After a trial, the court granted the debtor a Chapter 7 discharge, finding that he did not intend to defraud or mislead creditors by concealing or failing to schedule certain income, nor were any creditors harmed by his omissions.
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United States Courts Opinions (USCOURTS) collection is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to provide public access to opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.
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The debtor's motion for a § 362(c)(3) stay extension was denied because she was unable to provide clear and convincing evidence of good faith in filing her current case less than a year after a prior case was dismissed for failure to make plan payments.
The court denied the trustee's motion to dismiss the creditors' counterclaim because they had not filed a timely proof of claim, ruling that the adversary proceeding was a better place to deal with the counterclaim than the claims process would be.
Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on their objection to debtor's discharge for allegedly concealing income and understating asset value was denied because they failed to file any supporting evidence as required by local procedural rules.
Because the debtor had a previous case pending but dismissed in the year prior to filing this case, the automatic stay expired 30 days after the petition date. The debtor was unable to establish a change in circumstances to warrant extending the stay.
The court denied a creditor's motion to sue another creditor in an effort to recover property for the estate. The court found that the creditor had no standing to act for the trustee and the proposed litigation would not benefit the bankruptcy estate.
The modified hourly rate charged by counsel to the creditors' committee was reasonable and his work benefitted the estate. However, time spent marking documents should be included in overhead and should not be charged as a professional service.
Under §§ 707(b)(1) and (3)(B), it would be an abuse of the provisions of Chapter 7 to permit debtors to devote more than 82 percent of their income to interest-only mortgage payments for a brand-new house while paying nothing to unsecured creditors.
The plaintiff presented evidence sufficient to establish that the debtor breached his contractual obligations, although such breach does not necessarily establish non-dischargeability. Further evidence was needed on the nature of the conduct.
The judgment creditor was unable to establish grounds for a constructive trust because he did not prove the funds were obtained by fraud, misrepresentation, or an abuse of the parties' relationship, or that he traced the funds into specific assets.