The court was asked to consider whether, under Banks v. Sallie Mae Servicing Corporation (In re Banks), 299 F.3d 296 (4th Cir. 2002), Debtors’ adversary proceeding should be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Reserving judgment on whether Banks was applicable and should be followed, the court ruled that the record and admitted pleadings did not provide grounds to dismiss the adversary proceeding.
Opinions
The Middle District of Georgia offers opinions in PDF format, listed by year and judge. For a more detailed search, enter the keyword or case number in the search box above.
Please note: These opinions are not a complete inventory of all judges' decisions and are not documents of record. Official court records are available at the clerk's office.
Judge John T. Laney, III
The court was asked to reconsider an order dated September 3, 2002 in which the court ruled that Deere Credit, Inc. did not have a security interest in a 548G skidder that had been mislabeled on both the security agreement and the financing statement. Upon reconsideration, the court held that it was correct in the September 3, 2002 order and did not change its ruling. While the serial number and model number were both off by just one digit, the combination of both incorrect numbers did not raise a red flag to a third party. Therefore, the description of the collateral did not meet the requirements of O.C.G.A. § 11-9-108(a).
Two judgment creditors made objections to Debtor’s proposed Chapter 13 plan. The court ruled that Debtor bears the burden to prove that his Chapter 13 plan is in conformity with the statutory requirements for confirmation. Debtor had to overcome both objections or he would be required to modify his Chapter 13 plan. In failing to provide court with proper evidence and case law to overcome the creditors’ objections, the objections were sustained and Debtor was ordered to modify his Chapter 13 plan to give the creditors’ claim proper treatment.
Zlatava Davidova, Trustee of LET, a.s. ("Movant") asked the court to reconsider its August 21, 2002 Memorandum Opinion and Order regarding the validity, priority, and extent of liens or competing interests in an aircraft and its two engines. Upon reconsideration, the court found that Movant did meet its burden to prove Czech Republic law. Thus, the court applied the facts to the applicable Czech Republic law. Accordingly, the court found that the purported transfer of the L610-301 aircraft from LET, a.s. to Ayres Aviation Holdings ("Debtor") was not effective pursuant to the Czech Civil Aviation Act. However, the court found that the purported transfer of the 002 engine from LET a.s. to Debtor was valid and First National Bank of South Georgia does have a valid perfected security interest in the 002 engine. The court did not change its holding that the 998 engine belonged to General Electric. Nor did the court change its holding denying relief from the stay as to GATX Capital Corporation.
Analyzing Debtor’s Motion to Compel deposition testimony of the Official Committee’s testifying expert and to produce certain documents that had been withheld from discovery, the court reasoned under Rule 26(a)(2)(B) that the attorney-client and work product doctrine protections are trumped by the Rule 26 discovery rules pertaining to testifying experts. The court granted the motion in part, to the extent that the Official Committee had waived attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine protections in communications with and information given to/from the testifying expert.
Answering the question whether a debtor’s car that had been repossessed just prior to the debtor filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy was property of the bankruptcy estate, the court analyzed a new 11th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Bell-Tel Federal Credit Union v. Kalter (In re Kalter), 292 F.3d 1350 (11th Cir 2002), regarding Florida law. Upon reconsidering its opinion in American Honda Finance Corp. v. Littleton (In re Littleton), 220 B.R. 710 (Bankr. M.D. Ga. 1998), the court held that Georgia case law provides direction on this issue. Thus, In re Kalter is not controlling as applied to Georgia law and the repossessed car is property of the bankruptcy estate.
In a trial to determine the validity, priority and extent of liens between competing parties, the court had previously ruled that the law of the Czech Republic was to govern the issues in this trial. Because the party which had the burden to prove foreign law under Rule 44.1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure failed to meet its burden, the court held that party had no interest in the subject property.
The court denied the motion of Southwest Georgia Bank ("SWGA") for relief from the automatic stay and SWGA’s motion to dismiss the case. In a prior Chapter 11 case, Debtor consented to a plan provision whereby he would not oppose relief from stay in any subsequent case that he might file within five years. The court held that such waivers of the automatic stay are enforceable, however, they not per se enforceable and must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the court found that others factors outweighed Debtor’s waiver. Therefore, the court denied SWGA’s motion for relief conditioned on Debtor’s strict compliance to payments to SWGA. As to SWGA’s motion to dismiss the case, the court found no evidence of bad faith and therefore, denied that motion.
As to the issue of which law should apply to the validity and priority of liens on the property central to the adversary proceeding, the court held that the law of the Czech Republic is the controlling law. Pursuant to the Convention on the International Recognition of Rights in Aircraft, 4 U.S.T. 1830, the law of the country where the aircraft is registered is the law which governs property rights in aircraft. No party disputes that the subject aircraft is registered in the Czech Republic.
Debtors proposed to cure over six months its prepetition arrearage in an automobile lease. The court held that Debtors’ six-month cure proposal did not constitute a "prompt" cure under § 365(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. Also, the court found that Debtors did not exercise the option under the lease agreement to purchase the vehicle. Even if Debtors had timely exercised their option to purchase, the court held that Debtors’ plan proposal to pay the residual value over the life of the plan is contrary to law. Therefore, the court granted relief from stay to the movant.