In Sunnyslope Housing Ltd. Partnership, the Ninth Circuit held that for chapter 11 cramdown purposes, the valuation of property need not account for the potential extinguishment of subordinated affordable housing covenants which, if extinguished through foreclosure,...
On August 16, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, more than two years after it issued an order certifying a probate question to the California Supreme Court, held that a bankruptcy estate is entitled to the full amount of spendthrift trust distributions due to...
In re Anderson, BAP No. ID-16-13156-JuFB, filed on August 11, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel upheld the Bankruptcy Court's finding that the debtors' contingent real estate commissions were estate property. The debtors were real estate agents. When...
In In re Mainline Equipment, Inc., Case No. 15-60069, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the County of Los Angeles ("County") could not enforce its tax liens on personal property against a bona fide purchaser when the County had failed to perfect its liens....
In Weil v. Elliott, decided June 14, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the statute of limitations for the filing of an action to revoke a debtor's discharge is not jurisdictional and can be waived if not timely raised as an affirmative defense. The...
In Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz published on May 16, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") found a debt not dischargeable because of the debtor's intercompany transfer scheme to avoid paying the debt. The debt was owed by Chrysalis...
On March 4, 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Ninth Circuit's imposition of an equitable surcharge on the basis of bad faith against a debtor's exempt property in Law v. Siegel, 134 S.Ct. 1188 (2014). The Supreme Court held that the general...
On June 15, 2015, contrary to the standing authority in the Ninth Circuit and a majority of lower courts, the United States Supreme Court in Baker Botts L.L.P. v. ASARCO LLC, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 3920 (June 15, 2015) ruled in a 6-3 decision that 11 U.S.C. §330(a) does...
In Mano-Y&M Ltd. v. Field (In re Mortgage Store, Inc.), 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 22981 (9th Cir. Haw. Dec. 5, 2014), the Ninth Circuit explicitly rejected the control test's flexible, equitable approach and embraced the pure "dominion test" adopted in Universal Serv....
In Cruz v. Strauss (In re Cruz), 2014 Bankr. LEXIS 3687(B.A.P. 9th Cir. Aug. 29, 2014), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed retroactive annulment of the automatic stay to validate a foreclosure sale. In Cruz, a five-percent interest...