Lane v. Barney (In re Lane)

Summarized by Steven Mulligan , Coan, Payton & Payne, LLC
9 years 11 months ago

Citation:

Lane v. Barney (In re Lane), Case No. WY-15-023 (BAP 10th Cir. March 7, 2016). Published.

Tag(s):

Ruling:

Monetary sanctions are appropriate in chapter 7 case where Debtor interferes with estate administration and appears that he has the ability to pay such sanctions. The sanctions will be paid from any surplus from estate prior to any distribution to Debtor.

Procedural context:

Appeal from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Wyoming imposing sanctions against Debtor for interfering with the chapter 7 trustee’s efforts to administer the estate. Reviewed for abuse of discretion. The BAP affirmed.

Facts:

Debtor filed chapter 7 and disclosed no nonexempt assets for the trustee to administer. It was later discovered, with the help of Debtor’s ex-wife, that Debtor had a $40+ million dollar estate which the trustee began to administer including a settlement with Debtor which included a provision stripping Debtor of standing in his bankruptcy and a provision obligating Debtor to not interfere in the estate’s administration. Debtor failed to live up to the obligation and filed numerous objections to various actions in the case and intimidating an auctioneer. Trustee filed a contempt motion and was awarded $12,000.00 which didn’t deter Debtor. A second contempt motion was filed and sanctions in excess of $320,000.00 were imposed against Debtor.

Judge(s):

Karlin, Cornish, Michael (Karlin)

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