Summary: After the sale of her home, Ms. Smith sought a plan modification to discontinue disbursements on the mortgage, which had until that point been paid as a conduit. The Chapter 13 Trustee requested that Ms. Smith provided amended Schedules I and J or other evidence of current income and expenses. This request was refused and the Trustee objected to the modification. Starting from In re Arnold, 869 F.2d 240 (4th Cir. 1989) the bankruptcy court held that a post-confirmation required the following: 1.

Summary: Mr.  Powers is the owner of a 50% undivided interest in his home, which has a total value of $292,000.00.   Bank of America holds a Deed of Trust against the entire property with a mortgage balance of $180,972.92.  Mr.  Powers also had three judgment liens against his interest, held, in order of seniority, by John Deere for $14,952.50, Evergreen for $4,617.48, and Farrar for $29,346.44.  Upon filing of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, Mr.  Powers sought to avoid all three judgment liens as impairing his homestead exemption of $35,000.00. 1

Summary: The Farags (who were eventually represented by my law firm in their Chapter 13 bankruptcy- all statements in this posting are taken solely from the court decisions) obtained a line of credit in 2002 with Wells Fargo, secured by their real property. This was refinanced in 2004 by PNC, which, based on a pay-off statement from Wells Fargo, paid the balance owed and requested that the Deed of Trust be marked as satisfied and record.

Summary: BB&T held secured claim against property of the estate. During the initial Chapter 11, BB&T received $62,900 in adequate protection payments. When the case eventually converted and assets were liquidated, paying the secured claim of BB&T, it nonetheless sought a super-priority claim under 11 U.S.C. § 507(b) for its post-petition interest, costs and fees. In order to hold a super-priority claim BB&T was required to show the following: 1. The adequate protection payments provided ultimately proved to be inadequate. 2.

Summary: The Royals sought to modify their Chapter 13 plan to surrender a 15-year old motor vehicle that was increasingly expensive to maintain due to mechanical problems. The court denied this modification, first finding that the Royals had provided not evidence of a substantial and unanticipated change in financial circumstances beyond these mechanical problems. Following Chrysler Financial Corp. v. Nolan (In re Nolan), 232 F.2d 528, 532-33 (6th Cir. 2000), the court held that that 11 U.S.C.

Summary: Separately, both Mr. and Ms. Napoleon signed assignments of insurance proceeds to Bio-Medical for kidney dialysis treatment Ms. Napoleon received. After litigation over the amounts owed and distribution of pre-petition insurance proceeds, the Napoleons filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy and subsequently received addition insurance checks ad amended their exemptions to claim $4,999.00 under Mr. Napoleon’s wildcard. Bio-Medical objected. Relying largely on In re Helms, 467 B.R. 374 (Bankr. W.D.N.C.

Summary: Mr. Smith filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Wells Fargo commenced foreclosure on real property. The amended proposed plan provided for the cram-down of the secured claim held by Wells Fargo to $60,000.00. The Confirmation Order provided “that confirmation is expressly conditioned upon [Mr. Smith] providing for the payment of all claims assertable against [Mr. Smith’s] estate as specified in the Plan and in this Order.” The Chapter 11 case was, however, dismissed at Mr. Smith’s request two years later, after which Wells Fargo recommenced foreclosure.

Summary: In a long-running case, of which this is the fourth opinion from the court, the Debtor and Bankruptcy administrator objected to the attorney’s fees sought by Bate Land Company (“BLC”). The Court held that BLC was an over secured creditor under 11 U.S.C. § 506(b). The Debtor, however, first contended that the Note provided for attorney’s fees to BLC only in the event of a default and that, since the bankruptcy was filed during the 10-day grace period after the initial missed payment, there had been not default.

Summary: Mr. Ennis filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, including First Federal as a creditor. While First Federal did activate a bankruptcy block to discontinue past due notifications, its continued to send computer generated monthly statements to Mr. Ennis, listing the balance, accrued interest and amount past due. Mr. Ennis’ counsel did send notices to First Federal regarding the bankruptcy filing and the extent of the automatic stay, but did not describe any specific wrong doing. These notices were sent to First Federal at its street address, rather than its mailing address.

Summary: More reasonably equivalent value discussions in the Tanglewood Farms case. Commentary: Not every order granting avoidance of a judgment lien or for relief from the stay on a car are treated as a written opinion,  but maybe since these  reasonably equivalent value cases are becoming nearly as common, they will stop being treated as such. For a copy of the opinion, please see: Ange