Case Updates

Both courts concluded that proceeds recovered under Bankruptcy Code section 551 should be used to pay general unsecured creditors rather than the junior lienholder. Read more

The Dental Board of California filed an accusation against orthodontist Mohammadrez Yazdi, charging that he had failed to comply with its subpoenas seeking dental records of numerous patients and that he had failed to pay administrative fines. Read more

The US Supreme Court's recent Acevedo decision does not prevent the bankruptcy court from retroactively lifting the automatic stay. Read more

In Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Trustee v. Pototschnig, 200 Conn. App. 554, 2020 WL 5884059 (2020), the Appellate Court of Connecticut ruled that possession of an original mortgage note, endorsed in blank, creates a rebuttable presumption that the lender has standing to file a foreclosure action. Read more

Suzanne Stone had a health care plan governed by ERISA. Stone’s daughter received in-state treatment for an eating disorder that was approved by the plan administrator, but was discharged with a referral to a facility in Colorado offering a higher level of care. Read more

Labor Code section 515 allows for the establishment of overtime pay exemptions for employees who perform certain duties and who “earn[ ] a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment.” A compensation plan based solely on commissions, with a recoverable draw against future commissions, does not qualify as a “salary” for purposes of the administrative exemption to overtime pay. Read more

Community property presumption overrides the form of title presumption in a dispute between spouses and the bankruptcy trustee in husband's Chapter 7 case. Read more

Trustee prevailed on constructive fraudulent transfer claim to avoid and recover a "gift of equity" from debtor to his adult children as part of a prepetition sale of real property. Read more

The Court of Appeals of Nevada recently issued a detailed opinion, drawing on nationwide authority, interpreting section 9-609 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which authorizes a secured creditor to enter private property to recover possession of collateral so long as the repossession proceeds “without breach of the peace” (a term not defined in the UCC). The case is Droge v. AAAA Two Star Towing, 2020 WL3415636 (June 18, 2020). Read more

The following is a case summary written by Kathleen A. Cashman-Kramer analyzing Elliott vs. Pacific Western Bank, 969 F.3d 1006 (9th Cir. 2020). Read more