BANKRUPTCY LAW CASES

• Campbell v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc.
• In the Matter of: SI Restructuring, Inc.
• In re: Hamilton
• In re: Porter
• PW Enterprises v. North Dakota Racing Commission

U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 27, 2008
Campbell v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc., No. 07-20499
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. Read more...

U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 29, 2008
In the Matter of: SI Restructuring, Inc., No. 07-50912
In a bankruptcy case, a bankruptcy court's order granting a plan administrator's motion authorizing disbursal of a reserve fund is vacated and remanded where the reserve fund was expressly negotiated by debtor and creditors for the purposes of satisfying debtors' allowed secured claims, and the amount of those claims was still subject to litigation. Read more...

U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 26, 2008
In re: Hamilton, No. 07-6269
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. Read more...

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 26, 2008
In re: Porter, No. 07-3387
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. Read more...

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 29, 2008
PW Enterprises v. North Dakota Racing Commission, No. 071821
In a bankruptcy matter, denial of appellant's motion for derivative standing is reversed and remanded where: 1) creditor (or creditor's committee) may obtain derivative standing to pursue avoidance actions under circumstances in which the trustee (or debtor-in-possession) either unjustifiably refuses to bring the creditor's proposed claims or consents to the creditor pursuing such claims in his stead; and 2) the bankruptcy courts may retroactively grant a creditor derivative standing. Read more...