TL90108 LLC vs. Ford (In re Ford)
- Summarized by David Treacy , U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Kentucky
- 6 months 2 weeks ago
- Case Type:
- Consumer
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- No. 21-10456 (11th Circuit, Aug 11,2025) Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld a bankruptcy court's order denying a creditor's motion to extend the deadline to file a non-dischargeability complaint. Its "prior panel precedent rule" compelled this result; in 1988, a panel held equitable tolling doesn't apply to the deadline in Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4007(c) for a creditor to object to a debt's discharge by filing a complaint. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions didn't undermine this precedent to the point of abrogation, and the creditor received notice of the deadline sufficient to satisfy due process.
- Procedural context:
- Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 158(d)(2)(A), the Eleventh Circuit accepted a direct appeal from the bankruptcy court, which had certified its order because "there was 'continuing disagreement among bankruptcy courts' about whether equitable tolling was available under Rule 4007." The circuit, reviewing the bankruptcy court's conclusions of law de novo, held the Supreme Court's decisions in Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443 (2004), and Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631 (2010). did not abrogate the Eleventh Circuit's opinion in In re Alton, 837 F.2d 457 (11th Cir. 1988). That opinion remained binding on both the bankruptcy court and the panel hearing this appeal.
- Facts:
- Debtor/Appellee Joseph Ford III filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in January 2019 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. At that time, Debtor was a plaintiff in a Wisconsin state court replevin action against Creditor/Appellant TL90108 LLC ("TL") related to a rare vehicle. Debtor did not list TL as a creditor in his initial schedules, but did identify the Wisconsin litigation. Debtor also "did not provide TL with formal notice of the creditors' meeting in his bankruptcy case or alert it to any creditor filing deadlines." About a month after filing his petition, Debtor filed a "Suggestion of Bankruptcy" in the Wisconsin case. The bankruptcy court set the deadline to object to Debtor's discharge in April 2019. After this deadline passed, TL learned via discovery in the Wisconsin litigation that Debtor may have engaged in a conspiracy to defraud TL. In September 2020, TL moved the bankruptcy court to extend the deadline to file a non-dischargeability complaint against Debtor. Debtor opposed the motion, explaining both the plain language of Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4007(c) and Eleventh Circuit precedent compelled a decision in his favor. The bankruptcy court agreed with Debtor but certified a direct appeal of its ruling to the Eleventh Circuit.
- Judge(s):
- J. PRYOR, NEWSOM, and LAGOA
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