Dated: October 3, 2019

Det 2 □□ 3 Daniel P. Collins, Bankruptcy Judge

4 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 5 DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 6 || Inre: ) Chapter 7 Proceedings 7 LAVELLE CURTIS SCOTT JR., Case No.: 2:19-bk-11722-DPC 8 ) Debtor. ) 9 ) ORDER DENYING MOTION TO 10 ) AMEND PETITION ) 11 ) 12 $$ 13 Debtor Lavelle Curtis Scott, Jr. (‘Debtor’) has filed a motion (‘Motion’) to amend his 14 || Chapter 7 petition to add his spouse, Diana Charae Scott (“Ms. Scott”) (DE 20), as a joint debtor. 15 || The amended petition is attached to the Motion. Debtor commenced this case by filing a 16 || Chapter 7 petition on September 13, 2019, as sole petitioner. That petition was captioned with 17 || the name Lavelle Curtis Scott Jr. only and was only signed by him. Debtor now seeks to amend 18 || his petition to a joint petition and add his spouse as a co-debtor. 19 There is no authority to retroactively convert the original single filing to a joint filing. The 20 || non-filing spouse may not be added to this case by amendment or motion, largely due to the 21 || importance of the petition date, order for relief and creation of the bankruptcy estate. A debtor 22 || cannot have a separate petition date from his or her spouse because there can only be one petition 23 || date per one petition. In re Clinton,

(Bankr. N.D.Ga. 1994). 24 The non-filing spouse must file a separate bankruptcy petition; a joint bankruptcy case 25 || must be commenced by both spouses signing a single petition at the beginning of the case. In re 26 || Chilson,

(Bankr. D. N.M. 2015); In re Austin,

(Bankr. E.D. Wis. 1985); 27 || In re Woodell,

(Bankr. E.D. Va. 1988); In re Kirkus,

(Bankr. N.D. Ga. 28 || 1987); and In re Sobin,

(Bankr. M.D. Fla. 1989).

1 IT IS ORDERED that debtor’s motion to add his spouse as a joint debtor is denied. 2 DATED AND SIGNED 3 4 5 6 To be Noticed through the BNC to: 7 Lavelle Curtis Scott, Jr. 8 95 N. Cooper Rd., #71 9 Chandler, AZ 85225

10 David A. Birdsell 216 N. Center 11 Mesa, AZ 85201 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28