In re Gill
In re Gill
Opinion of the Court
The above matter comes on for consideration upon the Motion to Dismiss Bankruptcy filed by CBM Mortgage and Financial Services, LLC (CBM) (the "Motion") [Doc. 6] and the Debtor's Response and Objection to Creditors Motion to Dismiss Bankruptcy (the "Response") [Doc. 10]. The Motion presents a case of first impression for this Court: the interpretation of
I. Jurisdiction
This Court has jurisdiction under
II. Facts
1. CBM is the holder of a first mortgage on five tracts of land owned by the Debtor and his wife in Woodward County, Oklahoma.
2. On October 14, 2016, the Debtor filed a Chapter 13. [Case No. 16-14136]. This was apparently in response to avoid a sheriff's sale on CBM's collateral which was scheduled to take place on October 17, 2016.
3. On January 24, 2017, this Court entered an Order Approving Stipulation Regarding Objection to Confirmation by which CBM and Debtor agreed that Debtor would sell as many of his properties as necessary before May 1, 2017, in order to pay CBM's secured claims in full. The Stipulation was incorporated by reference in the Order Confirming Plan filed on February 3, 2017.
4. On May 10, 2017, CBM filed a Corrected Motion for Relief from the Automatic Stay and from Co-Debtor Stay and for Order of Abandonment.
5. The Corrected Motion for Relief was resolved by the Court entering a Stipulation and Agreed Order on July 7, 2017. Under the Stipulation the Debtor was to make monthly adequate protection payments to CBM in the amount of $750.00 and to carry sufficient insurance on all properties until the debt owed CBM was satisfied in full. The Stipulation also contained a "drop dead" clause which provided that in the event the Debtor failed to comply with the Stipulation then CBM was permitted to seek ex parte relief from the automatic stay.
6. The Debtor failed to make adequate protection payments to CBM and to carry insurance as required by the Stipulation and Agreed Order. Accordingly, on September *6612, 2017, this Court entered an Order Granting CBM Relief from Automatic Stay and from Co-Debtor Stay and Order for Abandonment and authorizing CBM to take such action as it deems necessary including, but not limited to, foreclosure of its security interest and sheriff sale in state court.
7. On September 14, 2017, the Trustee filed a Motion to Dismiss Case for Failure to Pay Plan Payments.
8. In response to the Trustee's Motion to Dismiss, on October 13, 2017, Debtor filed Debtor's Motion for Voluntary Dismissal of Chapter 13 Case.
9. On October 30, 2017, this Court entered an Order Granting Debtor's Motion for Voluntary Dismissal of Chapter 13 Case.
10. After the dismissal of the case, on November 20, 2017, Debtor's property subject to CBM's mortgage was sold at sheriff's sale. A hearing on confirmation of the sheriff's sale was set for December 7, 2017.
11. The day before the hearing on confirmation of the sheriff's sale the Debtor filed this second bankruptcy on December 6, 2017. On the same day, December 6, 2017, CBM filed the present Motion to Dismiss.
III. Discussion
CBM asserts that the case should be dismissed because the Debtor is not eligible to be a debtor under § 109(g)(2) which, in pertinent part, provides as follows:
[N]o individual ... may be a debtor under this title who has been a debtor in a case pending under this title at any time in the preceding 180 days if...the debtor requested and obtained the voluntary dismissal of the case following the filing of a request for relief from the automatic stay provided by section 362 of this title. (Emphasis added).
Section 109(g)(2) renders a person ineligible for bankruptcy relief where five conditions are met: (1) the person is an individual, (2) the person was a debtor in a previous bankruptcy case, (3) a party filed a request for relief from the automatic stay in the previous case, (4) the person (debtor) requested and obtained a voluntary dismissal in the previous case following the party's request for relief under § 362, and (5) voluntary dismissal in the previous case occurred within 180 days of the petition date of the person's present case.
At first glance, it appears that all five conditions for dismissal have been met; however, in his Response at ¶ 6, the Debtor states that "[b]ankruptcy courts have taken four (4) approaches to the applicability of the statute creditor sites (sic) ... including bankruptcy courts which hold the statute applies only if the motion for relief is pending at the time the Debtor requests voluntary dismissal." He then cites three cases purportedly supporting his position.
It is true that while the language of § 109(g)(2) may appear to be straightforward, courts are divided on its proper application. Since its enactment in 1984, *67courts and academics have struggled as to how to interpret § 109(g)(2) and in particular, the term "following". In re Gibas,
The first approach, and probably the majority view, holds that the term "following" means "after" and is plain and unambiguous, requiring only that the events identified in section 109(g)(2) occur chronologically or sequentially. See e.g. In re Andersson ,
The second, or "causal connection" approach, holds that the term "following" means "as a result of" and requires a judicial determination of a causal relationship between two of the actions referenced in section 109(g)(2). In re Payton ,
The third, or "discretionary" approach, endorses the chronological or sequential interpretation of " following", but that a literal application of the statute is undesirable. This view adopts a more discretionary approach "because legislative enactments should never be construed as establishing statutory schemes that are illogical, unjust, or capricious." In re Luna ,
CBM's right to have this case dismissed, and Debtor's potential relief from a dismissal, rests upon how § 109(g)(2) should be construed. That construction begins with the words of the statute itself because courts must presume "that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in the statute what it says there." Connecticut National Bank v. Germain ,
As stated above, the most common (though not only) meaning given to "following" is "after". The Debtor's motion to dismiss was obviously filed after CBM's filing of its Motion for Relief from the Stay. The statute does not qualify the term "following". It does not contain language indicating that there need be a causal relationship between the motion for relief and the motion to dismiss. In this Court's view, "Congress already has, at least implicitly, made the determination that in most instances *69voluntary dismissal, and later refiling) are related to the prior request for relief from stay , and that a mandatory 180-day window between the debtor's bankruptcy cases appropriately prevents debtor abuse and allows creditors to pursue state court remedies." (Emphasis added). Gibas,
In enacting BAPCPA in 2005, Congress made numerous changes and additions to the Bankruptcy Code in the attempt to curb alleged abuses of the bankruptcy laws, some of which target the type of abuse that § 109(g)(2) is designed to prevent. For example, new § 362(b)(21)(A) creates an exception to the automatic stay for "any act to enforce any lien against a security interest in real property if the debtor is ineligible under section 109 to be a debtor in a case under this title." BAPCPA also added new § 362(c)(3),(4) and 362(d)(4) to discourage bad faith repeat filings and curb abusive filings. While amending other parts of § 109, Congress did not change 109(g)(2) notwithstanding the three or four-way split of authority concerning its interpretation. The presumption is that Congress said in § 109(g)(2) exactly what it said. Otherwise, it could have amended 109 (g)(2) by adding "unless the court, in its discretion, orders otherwise" at the end of paragraph (2); or it could have substituted "because of" for "following"; or it would have added at the end of the paragraph, "that was pending or unresolved at the time the debtor requested and obtained the voluntary dismissal." The Court believes that Congress intended to leave the plain language intact, and it must be applied. In a matter of first impression, this Court adopts the mandatory or sequential approach to the interpretation of § 109 (g)(2).
In the present case, Debtor appears to challenge the applicability of § 109(g)(2) not by urging use of the "causal" or "discretionary or good faith" approaches to the statute; rather, by asserting a fourth approach that there was no motion for relief from stay pending at the time he sought and obtained dismissal of his first bankruptcy case. The Court will examine the three cases cited by Debtor in his Response that § 109(g) (2) does not compel dismissal of this case.
In re Milton ,
The second case cited by the debtor, In re Jones ,
The third case cited by the debtor, In re Patton ,
[S]ection § 109(f)(2) is intended to address the situation in which the debtor files a bankruptcy case to stay a foreclosure, and when the creditor seeks relief from the stay, the case is then voluntarily dismissed by the debtor. The debtor then refiles prior to the creditor's completing his next attempt to foreclose, and through this scheme, the debtor can continually frustrate the creditors attempts to foreclose."
That is, of course, different than the situation presented in Patton , but precisely what the Debtor is attempting to do in the present case.
The three cases cited by Debtor, which appear to be the only cases holding that there need be a "pending" motion for relief from stay are simply, in this Court's view, bad law. Nowhere in the three opinions is there set forth any discussion or rational basis for the holding that there must be a pending motion for relief at the time of the dismissal of the debtors first bankruptcy case. This view is erroneous because of both the language of the statute and the purpose for which it was enacted. The language of § 109(g)(2) contains no reference whatsoever to a requirement that the motion be pending. It simply says "following the filing of a request for relief from the automatic stay." Such a restrictive reading of § 109(g)(2) would eviscerate the underlying policy rationale for the rule. As stated in In re Dickerson ,
In enacting § 109(g)(2), Congress intended "to prevent debtors from frustrating creditors' attempts to recover funds owed to them" by prohibiting debtors from engaging in a series of filings and voluntary dismissals, thereby continuously invoking the automatic stay of the bankruptcy code. In re Ulmer,19 F.3d 234 (5th Cir. 1994). By restricting the application of § 109 (g)(2) to those cases where there is a pending, unresolved motion for relief from stay at the time of the voluntary dismissal, these courts [ Milton, Jones and Patton cited by Debtor in the present case] ignore the reality of these proceedings. In fact, a literal interpretation of these cases would allow a debtor to refile continuously, thereby obtaining the protection of the automatic stay, so long as it did not dismiss the previous action while the motion for relief from stay was pending before the Court. Thus, in cases where the relief from stay is granted prior to the voluntary dismissal, the debtor would be able to use the bankruptcy code to frustrate the ability of a creditor to regain its property-the exact result that § 109(g)(2) is designed to prevent.
The Court rejects Debtor's contention that the fact that CBM's Motion for Relief from Stay was not "ending" at the time of the voluntary dismissal of the case precludes dismissal of this case under § 109(g)(2).
*71IV. Conclusion
The Court finds that the language of § 109(g)(2) is mandatory. The statute specifically states that no individual can be a debtor if within the preceding 180 days the individual requested and received a voluntary dismissal of the first case following the filing of a request for relief from the automatic stay. If these preconditions are met, the debtor is barred from filing the second petition for 180 days after the voluntary dismissal, and the Bankruptcy Court is prohibited from accepting the petition for filing. As noted above, the Court interprets these provisions to include the situation present here, where the Debtor voluntarily dismissed the first case after the automatic stay was lifted. Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that CBM's Motion to Dismiss is hereby Granted , and this case is Dismissed with Prejudice to filing another petition under Title 11 for 180 days from this date.
All further references to "Code", "Section", and "§" are to the Bankruptcy Code, title 11 of the United States Code, unless otherwise indicated.
Before discussing the Motion to Dismiss before the Court, it should be noted that there is no automatic stay in effect. The present case was filed on December 6, 2017. The Debtor has taken no action to continue the stay in effect. The stay would have been lifted by operation of law 30 days after the filing date under the provisions of § 362(c)(3)(A). There would also be a presumption of bad faith in filing the second action since the Debtor failed to perform the terms of the plan confirmed by the court. § 362(c)(3)(C)(i)(II)(cc). CBM could have simply waited for the thirty days to run and proceed with its confirmation of the sheriff's sale.
Even if this Court were to adopt the causal or discretionary approach, the Debtor would not be eligible for relief under the Code. The Debtor's filing of two bankruptcies within three days of the dates set for two confirmation of sheriff's sales and after CBM had obtained relief from stay in the first case establishes a causal relationship and eliminates any possibility that dismissing this case would be an absurd or too-harsh a result.
The Court notes that the running of the 180 day period is tolled during the pendency of an improperly filed bankruptcy petition. In re Wilson ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN RE: James A. GILL, Debtor.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published