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New Cases For the Week of April 8, 2002 - April
12, 2002
Brought to you by BKINFORMATION.COM
- The Source for Business Bankruptcy Information on the Internet
April
12, 2002
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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Arnold
v. Garlock, Inc.
(DBN Subscription Required) |
5th Cir. |
Section
362 does not does not divest all other courts of jurisdiction
to hear every claim that is in any way related to the
bankruptcy proceeding. Further, that district courts retain
jurisdiction to determine the applicability of the stay to
litigation pending before them, and to enter orders not
inconsistent with the terms of the stay.
Under Texas law, a contribution claim against a debtor is
not an affirmative claim for relief independent of the
plaintiff's claim, on which the co-liable party could recover
benefits, compensation or relief, even though the plaintiff
may abandon his cause of action or fail to establish it.
Because no judgment had been entered in suits sought to be
removed to bankruptcy court based upon "related to"
contribution claims, the contribution claims were
unsustainable under State law, and thus insufficient to
support "related to" jurisdiction. |
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April
10, 2002
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Universal Seismic Associates, Inc.
(DBN Subscription Required) |
5th Cir. |
Pursuant
to 11 USC 502(b)(3), a tax lien assessed against a debtor's
personal property attaches to all remaining personal property
even after most of the property is returned to a senior
lender, but the amount of the lien cannot exceed the value of
the remaining property. |
In
re Bassett
(DBN Subscription Required) |
9th Cir. |
The
BAP erred in finding that a provision in a reaffirmation
agreement informing the debtor of her right to rescind within
60 days was not clear and conspicuous because it was not in
capital letters. Lawyers who think their caps lock keys are instant "make conspicuous" buttons are deluded.
In determining whether a term is conspicuous, a court examines
more than formatting. A term that appears in capitals can still be inconspicuous if it is hidden on the back of a contract in small type.
A sentence in capitals, buried deep within a long paragraph in capitals will probably not be deemed conspicuous.
Conspicuousness ultimately turns on the likelihood that a reasonable person would actually see a term in an agreement. Thus, it is entirely possible for text to be conspicuous without being in capitals. |
In
re Stanton
(DBN Subscription Required) |
9th Cir. |
The
bankruptcy court erred in avoiding a lien on the house of
individual debtors who had guaranteed the line of credit of
their closely held corporation. The court avoided the
lien on the grounds that the increased debt secured by the
lien (which arose from additional advances made during the
period when the individual debtors were in bankruptcy but the
corporation was not) was an invalid postpetition
transfer. However, since the lien included a future
advances clause and predated the bankruptcy, it could not be
avoided. |
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April
9, 2002
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Case
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Court
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Holding
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In
re Reaves
(DBN Subscription Required) |
9th Cir. |
A
California debtor is nor prohibited from claiming one set of
personal property exemptions before bankruptcy in response to
enforced collection of a judgment, and another set of
exemptions in her bankruptcy. |
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