In re Gary E. Peel

Summarized by Steven Schwartz , White & Case LLP
12 years 7 months ago

Citation:

In re Gary E. Peel, No. 13-1547 (7th Cir. Aug. 2, 2013).

Tag(s):

Ruling:

1) A non-lawyer can sign and file bankruptcy documents under Illinois law, since those tasks do not require legal knowledge or skill. 2) An ex-wife's claim to divorce settlement agreement payments is limited by 11 U.S.C. 502(b)(5) to the amount due prepetition. Therefore, post-petition annuity payments to the bankruptcy estate should not have been transferred to the ex-wife on account of the divorce settlement. The transfers can either be credited against the ex-wife's outstanding claim or the transferred funds can be returned.

Procedural context:

The bankruptcy court ordered that postpetition annuity payments made to the debtor's estate be transferred to the debtor's ex-wife on account of a divorce settlement agreement. The district court affirmed. Debtor also objected to the transfer in an objected signed by his second wife, who is not a lawyer. The objection was stricken by the bankruptcy judge on the ground that only lawyers can file motions and objections. The bankruptcy court allowed the debtor to orally make his objection (pro se). The Debtor appeals the transfer and the striking of the filed objection.

Facts:

Debtor had a $200/month annuity, payable until his death. His ex-wife obtained a $200/month payment in a divorce settlement agreement, but she was not assigned the annuity payments. Rather, she obtained a contract right of an identical amount. The ex-wife filed a claim against the debtor's estate, including $12,400 on account of postpetition annuity payments that the debtor's estate received from the annuity. The bankruptcy court allowed the trustee to transfer $1,000 from the debtor's estate to the ex-wife, on account of the annuity payments. The debtor objected. His second wife, a non-lawyer, filed the objection.

Judge(s):

Posner, Flaum, Tinder

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!