The court denied a motion to dismiss the debtors’ class action adversary complaint against Wells Fargo based on Wells Fargo’s inaccurate notices to various bankruptcy courts that the debtors’ loans had been placed in COVID forbearance at the debtors’ request. Harlow v. Wells Fargo & Co., No. 17-71487, Adv. Proc. No. 20-7028 (Bankr. W.D. Dec. 12, 2022). [Read more…] about Wells Fargo and False Loan Forbearance Class Action
Laches Forecloses Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss
Where the Trustee slept on her right to challenge the debtor’s method of calculating her plan payments until shortly before the debtor completed her plan, the doctrine of laches compelled denial of the trustee’s motion to dismiss. In re Melcher, No. 16-21536 (Bankr. E.D. Ky. Aug. 30, 2022).
The debtor and the chapter 13 Trustee negotiated a 60-month plan in which the debtor agreed to commit one third of her annual gross income over $120,000 to the plan (“excess income payments”). The debtor calculated her first excess income payment by taking the income from Box 1 of her W-2 form, subtracting $120,000 and multiplying the result by .33. After discussion with the Trustee and one of her creditors, the debtor’s payment was accepted as correct. The debtor used the same method of calculation for the following years’ excess income payments. [Read more…] about Laches Forecloses Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss
Refinancing Loans Not Consumer Debts
The movant bears the burden of demonstrating by a preponderance of the evidence that the debtor’s debts were “consumer” rather than “business,” and the debtor’s subjective purpose in taking out the loans is a crucial factor where the debts do not fall neatly into either category. Centennial Bank v. Kane, No. 21-4597 (N.D. Cal. July 22, 2022). [Read more…] about Refinancing Loans Not Consumer Debts
Grace Period to Cure Arrearage Beyond Five-Year Plan Period
A bankruptcy court has discretion to grant a grace period at the end of the five-year plan to a chapter 13 debtor who has completed her plan payments but where there is a newly discovered arrearage. Klaas v. Shovlin (In re Klaas), Nos. 15-3341 & 16-3482 (3rd Cir. June 1, 2017).
Chapter 13 debtors, Paul and Beth Ann Klaas, successfully completed their plan according to its terms, but one month after completion, the trustee filed a motion to dismiss citing an unpaid arrearage of over $1,000. (The shortfall was apparently due to an increase in the Trustee’s fee during the term of the plan, and not to any missed payments.) In the motion to dismiss, the trustee stated that she would withdraw the motion if the Klaas’s paid the arrearage. They did so. By that time, however, a creditor, Elizabeth Shovlin, had joined the motion to dismiss and objected to its withdrawal. [Read more…] about Grace Period to Cure Arrearage Beyond Five-Year Plan Period