- Case Type:
- Consumer
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- 24-1766P (1st Circuit, Apr 02,2025) Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The Court affirms the denial of Debtor's objection to a claim determined non dischargeable in a previous bankruptcy case.
- Procedural context:
- Appeal from a District Court's order confirming the bankruptcy court's denial of an objection to claim. Appellant first challenges the bankruptcy court's conclusion that she is precluded from raising the same affirmative defense to Botelho's proof of claim that she asserted in her motion to dismiss Botelho's adversary proceeding in the Chapter 7
bankruptcy. She notes that, in her first bankruptcy proceeding, the court never reached the merits of her defense, and therefore, she argues, it "has never been litigated." And contest the applicability of the state law interest rate after the chapter 7 determination on the non dischargeability of the state judgment.
- Facts:
- Buscone and Botelho were partners in a frozen yogurt business from May 2012 until January 2014. Botelho later sued Buscone in Massachusetts state court, alleging various causes of action pertaining to their business relationship. When Buscone failed to respond to the suit, Botelho obtained a default judgment against her in the amount of $91,673.45 "plus all interest and costs due thereunder."
Buscone filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief. Id. at 17. Botelho initiated an adversary proceeding against her, seeking a determination that the state court judgment was nondischargeable pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) and (a)(4), and won. That order was affirmed on appeal.
In Buscone's subsequent Chapter 13, Botelho filed a proof of claim for the state-court judgment debt excepted from the Chapter 7 proceeding, which she tabulated at $145,140.42 -- the principal value of the original judgment plus $53,466.97 in accumulated post-judgment interest. Buscone objected, raising a previous judicial-estoppel argument from the Chapter 7 proceeding and, alternatively, asserting that Botelho's interest calculation was wrong. Debtor- appeals from the order rejecting her objection to the proof of claim.
- Judge(s):
- Aframe, Lynch, and Howard,
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