Unemployment compensation benefits are included in "current monthly income."
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Opinions
Effective January 1, 2017, Orders in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia designated by the Court as "opinions" will be transmitted to the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and made available to the public at no cost. To view these opinions, click HERE to be transferred to GPO site.
Orders designated as Opinions and issued between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2016 are maintained on this website. Many of these Opinions are not intended for publication and are so designated. Each entry includes the style of the matter, the case number, the date entered on the docket, and a short parenthetical expression of the issue(s) raised. The most recent opinions appear first.
You can narrow your search by judge and/or year below. You can also use the search feature above to search by name, word, or phrase. The single opinions are in PDF text format and may be searched for word, phrase, or date by using “Control F,” the Windows search function available in any Windows application.
Honorable Paul W. Bonapfel
Order appointing guardian ad litem for chapter 13 debtor pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 1004.1.
Order denying without prejudice default motion for stay relief. Affidavit must be based on personal knowledge of facts and affidavit of counsel stating that she “has been advised” that the debtors were delinquent under consent order is insufficient.
Order denying Debtor’s motion to strip off wholly unsecured mortgage in chapter 7 case. Based upon Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410 (1992), sections 506(a) and 506(d) do not permit a debtor to strip off a wholly unsecured lien in a chapter 7 case. APPEAL PENDING
Order denying motions for summary judgment. The trustee’s action under O.C.G.A. Section 18-2-22 to avoid fraudulent conveyance was not barred by the statute of limitations. Though the applicable statute of limitations is four years and presuming, for purposes of this issue only, that a Ponzi scheme existed, the running of statute was equitably tolled based upon the alleged conduct of non-defendant individual who perpetuated Ponzi scheme and concealed fraud. APPEAL PENDING
NOT INTENDED FOR PUBLICATION
Order denying motion for default judgment. Plaintiff fails to set forth factual or legal basis for judgment on 523(a)(2) claim since it erroneously relies on implied representation theory and fails to make allegations from which, if true, court could draw an inference of the Debtor’s actual, subjective fraudulent intent.
In landlord’s post-discharge suit for rent against debtor, magistrate court ruled that debtor had not met his burden of proving affirmative defense of bankruptcy discharge and entered judgment in favor of landlord. In action for discharge violation, Bankruptcy Court concluded that action was a suit on pre-petition lease and violated the discharge injunction. The Court ruled that bankruptcy was not an affirmative defense under section 524(a). With regard to the preclusive effect of the magistrate court judgment, the court ruled that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply because the discharge injunction existed prior to the state court judgment and that a state court judgment determining whether a debt is discharged is not entitled to preclusive effect under section 524(a) if it is based on inadequate facts or misconstrues the effect of the discharge as a matter of law. Consequently, the Court determined that the judgment was void. In the circumstances of the case, the Court declined to award sanctions.
Based on stipulated record in lieu of trial, court determined that the only claims for damages remaining for trial in Fulton County State Court, after remand from Georgia Court of Appeals, are claim for value of the address book, customer list and telephone number belonging to Plaintiff that Debtor used in new business after resignation and claims for usurpation of corporate opportunities prior to resignation. But the court concluded that only the claim for value of the address book, customer and list telephone number was excepted from discharge pursuant to section 523(a)(6) and that the Plaintiff had no other claims against the debtor excepted from discharge under sections 523(a)(2), (4), or (6).
Order denying motion for default judgment in part based upon death of defendant. Capacity to be sued is determined by law of the party’s domicile (Rule 17(b)(1)). Because Georgia law provides that proceedings held after the death of an individual are void without substitution of proper representative party and because no substitution had been made, court could not adjudicate matter with respect to deceased defendant.
Debtors’ motion to redeem vehicle for $0 denied. Although the Debtors had paid the creditor’s claim in full pursuant to their chapter 13 plan prior to conversion to chapter 7, because they did not pay the contractual interest rate, the Debtors did not pay the “full amount of such claim determined under applicable nonbankruptcy law” and, thus, the creditor’s claim continued to be secured. See 11 USC 348(f)(1)(C).