Tag Archives: Chapter 7

A Lesson from the Lumber Yard: Middle District of Florida Raises Particularity Requirement for Trustee Standing in § 549 Avoidance Actions

By J. Ellsworth Summers, Jr. and Scott St. Amand on May 7, 2013 Posted in Bankruptcy, Commercial Lending

One of the primary roles of a Chapter 7 trustee is to ensure that the bankruptcy estate is preserved prior to liquidation. It is no wonder, then, that the Trustee’s avoidance powers are well defined by the Bankruptcy Code. Nevertheless, a string of recent cases out of the Middle District of Florida has illustrated that… Continue Reading

The Threat of Lien Stripping in “Chapter 20” Bankruptcy

By J. Ellsworth Summers, Jr. and Scott St. Amand on November 13, 2012 Posted in Bankruptcy, Debt and Judgment Collection

As discussed in the McNeal posts below, junior mortgage holders are increasingly finding that their mortgages are worth less than the paper they were printed on. Especially troubling to lenders, are conflicting decisions that allow liens, which otherwise would have passed through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, to be avoided in a subsequent Chapter 13 proceeding…. Continue Reading

First Challenge to McNeal Reveals Lien Stripping Challenges for Chapter 7 and 13 Debtors

By J. Ellsworth Summers, Jr. and Scott St. Amand on October 4, 2012 Posted in Bankruptcy, Commercial Lending, Debt and Judgment Collection

Nearly five months after McNeal was decided by the Eleventh Circuit, a challenge has arisen within the Eastern District of New York, which has historically been fertile ground for bankruptcy law. In Wachovia Mortgage v. Smoot, the court rejected a debtor’s attempt to strip off a wholly unsecured junior mortgage in a Chapter 7 proceeding,… Continue Reading

Liquidating Debtor’s Personal Property to Satisfy Unsecured Claim

By J. Ellsworth Summers, Jr. and Scott St. Amand on September 20, 2012 Posted in Bankruptcy

These days many lenders are stuck with unsecured claims against debtors who file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Under certain circumstances, all is not lost, because a creditor may be able to liquidate a debtor’s personal property to satisfy its unsecured claim. In a recent case out of the Ninth Circuit, a mother guaranteed her son’s $13… Continue Reading

Pending Re-Hearing, McNeal is Stripping Away

By J. Ellsworth Summers, Jr. and Scott St. Amand on September 7, 2012 Posted in Bankruptcy

Recently, in an article published in the American Bankruptcy Institute, we dissected the recent 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case of In re McNeal. The decision was short, only two pages in fact, but in it the court drastically changed the rights of upside-down debtors with junior mortgages who have filed for… Continue Reading