April 2016

oh no We sold our house TT seized the moneyI have written several times about exempting assets in bankruptcy.  The gist is that in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the debtor gets to keep all assets that are exempt using the appropriate exemption table, but the Chapter 7 Trustee assigned to the case is empowered to seize and liquidate the nonexempt assets for the benefit of the debtor’s creditors.  And in other chapters the value of the nonexempt assets is one of the factors that are used to determine how much the debtor must repay the general unsecured creditors through the plan.

I have also written about the six-month reinvestment requirement for a homestead exemption after a debtor receives the exempt proceeds from the sale of the debtor’s primary residence.  The idea here is that if the debtor has nonexempt equity in the primary residence, the Chapter 7 Trustee will sell the property for the benefit of the creditors, and write the debtor a check for the exemption amount; but the debtor must reinvest the proceeds in a new domicile within six months of receiving the check from the Trustee or else the Trustee can reclaim the money.

When the Trustee sells a nonexempt asset, the sale is, from the debtor’s perspective, an involuntary sale.

In this post I will discuss what happens to the homestead exemption when the debtor voluntarily sells the primary residence, either in bankruptcy, or outside of bankruptcy.
Continue Reading Voluntary Sales And The Homestead Exemption

Absolute Priority Rule (1)Some time ago I wrote in great detail about personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  In that post I discussed the application of one of the complexities of Chapter 11 bankruptcy to individual (as opposed to business) cases.  That complexity is the absolute priority rule.  At the time of the post, we had a patchwork of inconsistent case law on the topic, making the success of a personal Chapter 11 case dependent, in part, on the identity of the judge assigned to the case.

Things have been resolved ― at least in the Ninth Circuit ― and not in favor of individuals.  Let’s recall the setting:

I.  The Absolute Priority Rule

The absolute priority rule is an important idiosyncrasy of Chapter 11 that has no analogue in either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.  We’ll begin by describing the absolute priority rule in the business Chapter 11 context.

A.  The Business Chapter 11 Absolute Priority Rule

In bankruptcy not all debts are treated equally.  For example, the law distinguishes between secured debts ― debts that are secured by collateral that can be repossessed in the event of a default ― and unsecured debts.  Secured debts are not treated the same as unsecured debts because the secured creditor has special rights attached to the collateral securing the debt.

Even among unsecured debts there are distinctions.  Some are given priority over others.  The various priority classes are listed in 11 U.S.C. § 507(a).  This distinction sets the stage for the so-called absolute priority rule for Chapter 11.
Continue Reading The Absolute Priority Rule Applies To Individual Chapter 11 Debtors