted to extend the plan from 36 months to 60 months and add the mortgage to be paid through the trustee.\u00a0 I had no problem with the concept, but with his math.\u00a0 (DUH!)\u00a0 I filed a response that stated that the modified plan payments needed to be $1,290.00 for the remaining 39 months if the plan were extended.\u00a0\u00a0 At the hearing, he persuaded the Judge to extend the plan to 47 months and set the plan payments at $1,070.00 for the remaining period.\u00a0 The plan is now short the sum of $8,013.02.\u00a0 Trustee\u2019s motion for reconsideration has been filed.<\/p>\n

One expects math problems with pro se debtors, and one of my classic cases was filed by an infrequent Chapter 13 filer–now a debtor himself, pro se, of course.\u00a0 (I guess the good news\/bad news \u00a0for his clients is that he isn\u2019t doing\u00a0 a better job with his own case than he does on theirs.)<\/p>\n

Monthly disposable income is $126.81.\u00a0 Plan payments are $361.10 per month for 60 months.\u00a0 Two mortgages are to be paid through the plan.\u00a0 One mortgage has monthly payments of $838.15 per month and a pre-petition arrearage of $6,091.81.\u00a0\u00a0 The second mortgage has monthly payments of $457.38 per month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only short about $74,000.00\u2014and that\u2019s just to pay administrative and secured claims.\u00a0 There are $86,524.00 in unsecured claims.<\/p>\n

Are there coupons I\u2019m supposed to be using to stretch the debtor dollar?<\/p>\n

Of course, the creditors aren\u2019t always on top of the calculator either.\u00a0 In a recent case, the system showed that there was a balance on the pre-petition arrearage unpaid as well as a post-petition arrearage.\u00a0 (We are a conduit jurisdiction now, but weren\u2019t at the time the case was filed.\u00a0 The ongoing mortgage payments were added post-confirmation in resolution of a motion for stay relief.)\u00a0 Two letters to the debtors and their counsel providing documentation (proof of claim filed by the creditor and a copy of order setting the post-petition arrearage as well as payment history to the affected creditor on the pre-petition, post-petition and on-going payments through my office) brought a fax to me from the creditor which simply stated that the debtors are current on the mortgage.<\/p>\n

I responded to the creditor with a letter pointing out that I showed there were balances due on the arrearage claims and I could not use a fax to \u201ccorrect\u201d my numbers.\u00a0 The creditor\u2019s attorney called my office and told the staffer who answered the phone that other trustees file a Notice of Final Cure and the creditor will respond to that.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t understand why I couldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Never mind that I had previously talked to the attorney and explained that I was still showing balances due\u2014thus, I couldn\u2019t file a pleading with the Court stating that the arrearages were cured.\u00a0 It took two more phone calls before the creditor finally filed something with the Court.<\/p>\n

The same creditor, however, in a case in which I was showing the debtor current and the default cured, filed a response that the debtor wasn\u2019t current and indicated an amount due which didn\u2019t correspond with anything of record.\u00a0 I filed a Reply.\u00a0 Subsequently, my office received a phone call from a bank employee saying that my reply was correct and they weren\u2019t going to attend the hearing.<\/p>\n

My office manager is growing concerned.\u00a0 She has her mortgage with that bank.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

\"2013-01-26<\/a>Helen M. Morris has been the Chapter 13 trustee for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia since October 1, 1996. Prior to her appointment, she was in private practice in Huntington, WV, where she served as a Chapter 7 panel trustee in addition to representing both debtors and creditors in bankruptcy matters; but not in the same case. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Marshall University in Huntington, WV, and her law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, TN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Helen M. Morris, Chapter 13 Trustee, Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia Debtor math baffles me. \u00a0\u00a0I work base 10 daily; I am even competent in base 6 and can do binary.\u00a0 But I just can\u2019t get the hang of debtor math. For example, in a motion filed by an experienced debtor attorney: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}