Boyher v. Radloff (In re Boyher)
- Citation:
- No. 11-6077 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. March 9, 2012), 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 951
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The standard for review of a bankruptcy court's interpretation of its own order is "abuse of discretion," which is "nearly indistinguishable from the clearly erroneous standard." A bankruptcy court's interpretation of its own order will be upheld "unless based on clearly erroneous factual findings or on erroneous legal conclusions," leaving the reviewing court with a "definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed."
- Procedural context:
- Debtor appeals the order of the bankruptcy court approving the Chapter 7 Trustee's "Amended Final Report, Proposed Distribution, and Motion for Abandonment," over Debtor's objection. Bankruptcy court's order, affirmed.
- Facts:
- Seven years after it was closed, a debtor reopened a bankruptcy case to administer a potential award in class action case. The debtor and the trustee eventually stipulated to split the award, and the Court issued its order approving the settlement. The trustee paid, inter alia, anticipated taxes on the settlement, The trustee filed a Final Report and the case was closed. The IRS then refunded a portion of the trustee's tax payment and the the trustee re-opened the case to administer the money received from the IRS. The trustee filed an Amended Final Report, Proposed Distribution, and Motion for Abandonment, providing for payments to creditors with allowed claims. The Amended Final Report was approved without timely objection. The debtor then filed a "Motion for Clarification," which the bankruptcy court treated it as an objection to the Amended Final Report. The debtor asserted that the IRS refund should be applied to other taxes owed by the debtor. The bankruptcy court denied the debtor's motion based, in large part, on its prior order that the debtors "upon accepting said share of the Settlement Proceeds are deemed to have waived all claims to any part of Trustee's portion of the Settlement Proceeds." Accordingly, on the merits, the bankruptcy court ruled that by the previous orders of the court, the debtor was barred from objecting to the trustee's payment of a general dividend.
- Judge(s):
- Federman, Nail, and Venters (writing), Bankruptcy Judges
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