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Triple Crown Winner, American Pharoah, Almost Repossessed During 2010 Bankruptcy Filing

By | June 8, 2015 | Chapter 11, Community, Uncategorized | No comments

Long before Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was born, he was almost repossessed.

American Pharoah came from a pair of racehorses whose unborn foals were collateral for a loan that went bad in 2010.   Stable owner, Ahmed Zayat, put his stables into bankruptcy protection and protected his horses (including unborn American Pharoah).   Before it filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Zayat Stables LLC had run up more than $38 million in debts, mostly to Fifth Third Bank, which accused Zayat of trying to dodge a personal guaranty.

The chapter 11 case temporarily halted Fifth Third Bank’s effort to repossess $37 million worth of horses, including American Pharoah’s parents, Pioneerof the Nile and Littleprincessemma.

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A New Wrinkle in Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

By | May 28, 2015 | Uncategorized | No comments

In Thing v. La Chusa (1989) 48 Cal.3d 644, 667–68 (Thing), the California Supreme Court established three requirements that a plaintiff must satisfy to recover on a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress to a bystander: (1) the plaintiff must be closely related to the injury victim; (2) the plaintiff must have been present at the scene of the injury-producing event at the time it occurred and then aware that it was causing injury to the victim; and (3) as a result, the plaintiff must have suffered serious emotional distress, so the use of a personal injury lawyer boston really helped in this case.

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Origin of “…the Honest but Unfortunate Debtor”

By | May 25, 2015 | Courts, Uncategorized | No comments
If you have been wondering about the the origin of the phrase….”…the honest but unfortunate debtor…”, below should provide the roadmap.

Proposed Changes to the California Homestead Exemption

By | May 20, 2015 | Uncategorized | No comments

SB 308 is a new bill introduced by Senator Bob Wieckowski in the California State Senate that provides significant improvements to California’s current exemptions including:

  • increasing the homestead to $300,000 for all individuals;
  • removing the 6 month reinvestment requirement;
  • increasing the exemption for vehicles to $6,000;
  • establishing that bankruptcy alone is not an event of default; and
  • creating a grubstake of $5,000 for self-employed individuals.

The complete text of the amendment can be found here.

Note: the link above is to the original proposal and is easy to read. The original proposal provided for a $700,000 exemption which was amended down to $300,000. A more difficult to read, updated version can be found here.

B.A.P. Holds Judge Does Not Have Authority To Prevent Debtor From Adding An Exemption to the Schedules (In re Gray et al., 9th Cir. B.A.P. 2014)

By | December 16, 2014 | Appeals, Cases, Chapter 13, Chapter 7, Uncategorized | No comments

The 9th Circuit B.A.P. recently held that a bankruptcy judge does not have the authority to prevent a debtor from adding an exemption to his or her court papers based solely on the judge’s finding they had acted in bad faith.  The Panel intricately cites U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Law v. Siegel in reaching its conclusion.

Summary holding:  Bankruptcy courts have no discretion under federal law to deny debtors leave to amend their exemptions absent express statutory authority.  The panel reversed a ruling to disallow an amended exemption.   In re Gray et al.; Gray et al. v. Warfield, No. 13-1502, 2014 WL 6972522 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. Dec. 9, 2014).
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