News
U.S. Bank NA v. The Village at Lakeridge LLC
U.S. Bank NA v. The Village at Lakeridge LLC: US Supreme Court on 3/2717 Granted Petition for Certiorari on U.S. Bank NA v. The Village at Lakeridge LLC, to decide the issue of Appellate Standards for Non-Statutory Insider Status. However, does not appear that granting certiorari on U.S. Bank NA v. The Village at Lakeridge LLC will result in the US Supreme Court reviewing the more important question of INSIDER treatment.
U.S. Bank N.A. v. The Village at Lakeridge, LLC
U.S. Bank N.A. v. The Village at Lakeridge, LLC (In re The Village at Lakeridge, LLC), 814 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2016): Held that purchasing a claim from an insider of the bankruptcy debtor does NOT necessarily result in the person/entity purchasing the claim becoming an insider. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a vote on a plan of reorganization submitted by a non-insider claimant was not to be disregarded under Bankruptcy Code section 1129(a)(10) merely because the claimant purchased the claim from an insider. FACTS: The debtor owned a commercial real estate development in…
Retailers’ Free Speech Challenge to Surcharge/discount Distinction for Describing Price Differences for Credit Card and Cash Sales
Retailers’ Free Speech Challenge to Surcharge/discount Distinction for Describing Price Differences for Credit Card and Cash Sales (US Supreme Court docket certarari granted on 10-20-16, and US Supreme Court heard argument of case on 1/11/17 :U.S. Supreme Court on 1/11/17 struggled over how to decide a challenge to a state law barring retailers from charging more to buy with credit instead of cash, debating whether it merely regulates prices or violates merchants’ constitutional rights. The eight justices heard an hour of arguments in an appeal brought by merchants to a lower court’s ruling upholding the New York law, which is…
Beware of Online Bankruptcy Solicitations
BEWARE OF SUPPOSED “NATIONAL” LAW FIRM (PRINCE LAW FIRM, LLC) WHICH ADVERTISED ON INTERNET, SOLICITING FOR BANKRUPTCY CASES, BUT WHICH WAS NOT A NATIONAL LAW FIRM, AND WHICH WAS FARMING THE CASES OUT TO LAW FIRMS IN VARIOUS STATES, SOMETIMES WITH BAD RESULTS: In re Aimee Dawn Futreal and Judge A. Robbins, US Trustee for Region Four, Movant v. Brent Barbour and Barry Proctor and Prince Law Firm, LLC, Respondents; and In re Micah Jerimey Repass and Holly Leigh Repass, Debtors, and Judgy A. Robbins, US Trustee for Region Four, Movant v. Brent Barbour and Barry Proctor and Prince Law,…
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys files Amicus Brief, arguing against the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals Judicial Estoppel Doctrine
NCBRC has filed an amicus brief in the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of the NACBA membership to address the issue of that circuit’s approach to judicial estoppel. Slater v. U.S. Steel, No. 12-15568 (filed October 24, 2016). Twenty one months after filing an employment discrimination suit in federal district court against her former employer, U.S. Steel, Sandra Slater filed for bankruptcy. (The original case was filed under chapter 7 and later converted to chapter 13). She failed to list the pending federal case in her bankruptcy schedules. U.S. Steel then moved the district court to bar the discrimination suit based…
In re Kipnis, ___BF___, 2016 Westlaw 4543772 (Bankruptcy Court. S.D. Fla. 2016)
A bankruptcy court in Florida has held that a trustee had the power to borrow the Internal Revenue Service’s 10 year statute of limitations in pursuing fraudulent transfer litigation on behalf of the estate. FACTS: An individual owed back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. In an attempt to avoid paying those assessments, he allegedly engaged in fraudulent transfers of his assets. Roughly 10 years after those transfers, he filed a bankruptcy petition. His trustee then asserted fraudulent transfer claims against his transferees under 11 U.S.C.A. §544(b). They moved to dismiss on the ground that the claims were time barred,…
Mortgage Servicer Saddled with $375,000 in Sanctions for Violating Rule 3002.1
In In re Gravel, ___BR___ (Bankr. D. Vt. Sept. 12, 2016, case no. 11-10112), the first reported decision of its kind under Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1, Bankruptcy Judge Colleen A. Brown, who is Vermont’s chief bankruptcy judge, imposed $375,000 in sanctions on a mortgage servicer for billing debtors for fees without first filing the required notices under Rule 3002.1(c), which are required to be filed in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, by the secured DOT lender, stating any changes in mortgage payment, during the Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Judge Brown directed that the sanctions be paid to Vermont’s largest pro bono…
Regularly Conducted Tax Sales Cannot Be Fraudulent Transfer, Ninth Circuit Holds
In Tracht Gut LLC v. Los Angeles Country Treasurer & Tax Collector (In re Tracht Gut LLC), ___F.3d ___case no. 14-60007 (9th Cir. Sept. 8, 2016), the Ninth Circuit joined the Fifth and Tenth by holding that a tax sale conducted in accordance with state law cannot be set aside as a fraudulent transfer for less than reasonably equivalent value. A company owned real property but did not pay real estate taxes for years. The company filed a chapter 11 petition a month after the county sold the property in a tax sale. The newly minted debtor in possession immediately…
DeNoce v. Neff (In re Neff), 824 F.3d 1181 (9th Cir. 2016)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the ONE year period of 11 U.S.C.§ 727(a)(2) is not subject to equitable tolling. 11 USC 727(a)92) states that a bankruptcy debtor may be denied a discharge, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, if the debtor transferred property, within ONE year before the date the debtor filed bankruptcy, with an actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors, by making that transfer.
Rivera v. Orange Cnty. Prob. Dep’t (In re Rivera), 832 F.3d 1103 (9th Cir.
Aug. 10, 2016), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that fees owing to a governmental unit incurred for the criminal detention of a minor child were dischargeable in the chapter 7 bankruptcy of a parent. This was not a domestic support obligation (domestic support obligations are always nondischargeable, per 11 USC 523(a)(5)).