In re Hoilien
In re Hoilien, ___BR___, 2015 WL 509564 (Bankr.D. Hawaii February 3, 2015): Bankruptcy Court held that creditor that proceeded with foreclosure of debtor’s real property did not violate the bankruptcy automatic stay by doing so, because there was no stay, because the bankruptcy case in issue was the individual debtor’s third bankruptcy case ongoing in 2014 (ie ongoing within a single year), and debtor had no obtained an order from the bankruptcy court, imposing a stay in the third case. Debtor hadn’t even moved bankruptcy court to impose stay, in the third bankruptcy case. Per 11 USC 362(c)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code, where an individual debtor has 3 bankruptcy cases within a 1 year period, there is no bankruptcy automatic stay as to proceeding against debtor, in the third bankruptcy case of the 3, unless debtor moves to have a stay imposed, and the bankruptcy court grants debtor’s motion. Such motions are difficult to get granted. Some cases say that for third case, no stay as to debtor, but there still is a stay as to property of the bankruptcy estate. Hoilien found no stay at all.