Judge Pamela McAfee overruled a Chapter 7 trustee’s objection to a North Carolina debtor’s homestead exemption claimed in real estate located not in Wake County, but in Corentyne Berbice, Guyana. The case highlights two recurring issues in exemption law:
(1) whether a spouse living abroad may qualify as a “dependent” for purposes of N.C.G.S. § 1C-1601(a)(1), and
In this post-confirmation Chapter 11 dispute, the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina granted a motion by Fourth Elm Construction, LLC to compel arbitration and stay the adversary proceeding brought by the debtor, JSmith Civil, LLC. The adversary complaint asserted state-law claims for breach of contract and quantum meruit arising from a terminated subcontracting agreement. Fourth Elm relied on the contract’s Article 24 arbitration clause, invoking Section 3 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).
