Wolfe v. Jacobson (In re Jacobson)
- Summarized by T. Malpass , Law Offices of T. Edward Malpass
- 13 years 10 months ago
- Citation:
- Not available.
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of the Bankruptcy Court and the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, resolving issues arising from a Chapter 7 Trustee’s action to recover property. On the first issue, the Trustee alleged in his turnover action that the proceeds from the sale of the Debtor’s home lost exempt status and could be recovered by the Trustee because the proceeds had not been reinvested within six months as required by the applicable California exemption law. The Bankruptcy Court and the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel denied the Trustee's request. The Court of Appeals reversed and held that the reinvestment condition had to be met regardless of when the property sale occurred.
The Court of Appeals upheld the BAP on a second issue, finding that the BAP had correctly ruled that the Trustee had not met his burden of showing that property owned by the Debtor’s husband, who had received a discharge in another case, was not subject to the Trustee’s turnover claim despite the fact that the Debtor - wife had been found to be in control of her incompetent husband’s affairs in the previous case. Applying a preponderance of evidence standard, the Ninth Circuit found that the Trustee had not established that separate property funds had been commingled so as to lose their separate property status when used as a down payment for the property
- Procedural context:
- Appeal from 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
- Facts:
- A home owned by the Debtor and her husband sold with $150,000 in excess proceeds paid to the Debtor pursuant to California's homestead exemption. The proceeds were not reinvested within 6 months. The Debtor's husband owned a rental property. The Trustee filed a turnover action seeking the proceed and the rental property, rents and refinance proceeds.
- Judge(s):
- Ferris, Fletcher, Hellerstein (by designation)
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