Babian v. Tamamian (In re Babian)
- Summarized by Anthony Bisconti , Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP
- 12 years 4 days ago
- Citation:
- Case No. CC-12-1226-BePaMk (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2013)
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- VACATING the bankruptcy court's entry of summary judgment and REMANDING for further proceedings, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit held that: (1) the bankruptcy court improperly applied issue preclusion based on a state court arbitration order and a bankruptcy court judgement in a separate adversary proceeding because neither the state court nor the bankruptcy court in the separate action addressed issues of inter-partner imputation, and the debtor did not participate in the state court arbitration; and (2) a genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether the debtor and another individual, against whom the bankruptcy court entered a fraud judgment in a separate case and imputed to the debtor, was the debtor's partner or simply a co-owner.
- Procedural context:
- Appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit from the bankruptcy court's entry of summary judgment against the debtor determining certain debt non-dischargeable under 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(2)(A).
- Facts:
- In 2004 the debtor and three other individuals, including an individual named Markarian, purchased real property with the intention of building condominiums and took title to the property as tenants-in-common. Markarian eventually negotiated a sale of the property to Appellees. Markarian made a number of representations regarding the state of the property that were not true. Appellees filed a lawsuit in state court against the co-owners for fraud and breach of warranty, and in June 2010 the arbitrator issued an award in favor of the Appellees, which was subsequently confirmed and became final in March 2011. Markarian filed a chapter 7 in February 2011. Appellees filed an adversary complaint against Markarian under 523(a)(2)(A). The bankruptcy court entered a judgment of nondischargeability based on the preclusive effect of the arbitration findings in January 2012. In September 2010, debtor filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy. In December 2010, Appellees filed a nondischargeability action against debtor under 523(a)(2)(A). In April 2012, the bankruptcy court entered summary judgment in favor of Appellees against debtor, based in part on the findings in the non-dischargeability action against Markarian, apparently imputing Markarian's fraud to debtor.
- Judge(s):
- Beesley, Pappas, and Markell
ABI Membership is required to access the full summary. Please Sign In using your ABI Member credentials. Not a Member yet? Join ABI now - it is absolutely worth it!
