Court imposed sanctions on a bankruptcy petition preparer for violations of § 110, including failure to fully identify herself on various documents and unauthorized practice of law.
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 James D. Walker Jr. (Retired)
Chapter 13 debtor's obligation to pay his ex-wife's car and mortgage payments was dischargeable pursuant to § 1328(a) and § 523(a)(15) because the parties did not intend the payments to serve as support, as demonstrated by the language of their divorce agreement and their tax treatment of the payments.
The Court allowed the creditor's claim over the debtor's objection because the claim was enforceable outside of bankruptcy. Even though the debtor had not made any payments directly to the creditor within the statute of limitations period, she had made payments to a credit counseling service, which directed payments to the creditor on the debtor's behalf.
Where the debtor had participated in a class action settlement against a creditor for violations of various consumer protection statutes, res judicata bars the debtor from asserting similar claims against that creditor except to the extent the claims are based solely on the creditor's post-settlement conduct.
The plaintiff did not establish the collateral estoppel effect of a state court tortious interference action on her § 523(a)(6) claim because she failed to prove an identity of issues. The plaintiff did not show the standard applied in the state court, and therefore the Court could not determine if the state court jury found that debtor had acted wilfully and maliciously.
The court rejected the debtor's argument that a corporate Chapter 12 debtor is not subject to discharge exceptions. The Chapter 12 discharge provision, § 1228, expressly excludes certain types of debts from the discharge, regardless of whether the debtor is an individual or a corporation.
The debtor could discharge certain taxes, because the IRS failed to show the debtor willfully evaded their payment. The debtor did not attempt to conceal assets or spend lavishly. Instead, his deficiencies were primarily due to an inability to pay after providing for reasonable living expenses.
Under Eleventh Circuit’s Parker case, judicial estoppel can never be a defense to a cause of action omitted from the debtor’s bankruptcy schedules. Therefore, the Court allowed Debtor to reopen his case to add the cause of action so a trustee could administer the asset. His creditors stood to benefit from any recovery, and Debtor would receive no special benefit.
Court granted stay relief for purposes of selling debtor.s Rolls Royce automobile. However, the court did not decide whether the proceeds would benefit the secured creditor or unsecured creditors.
Robert F. Hershner, Jr. (Retired)
The Chapter 7 debtor claimed as exempt his right to receive income from a certain business. The debtor contended that the income was support under Georgia Code § 44-13-100(a)(2)(D) (debtor can claim as exempt his right to receive alimony, support or separate maintenance to extent reasonably necessary for support of debtor and dependents.) The Court held that the debtor's right to receive the income was not support under the Georgia exemption statute and ordered that debtor turn over to trustee the income that he had received during the pendency of his bankruptcy case.