Chaudhry v. Usoskin (In Re Usoskin)

61 B.R. 869, 1986 Bankr. LEXIS 5920
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJune 6, 1986
Docket8-19-70992
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 61 B.R. 869 (Chaudhry v. Usoskin (In Re Usoskin)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chaudhry v. Usoskin (In Re Usoskin), 61 B.R. 869, 1986 Bankr. LEXIS 5920 (N.Y. 1986).

Opinion

DECISION ON AMOUNT OF SANCTIONS

CECELIA H. GOETZ, Bankruptcy Judge:

Before the Court for determination is the amount of the sanctions to be imposed upon the plaintiffs in these two proceedings, Hukumad Chaudhry and Haridas Shah, and their attorney, Manojkumar D. Patel, Esq. The reasons which impelled this Court to determine sanctions to be appropriate are fully set forth in this Court’s Opinions of November 27,1985. 56 B.R. 819. The appeals from the judgments predicated on those decisions were dismissed as untimely on February 11, 1986 by the Honorable John R. Bartels, United States District Court Judge. Judge Bar-tels, however, did not stop there, but said that were he to rule on the merits, he would affirm this Court’s findings of facts and conclusions of law. He independently *872 castigated the conduct of the plaintiffs and their attorney, saying of them, they

“have been contemptuous in their conduct before the bankruptcy court and have themselves been guilty of fraud and abuse of the legal process. They have disregarded the bankruptcy court’s schedules and orders, have made false statements with regard to most of the material facts in this case, particularly with reference to the defendant Usoskin, and are guilty of generally outrageous conduct”.

Memorandum Decision and Order, 2/11/86 at p. 4, 86 Civ. 86, (A.P. No. 183-0400-21), 86 Civ. 87 (A.P. No. 183-0402).

With particular reference to Bankruptcy Rule 9011, Judge Bartels said “it is obvious that the complaint was not well grounded in fact and that no reasonable man could sign a certificate to that effect”. Judge Bartels concluded by saying that he not only “heartily approves of sanctions, but sincerely hopes that they are sufficiently severe in light of these parties’ conduct.” Id. at 4-5.

Present at the hearing on sanctions, which consumed one full day, were Patel, Chaudhry, Shah and the attorneys for the debtors, Robert Tauber, Esq., and Richard Koral, Esq. Tauber and Koral jointly submitted an-exhibit which, as amended in court, showed that they had spent 73V2 hours on the representation of Usoskin and that Tauber alone had spent 27V4 hours on the representation of Ksenzowski. For their work in the Usoskin case, they requested $9,187.50 in fees, and for the work in the Ksenzowski case, $3,406.25, for a total of $12,593.75.

Both Koral and Tauber took the stand and were subjected to vigorous cross-examination by Patel respecting their work.

Chaudhry and Shah submitted lengthy affirmations, as did Patel, with respect to the imposition of sanctions upon them. These affirmations took issue with various statements in this Court’s earlier Opinions and insisted that the plaintiffs had opposed in good faith the discharge of the debtors.

The Court also received an offer of proof from Patel, but ruled after its reception, that the facts which Patel said he planned to prove through his clients were not relevant to the limited issues before the Court in the hearing on sanctions.

Tauber, in addition to requesting attorneys’ fees, asked that each of the debtors be awarded $5,000.00 in compensation for the delay in receiving their discharge caused by the plaintiffs. He noted the emotional trauma Usoskin has sustained as a result of the three years in which her bankruptcy discharge has been pending due to the plaintiffs’ groundless objections. He also asked that a fine of $5,000.00 be imposed as a sanction, payable to the Court, to recompense it for the imposition on the Court’s time.

The Applicable Law

This is a core proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2) “... [the] hearing by the bankruptcy court to impose sanctions based on conduct occurring during a core proceeding is a ‘matter ... integral to the adjudication of bankruptcy’ and one that has been ‘traditionally before the bankruptcy court’ ”. Matter of Emergency Beacon Corp., 52 B.R. 979, 987 (S.D.N.Y.1985), aff'd on other grounds, 790 F.2d 285 (2d Cir.1986). Plaintiffs’ objections to the debtors’ discharge constituted a core proceeding squarely covered by 28 U.S.C. 157(b)(2)(J). Therefore, this hearing on sanctions is, likewise, a core proceeding.

Under the “American Rule”, parties to litigation bear their own litigation costs, including attorneys’ fees, except where a statute provides otherwise. There are, however, a number of exceptions to that Rule. In this case, the Court is awarding attorneys’ fees to the debtors pursuant to (1) the court’s general equitable powers, (2) 28 U.S.C. § 1927 and (3) Bankruptcy Rule 9011.

Pursuant to a court’s “inherent equitable power” attorneys’ fees may be awarded where the unsuccessful party has acted “in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly or for oppressive reasons”. Alyeska Pipe *873 line Service Co. v. Wilderness Society 421 U.S. 240, 258-259, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 1622, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (quoting F.D. Rich Co. v. United States, 417 U.S. 116, 129, 94 S.Ct. 2157, 2165, 40 L.Ed.2d 703 (1974)). “The bad faith exception for the award of attorney’s fees is not restricted to cases where the action is filed in bad faith.” Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 766, 100 S.Ct. 2455, 2464, 65 L.Ed.2d 488 (1980). It may be found also in the conduct of the litigation. Id. at 766, 100 S.Ct. at 2464.

Two specific findings must be made: (1) that the losing parties’ challenged actions were “entirely without col- or” and (2) that they were made, or taken, “for reasons of harassment or delay or for other improper purposes”. Dow Chemical Pacific Ltd. v. Rascator Maritime S.A., 782 F.2d 329 (2d Cir.1986); Sierra Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 776 F.2d 383 (2d Cir.1985), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 1464, 89 L.Ed.2d 720 (1986); Weinberger v. Kendrick, 698 F.2d 61, 80 (2d Cir.1982); Browning Debenture Holders’ Committee v. DASA Corp., 560 F.2d 1078 (2d Cir.1977). Whether a claim is colorable depends upon “whether a reasonable attorney could have concluded that facts supporting the claim might be established, not whether such facts actually had been established”. Nemeroff v. Abelson, 620 F.2d 339, 348 (2d Cir.1980) (emphasis in original quoted in

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Bluebook (online)
61 B.R. 869, 1986 Bankr. LEXIS 5920, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chaudhry-v-usoskin-in-re-usoskin-nyeb-1986.