IN RE: EDWIN LICUP, ET AL V. JEFFERSON AV
- Case Type:
- Business
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- 23-60017 (9th Circuit, Mar 08,2024) Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- Due to the lack of due process resulting from the debtors' failure to include a proper mailing address for a debt, no part of the creditor's claim was discharged under 11 U.S.C. § 727.
- Procedural context:
- The debtors appealed the bankruptcy appellate panel's ruling, which affirmed the bankruptcy court's decision that a creditor's claim was not discharged, in whole or in part, because the debtors failed to include a proper address for service on the creditor in their schedules.
- Facts:
- The creditor in this action, Jefferson Avenue Temecula LL (Jefferson), filed an unlawful detainer action against Christine Tracy Castro. Castro failed to appear in the action, and a $31,780.29 default judgment was entered against her in 2013.
About 13 months later, Castro and her spouse filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. They filed their schedules but used an incorrect address for Jefferson's attorney. Jefferson did not file a proof of claim in the bankruptcy. Castro and her spouse obtained a discharge, and the debt to Jefferson was listed as a discharged debt.
Nearly five years later, in 2021, Jefferson filed an action seeking a determination that its 2013 default judgment was not discharged because Jefferson had never received notice of the bankruptcy. Castro and her spouse filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the debt was nondischargeable only in the amount that Jefferson would have received if it had timely filed a proof of claim and that the rest of the debt was discharged.
- Judge(s):
- Richard R. Clifton, Holly A. Thomas, and Roopali H. Desai, Circuit Judges
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