Business Law Insolvency Law Committee

Applying 7th Circuit precedent, a Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin (the “Court”) ruled that obligations of a debtor created by a personal guaranty Read more

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit in Zamora v. Perez (In re Perez), 628 B.R. 327 (9th Cir. BAP June 17, 2021) found that the trustee’s actions did not result in “recovery of the property” within the meaning of Section 522(g) and therefore the trustee’s objection to the debtor’s homestead exemption was properly overruled. Read more

Interpreting Ohio’s versions of two uniform acts, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Court”) ruled that an involuntary debtor’s payments to a lender under the parties’ revolving loan Read more

A recent Bankruptcy Court decision from the Western District of Washington (the “Court”) disagreed with a 2007 case from the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) and a 2021 case by the Bankruptcy Court of the District of Idaho Read more

In Guevarra v. Whatley (In re Guevarra), 2021 WL 1179619 (BAP 9th Cir. Mar. 29, 2021), the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (the “BAP”) vacated the bankruptcy court’s decision to sustain an objection to the claimed California wildcard exemption Read more

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit (BAP) reversed a bankruptcy court decision that had ruled a debtor’s disclaimer of his interest in a trust was invalid because he had accepted the interest before he waived it, resulting in a claim for a fraudulent transfer by the trustee. Read more

In Berkovich v. California Franchise Tax Board (In re Berkovich), 15 F.4th 997 (9th Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Court”) held that when a debtor’s federal tax liability is adjusted and the debtor fails to report the adjustment to the California Franchise Tax Board, the additional tax owed to the state is nondischargeable. Read more

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that fraudulent transfer and turnover claims are “core” non-arbitrable claims and denied a motion to compel arbitration as to those claims. Read more

In re Heard, 2021 WL 3540412, (Bankr. D. Or. 2021) is a case in which a loan servicer mistakenly filed on inaccurate change notice in a Chapter 13 case Read more

Court affirmed award of attorneys' fees to third party beneficiaries of a contract with a prevailing party clause (Fee Applicants) after dismissal of a cross-complaint against them despite the fact that Fee Applicants were not parties to the contract and the award was based on tort, not contract claims. Read more