Where the Supreme Court previously addressed the proper standard for holding a creditor in civil contempt for attempting to collect a debt that a Chapter 7 discharge order has immunized from collection, that rule also applied in a Chapter 11 ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Trustee fails to recover debtor’s IRS tax penalty payments
Where the trustee sued the United States to void a debtor’s tax penalty obligations to the IRS, and to recover the debtor’s prior payments to the IRS, his claims were dismissed. A “noncompensatory tax penalty that is statutorily required and ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy fees amendment is constitutional
Although a 2017 amendment to the bankruptcy fees provisions may render it more expensive for some debtors in Virginia—as opposed to North Carolina or Alabama—to go through Chapter 11 proceedings, because the difference is a byproduct of Virginia’s use of ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Treasury can claim debtor’s tax overpayment
Although the bankruptcy code allows a debtor to claim certain personal property as exempt, the Treasury Department has a superior right to claim a tax overpayment, in order to offset monies owed to another federal agency. Background To finance the ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – IRS’s offset right trumps debtor’s right to receive tax overpayment
The case of first impression held that despite a bankruptcy code section providing that exempt property cannot be used to satisfy a debtor’s prepetition debts, the tax code makes clear the government’s right to set-off a tax overpayment against a ...
Read More »Bankruptcy 1997 decision on homestead bifurcation overruled
The 4 Circuit, sitting en banc, holds that a Chapter 13 plan may bifurcate a claim based on an undersecured homestead mortgage into secured and unsecured components and cram down the unsecured component, overruling a 1997 decision that had ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – 1997 decision on homestead bifurcation overruled
The 4th Circuit, sitting en banc, holds that a Chapter 13 plan may bifurcate a claim based on an undersecured homestead mortgage into secured and unsecured components and cram down the unsecured component, overruling a 1997 decision that had been ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Debt may be dischargeable under collateral estoppel
A debtor might be able to discharge a $20 million plus judgment through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The district court found the debt nondischargeable under principles of collateral estoppel, reasoning that, because the debtor was found liable for misappropriating trade ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Post-petition payments can’t be sought for child support
The Bankruptcy Code is clear that when a Chapter 13 plan is not confirmed, the trustee must return post-petition payments to the debtor. As a result, the child support division could not levy on funds held by the trustee because ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Real Property – Mortgages – Prior Discharge – Standing
Even though the debtor’s promissory note was discharged in a prior bankruptcy, his mortgage remains enforceable, and the current servicer of the mortgage has standing to file a proof of claim to enforce the mortgage. Creditor Ditech Financial LLC’s secured ...
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