The Bankruptcy Law Firm, Prof. Corp.
Lan Tu Trinh v. citizens Business Banking 141 S.Ct. 1412, 2012 WL 666601 (2021)
Lan Tu Trinh v. citizens Business Banking 141 S.Ct. 1412, 2012 WL 666601 (2021): US Supreme Court Won’t Review Court-Appointed Receivers’ Immunity The U.S. Supreme Court will not second-guess whether court-appointed receivers are shielded from liability for their actions thanks to “quasi-judicial immunity,” leaving in place a recent Third Circuit ruling that granted a receiver those protections.
American Bankruptcy Institute reports that a Bill has been introduced in the US Senate on 3/14/22, called “Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act”
Introduced by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). The Bill, S. 3823, if it was passed by Senate, and by House, and if signed into law by President Biden, would permanently set the debt limit at $7.5 million for small businesses electing to file for bankruptcy under subchapter V of chapter 11. Consistent with the recommendations of ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy, the bill also would raise the debt limit for individual chapter 13 filings to $2.75 million and remove the distinction between secured and unsecured debt for that calculation.
Sheen v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA, 2022 DJDAR 2345 (California Supreme Court 3/7/22)
Sheen v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA, 2022 DJDAR 2345 (California Supreme Court 3/7/22): In this landmark decision of the California Supreme Court—the highest court in the California State court system, in a decision that is amazingly BAD for property owners, the California Supreme Court held that lenders/loan servicers do NOT owe borrowers a duty of care in the loan modification process. Borrowers seeking loan modifications always had trouble dealing with lenders/loan servicers who were supposed to be processing the loan modification applications submitted to the lenders/loan servicers by the borrowers. Now it will be functionally impossible to get lenders/loan servicers…
Manookian v. Burton (In re Cummings Manookian PLLC), ___BR___ (Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Tenn. March 7, 2022), bankruptcy case no. 21-00797
Bankruptcy Court rules that ‘Reasonable Possibility’ of a Surplus gives a Chapter 7 bankruptcy Debtor Standing in Chapter 7 case, to object to something the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee wants the Bankruptcy Court to approve Due process considerations mean it’s not harmless error if a debtor was denied standing improperly. Everyone knows that chapter 7 debtors seldom have standing to object to a trustee’s initiatives in bankruptcy court because they can’t show that the outcome will affect the debtor. But how strong a showing must the debtor make about the likelihood of a surplus to establish standing to object? That’s…
In re Egan Avenatti LLP
In re Egan Avenatti LLP, ___BR___ (Bankr. C.D. Cal. March 3, 2022) bankruptcy case #19-13560: A Bankruptcy Judge in Central District of California Bankruptcy Court issues decision that a party which wants to subpoena a bankruptcy trustee must—pursuant to the “Barton Doctrine” move for and get permission of the Bankruptcy Court to subpoena the Trustee, before subpoenaing the Trustee. Background Someone seeking to issue a subpoena to a trustee is the proper party to seek leave under the Barton doctrine, Judge Clarkson says. However, the Bankruptcy Judge’s decision acknowledges that a 2006 9th Circuit BAP decision In re Media Group,…
In re LTL Management LLC, ___BR___, 21-30589 (Bankr. D.N.J. Feb. 25, 2022)
In re LTL Management LLC, ___BR___, 21-30589 (Bankr. D.N.J. Feb. 25, 2022): Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary Survives a Motion to Dismiss—for being a bad faith bankruptcy filing– the bankruptcy filed by the subsidiary that J& J created, put all the talc claim cancer lawsuits into, and then had subsidiary (LTL Management LLC) filed bankruptcy. J&J created the LTL Management LLC subsidiary, put the talc tort claim suits into the subsidiary, have the subsidiary file bankruptcy and the parent company does NOT file bankruptcy, has come to be referred to as the “Texas 2 Step”, because this procedure was first used…
ABI Analysis: The $1.7 Billion Student Loan Deal that Was Too Good to Be True
ABI Analysis: The $1.7 Billion Student Loan Deal that Was Too Good to Be True, because hundreds of thousands of borrowers still have to pay back the predatory, high interest rate, educational loans: Even though prosecutors said Navient had made predatory loans to hundreds of thousands of borrowers it knew couldn’t afford them, the $1.7 billion settlement the lender made last month with 39 states covered only about 66,000 who were in default. Those who managed to make the payments on their deceptive, high-interest debt — mostly to attend for-profit schools that left them with worthless degrees — would just…
In re Royal Street Bistro, LLC, ___ F. 4th ___., 2022 WL 499938 (5th Cir.Court of Appeals 2/16/22)
In a published order denying a petition for writ of mandamus to compel a district court to grant a stay pending appeal of a bankruptcy sale order, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a chapter 11 trustee could sell real property free and clear of leasehold interests which were junior to the rights of a mortgagee which could have foreclosed out those interests in a state court proceeding, but for the bankruptcy. In doing so, the Court rejected alternative arguments relied upon by the bankruptcy court and the district court. Debtor Royal Street Bistro filed a Chapter 11…
California Adopts New Debt Collection Regulations (as reported in 2/11/22 Credit & Collection E-Newsletter)
New regulations from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (Department) affecting licensure of debt collectors became effective as of January 1, 2022. The regulations provide the process and requirements to apply for a license as a debt collector, including application through the NMLS, and specify the acts that constitute grounds for license denial. The California Debt Collection Licensing Act (the Act) prohibits any person from engaging in the business of consumer debt collection without a license from the Department and authorizes the Department to adopt rules to administer the Act. Among other provisions, the recently effective rules require…
Article reports Landlords finding ways to evict tenants, after the landlord receives government rental aid
A day before she was due to be evicted in November 2021 from her Atlanta home, Shanelle King heard that she had been awarded about $15,000 in rental assistance. She could breathe again. But then the 43-year-old hairdresser got a letter last month from her landlord saying the company was canceling her lease in March —- seven months early — without any explanation. “I’m really pissed about it. I thought I would be comfortable again back in my home,” said King, whose work dried up during the pandemic and who now worries about finding another apartment she can afford. “Here…