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Case Summaries

Bankruptcy Law

[08/27] Campbell v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc.
In a suit accusing defendant of filing a claim attempting to collect a pre-petition debt in violation of an automatic stay in plaintiffs' Chapter 13 bankruptcy, an interlocutory order granting partial summary judgment for plaintiffs is reversed where: 1) unpaid escrow payments that accumulate pre-petition in the year that a bankruptcy petition is filed, and which the creditor had a right to collect under the loan documents, constitute a "claim" under the Bankruptcy Code; but 2) the filing of a proof of claim including the amounts of these payments does not by itself violate an automatic stay in a bankruptcy proceeding.

[08/26] In re: Porter
In a bankruptcy case, a ruling excepting from discharge a judgment debt that appellee had obtained against debtor in an employment retaliation case is affirmed where the bankruptcy court correctly bankruptcy court gave collateral estoppel effect to the judgment, and found that the jury in the retaliation case necessarily found that debtor willfully and maliciously injured appellee.

[08/26] In re: Hamilton
11 U.S.C. section 524(a) makes a state-court judgment void ab initio when entered against a debtor whose dischargeable debts have been discharged.

[08/22] In the Matter of: Ferrell
Statutory damages are not available for violations of 15 U.S.C. sections 1632(a) and 1638(b)(1), provisions of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).

[08/22] Henning v. Mainstreet Bank
In bankruptcy proceedings wherein appellant claimed that a mortgage he granted to appellee-bank on his home as collateral for business loans should be released under the terms of their agreement, summary judgment for bank is affirmed where: 1) with regards to the term "paid", the contract is not ambiguous and appellant's definition of the term was contrary to the parties' clear intention that bank be made a secured creditor; and 2) a claim that he should be equitably excused from his obligation as a guarantor is not addressed.

[08/21] In re: Cellular 101, Inc.
A party's failure to timely inform the court of appeals of a settlement that it believes disposes of a pending appeal precludes the party from asserting the affirmative defense of settlement and release in a later proceeding.

[08/19] In Re: Holland
A dispute in a bankruptcy case over which state's law should determine whether real property owned by debtor should be exempted from the bankruptcy estate is dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction where the district court's order ruling that Florida law applied and remanding to bankruptcy court, without deciding whether Florida law granted an exemption, was not a final order subject to appeal.

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