My partner Matt Resnik is meeting with a possible new client. He was doing a loan mod with another atty who told him to file a pro per chapter 7 case to stop the foreclosure sale set for the next day. When he did, Wells Fargo Bank immediately froze the $50,000 in this debtor’s bank account. Presumably it has already been sent to the trustee.
I was just looking at a Judge Vicki Kaufman tentative ruling on a 12(b)(6) motion. Plaintiff is saying – in the complaint – “my state court judgment is enough to show 523(a)(4) and (a)(6).” Reminds me of a comment Judge Jury made to me at a mediation a week or two ago. She said, “Good luck using the state court judgment or even findings to establish (a)(4) or (6).” Judge Kaufman said the same. Plead the express trust and the “culpable state of mind requirement.” As to (a)(6), plead “that the debtor had a subjective motive to inflict the injury or that the debtor believed that injury was substantially certain to occur as a result of his conduct.”
I have made comments recently on appellate strategy in the bankruptcy arena. Judge Richard Paez made a comment last night at the cdcbaa dinner that I had not thought of. He said when the 9th Circuit is reviewing the lower court decision, if the ruling came from the district court, they assume the district court judge is not a bankruptcy giant. If the ruling came from the BAP, they consider what the BAP said a lot more because the BAP knows what it is doing. Seems kind of obvious now.
I took a look at the docket on the Penrod case. Just curious. I’m dying to find out what the new fee demand is going to be. The parties have apparently agreed to go to mediation to try to resolve the fee demand. Hannah Blumenstiel is the judge assigned to the case.
Supreme Court Trivia for the Week: Chief Justice John Roberts is the only justice on the bench now who got his undergraduate degree from Harvard.
I really love your and RDM’s thoughts of the week posts!