A debtor may file a bankruptcy case where the debtor resides, is domiciled, or has its principal place of business or principal assets. But a debtor can claim exemptions only under the law of the debtor’s domiciliary state. 28 U.S.C. § 1408; In re Larsen, Case No. BAP No. NV-20-1133-FBG (Unpublished) Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, 9th Circuit, filed November 3, 2020.
A debtor who seeks discharge, for himself or for a business, must maintain adequate financial books records to allow the bankruptcy Court to determine the debtor’s true financial condition. For example, pursuant to 11 USC §727(a)(3), the debtor is not entitled to a chapter 7 discharge if that debtor “has concealed, destroyed, mutilated, falsified, or failed to keep or preserve any recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers, from which the debtor’s financial condition or business transactions might be ascertained, unless such act or failure to act was justified under all of the circumstances of the case[.]” The statute has the consequence of making the discharge dependent on the debtor’s true presentation of his or her financial affairs, and complete disclosure is a condition precedent to the granting of the discharge.
Caneva v. Sun Cmtys. Operating Ltd. P’ship (In re Caneva), 550 F.3d 755, 761-62 (9th Cir. 2008), cited in In re: Frank Daniel Kresock, Appeal from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, BAP No. AZ-20-1270-BSL (Filed December 22, 2021; Unpublished)
Where Debtor had a judgment entered against him by California state court for fraud and elder abuse, this judgment was not discharged (cancelled) by his Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge. Debtor’s and Debtor’s counsel’s strategic absence from court at the time of the trials did not eliminate the legal effect of the judgment. The debt was non-dischargeable, pursuant to 11 USC §523(a)(2)(A).
In re: Robert Edward Zuckerman,
UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY APPELLATE PANEL OF THE NINTH CIRCUIT; BAP No. CC-19-1200-TaFS
Argued and Submitted on February 27, 2020, Pasadena, California [Published Opinion]
Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding that liquidates (eliminates) the unsecured debts of the debtor (debts not backed by collateral). It is important to note, however, that the debtor may have a particular legal status, and that legal status is what determines which bankruptcy is used, or which entity is able to cancel its debt.
For example, if a corporation files for bankruptcy, and is properly formed and documented, then it may file for bankruptcy without the necessity of its owners also filing for bankruptcy. And the corporation’s unsecured debts may be eliminated or re-structured, depending on the particular type of relief applied for.
However, if both the corporation and the individual are equally liable on the debt, such as through a personal guarantee by the owner, then the filing of a bankruptcy petition for the corporation will not insulate the individual. The individual would also need to separately file for bankruptcy protection, if that is the type of relief sought.
The case of Alex Jones is a illustrative. Mr. Jones, through his media outlet, InfoWars, has become infamous for making the false claim that the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was some type of staged or phony incident. Several parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary sued Mr. Jones and InfoWars for defamation, on the theory that by maintaining such a claim, Mr. Jones apparently implied that the grieving parents were lying about the deaths of their children.
For whatever reason, Mr. Jones did not contest the lawsuit, choosing instead to allow the court to take a default against him. Such an action, however, did not prevent the court from continuing its proceedings against Mr. Jones and his company or companies.
The court would eventually enter judgments for large sums of money in favor of the parents, both against Mr. Jones, and against some or all of his companies, including Infowars.
See, for example, cases collected by the First Amendment Watch at NYU: https://firstamendmentwatch.org/deep-dive/alex-jones-infowars-and-the-sandy-hook-defamation-suits/
Mr. Jones responded to being hit with these large judgments by filing a bankruptcy petition for Infowars. Bankruptcy of course means that no further action collection against the debtor’s personal unsecured debts, unless the debts (in Jones’s case, the judgments) relates to fraud, moral turpitude, or is otherwise considered non-dischargeable.
Setting aside the question of whether the judgments for defamation are connected to moral turpitude, where these false statements relate to the deaths of the plaintiff’s children, there appears to be a disconnect between the judgments and the bankruptcy filing by Mr. Jones. He declared bankruptcy for Infowars, but apparently not for himself personally. The judgments were against him personally, as well as against Infowars and other entities. In other words, if there is a judgment against Infowars, bankruptcy might have the effect of making the judgment uncollectible against Infowars, but the judgment against Jones himself would be unaffected.
A bankruptcy petition for Infowars is not the same as a bankruptcy for Alex Jones, because the individual and the company are separate, assuming that the company is created in a proper, recognized corporate form, such as a Corporation, LLC, or other distinct legal entity.
Mr. Jones cannot protect himself personally by filing a bankruptcy for Infowars. He would have to file bankruptcy for himself as well. It may be that he did not want to file bankruptcy for himself, and believed that somehow corporate bankruptcy would protect his personal fortune.This is not the case.
Thus, when an individual and corporation are both fully liable on the debt, corporate bankruptcy will not protect the individual. This occurs, for example, where an individual personally guarantees the debt of a company, or the corporation and the individual are jointly liable.
So apparently here in the case of Infowars, Infowars can be pursued for the Judgment, but in the absence of Infowars, Mr. Jones may also be pursued, unless he files for personal bankruptcy, and the bankruptcy court accepts the filing as appropriate, and not involving moral turpitude, or affected by some other disqualifying factor.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Tyler Merbler at https://flickr.com/photos/37527185@N05/9072625782 (archive). It was reviewed on by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.
JURISDICTION AND PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT: The bankruptcy courts, and Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, are Article I Courts under the US Constitution. The district courts and courts of appeal are Article III courts. As such, the Courts of Appeal are not bound by the decisions of the bankruptcy appellate panel, but considers such decisions as advisory only. In fact, district courts and courts of appeal routinely perform a de novo analysis (considering the facts and law anew) of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s findings. In re Silverman 616 F.3rd 1001 (9th Circuit 2010).
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