Bankruptcy Caselaw

July 26, 2011

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal Rules Tax Debt can be Discharged in Second Bankruptcy

Sacramento area residents considering a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy should be interested to learn about the recent United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case: In re Brenda Marie Jones, which affects how a second bankruptcy filing affects a persons tax debts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals governs all appeals made from Sacramento area federal courts, including bankruptcy matters.

Federal and State income taxes can typically be discharged if they were due more than three years ago. However, the three-year standard can be extended if the debt could not have been collected. This means that when an automatic stay is issued in a previous bankruptcy, the debt cannot be collected, which therefore extends the time period to which a debtor must wait before he or she can discharge that tax debt.

In the Brenda Marie Jones case, a California woman filing for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy owed a debt, more than three years old, to the California Franchise Tax Board (CFTB). Ms. Jones attempted to discharge that debt in her new bankruptcy but the CFTB argued that because Jones had previously filed for bankruptcy, they were prevented from collecting the tax debt and it was therefore improper for her to discharge the debt in the recently filed case.

June 22, 2011

Class Action HAMP Lawsuit Dismissed by Federal Judge

by Matthew D. Roy

California residents who reside in the Sacramento metropolitan area may be interested to know an update in case-law that could potentially impact any home loan modification. The ongoing trend regarding litigation surrounding the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has been re-affirmed by a Washington D.C. Judge in Doreen Edwards et al v. Aurora Loan Servicers LLC. In Edwards, the Plaintiff argued that an individual borrower should have the right to sue because they were impacted by the HAMP agreement between Aurora , a private loan servicer and Fannie Mae.

All Plaintiffs in the case were eligible under HAMP for a home loan modification but were nonetheless denied by Aurora even though they were qualified under the program. The plaintiff’s cited “endless bureaucratic incompetence coupled with a lack of effective recourse for wrongful denials” as a basis for their against Aurora after having been denied a modified loan. The lawsuit alleged a violation by Aurora of its independent agreement with Fannie Mae: (1) that Aurora failed to act in good faith and fair dealing and (2) Aurora violated their right to Due Process. Aurora responded that the plaintiffs were not eligible to sue since they were not parties to the agreement with Fannie Mae and Aurora.

Judge Rothstein agreed with Aurora and held that the individual borrowers had no right to sue because they had no vested interest under the HAMP agreement. Judge Rothstein joined numerous other court decisions making similar findings. Judges in all District Courts of California have held this same decision including the Eastern District of California, which hears all cases brought in the Sacramento area. These courts have held in order for a person to have standing, the homeowner plaintiffs had to show that Fannie Mae and Aurora intended to include the borrowers, individually, to their HAMP agreement.

September 16, 2010

Appellate Court Rules Increased Property Value Belongs to the Bankruptcy Estate

by Matthew D. Roy

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over all Sacramento area residents who file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, ruled yesterday that a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee may be able to sell a debtor’s house if its value increases during the bankruptcy, even though the debtor’s equity was fully exempt at the time of filing. The 9th Circuit consolidated two bankruptcy appeals within their jurisdiction in the case, In re Gebhart, No. 07-16769.

Debtors from Arizona and Washington each argued that the Chapter 7 trustee’s failure to object to a homestead exemption claim within the prescribed time frame permitted to contest the property’s value results in the property being withdrawn from the bankruptcy estate.

Gebhart focuses on a debtor who filed for Chapter 7 in Arizona in 2003 and claimed the full value of his home as exempt. The trustee assigned to the case did not object to the exemption when the debtor claimed it. However, the debtor’s case remained open and in 2006 the trustee attempted to sell the house as property values increased in order to reclaim the appreciated value for the debtor’s creditors. The debtor lost in the district court when he objected to the sale arguing the homestead exemption covered the full value of his home when he filed for Chapter 7. Oddly, a court in Washington with facts almost identical to the case filed in Arizona held that the original exemption did in fact cover the inceased value of the debtor’s home.

August 27, 2010

Appellate Court makes decision regarding Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Mortgage Lenders

by Matthew D. Roy

Sacramento area debtors who have filed Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy are frequently concerned with the implications of the FDCPA (affecting a creditor’s ability to collect on a debt) while his or her case is pending in the local bankruptcy court.

The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the Midwestern U.S., recently decided that some communications sent to borrowers by a loan servicer may fall under the provisions of the FDCPA. In Gburek v. Litton Loan Servicing LP, a borrower appealed after the trial court dismissed her case when she sued her mortgage servicer for violating her rights under the Act when the mortgage servicer hired a third party company to communicate with her about the debt. In her original complaint, Gburek claimed that Litton violated the FDCPA by contacting her despite knowledge that she had a lawyer, using deceptive means to obtain her personal information, and for disclosing her personal information to a third party.

According to the case, Litton contacted Gburek to discuss Gburek’s default on her mortgage. Litton sent Gburek a letter that asked her for a variety of financial information which also discussed Gburek’s possible alternatives to foreclosure on the property in an attempt to settle her mortgage-loan debt. The letter contained a disclosure that Litton was a debt collector and that the letter was sent as an attempt to collect a debt. Sometime thereafter Litton contracted with Titanium Solutions to contact Gburek. Gburek received a letter from Titanium that also asked for Gburek’s financial information but stated that it was not a debt collector and could not accept payments even though they had been hired by Litton to contact Gburek in order to facilitate a settlement between them.

April 18, 2010

Sacramento Area Bankruptcy Laws Unsettled With Regard to “Stripping-off” an Unsecured Second Mortgage by Filing Chapter 7

by Matthew D. Roy

For those of you living in the Sacramento area that have a second mortgage on your real property which is essentially “unsecured” due to the fact that the value of your house has fallen below the amount secured by your first mortgage may be able to stop the bank from foreclosing and save your home by filing Chapter 7. In the case In Re Lavelle, 2009 Bankr., a bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of New York allowed debtors to void the second mortgage lien held by the bank against their property by filing Chapter 7 when the value of their home fell below the amount secured by the first mortgage.

Since the case-law has not been settled in the Ninth Circuit, whose rules apply to those of us living in the Sacramento area, a debtor could conceivably prevent foreclosure and save their house so long as they can afford to continue making payments on the first mortgage after all other debts have been discharged in addition to the second mortgage. It makes sense that local judges could be inclined to interpret the bankruptcy code in a similar fashion as the court in the Eastern District of New York since a bank holding an unsecured second mortgage would not see a penny whether the house gets foreclosed on or the debt is stripped-off and voided under Chapter 7. Given the economic “fresh start” principles that Chapter 7 is designed to provide to a debtor, and the number of people that this interpretation of the law could help from losing their homes, I believe judges will become increasingly receptive to the argument. This view rests on a novel interpretation of the bankruptcy code, however, and would probably be an uphill legal battle. Nonetheless, In Re Lavelle shows at least one judge has become sensitive to the current economic situation and there is enough wiggle room in the law to provide a legal basis for making such a claim.

As a Sacramento bankruptcy attorney I have spoken with numerous clients with these types of questions. The only way to know for sure is by locating a debtor who finds himself in this situation to retain a lawyer who is willing to bring the case before a local court and present the argument. This would almost certainly become a drawn out legal process, but the courts would probably allow the debtor to at least remain in the property until all appeals have been exhausted and a final decision, perhaps by the United States Supreme Court, has been made. If you believe that you could benefit from this interpretation of the law it may be in your best interest to consult an attorney familiar on the subject.