Summary: The Debtor's mother signed the Debtor's signature on 11 student loans.  After filing bankruptcy, the Debtor objected to the validity of the claims. The Court began by reiterating that under 11 U.S.C. § 502(b0, ‘[claims that are unenforceable against the debtor or against property of the debtor . . . are simply not allowable for purposes of a right to share in a distribution of the debtor's assets." In re Easthaven Marina Group, LLC, No. 08-05453-8-JRL (Bankr. E.D.N.C. May 7, 2009) (Leonard, J) (quoting 4 Collier on Bankruptcy (15th ed.

Summary: The Debtors are the owners of real property in Vandemere, North Carolina and a mobile home that sits at that location, but is  personal property.  The Debtors claimed both as exempt under their homestead.  A judgment creditor objected that this was not the residence of the Debtors and that the Debtors had not obtained the necessary permits to place the mobile home at the property. The Debtors testified that they were currently not residing on the property, partly because the Male Debtor required dialysis that was not available locally and also because

Summary: The Chapter 7 Debtors failed to disclose in their petition their interests in various real estate partnerships and multiple foreclosure proceedings, which the Chapter 7 Trustee discovered through reviewing the Debtors’ tax return and public records.  The Debtors then sought to convert to Chapter 13 and the Chapter 7 Trustee objected. The Court held the Debtors  initial schedules were so misleading as to give rise to an inference  of bad faith, which in turn prevents conversion. Marrama v. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, 549 U.S.

Summary: The Debtors refinanced their home original Sun Trust mortgage again with Sun Trust, which provided the Model Form H-8 "Notice of Right to Cancel", which is used for closed-end secured consumer credit transactions.  In fact it should have used Model Form H-9, which applies in a refinancing rather than new extension of credit.  Form H-9 differs from  Form H-8 in two ways- First, instead of Form H-8’s disclosure that the borrower is "entering into a transaction that will result in a security interest in your  home," Form H-9 provides that "[y]ou are

Summary: Citibank brought suit against the Debtor seeking to recover $5,108.89, which it  alleged was owed on a credit card, originally issued by AT&T Universal Card in 1995 and acquired by Citibank in 2002.  The Debtor disputed the amount owed, alleging that Citibank had changed the interest rate on the credit card without notifying him.  Citibank did not respond to the Debtor’s discovery seeking a copy of the original credit card agreement, asserting that the request sough "documents previously provided to ...

Summary: William Miller, Russell Grogan and Stephanie Grogan purchased a 21.394 acre tract (Tract I) in 1997 and subsequently a 0.15 acre tract (Tract II) to provide access to a road.  In 2003, the owners granted a Deed of Trust to GMAC.  The Deed of Trust included a tax parcel number that encompassed both Tract I and Tract II, but the legal description only referenced Tract II.  In 2005, the owners subdivided Tract I into Tract IA, consisting of 10.932 acres owned by all three,  and Tract IB, consisting of 10.389 acres which was henceforth to be owned solely by the Grogan

Abstract:     

This paper  examines the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of homeowners who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2007, using a rich dataset from the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project.

Summary: This article discusses the "fix" that Congress attempted to make in BAPCPA in 11 U.S.C.

Abstract:      This essay critically examines MERS' structure which incorporates principles of dubious legality such as a theory of common agency as well as a duality of roles held by MERS. The article examines many recent decisions in state, federal and bankruptcy courts in order to identify current trends regarding MERS-related jurisprudence.

Abstract: Section 302(a) of the Bankruptcy Code allows an individual debtor and his or her "spouse" to commence a joint bankruptcy case by filing a single bankruptcy petition. The term spouse is not defined in the Bankruptcy Code; however, since 1996, section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") has defined a spouse for purposes of federal law as "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." Although no state permitted same-sex couples to marry when DOMA was adopted in 1996, six states currently permit same-sex couples to marry.