Ikechukwu H. Okorie

CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 12, 2024
Docket19-50379
StatusUnknown

This text of Ikechukwu H. Okorie (Ikechukwu H. Okorie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ikechukwu H. Okorie, (Miss. 2024).

Opinion

aR SO ORDERED, ee Judge Katharine M. Samson Ode Dats Signe Rebar 13, The Order of the Court is set forth below. The docket reflects the date entered.

IN THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

IN RE: TIKECHUKWU H. OKORIE CASE NO. 19-50379-KMS DEBTOR CHAPTER 7

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR VIOLATION OF AUTOMATIC STAY (DKT. # 735) AND GRANTING MOTION TO ANNUL STAY (DKT. # 784) This matter is before the Court on Debtor Ikechukwu H. Okorie’s Objection to Claim No. 11-1 of PriorityOne Bank, taken as a motion under 11 U.S.C. § 362(k) for violation of the automatic stay (“Motion for Violation of Stay”); and on PriorityOne’s Motion for Abandonment and Terminating of § 362 Automatic Stay Nunc Pro Tunc and/or Annulling the § 362 Automatic Stay (“Motion to Annul Stay”). This proceeding is core under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(G) and (b)(2)(O). Dr.Okorie alleges that four-and-a-half years ago, PriorityOne willfully violated the automatic stay in this bankruptcy case by foreclosing on its real property collateral without first obtaining an order granting relief from the stay. PriorityOne did indeed foreclose without obtaining relief. But PriorityOne has shown that the facts warrant annulment of the stay, and Dr. Okorie, who bears the burden of proof, has not shown why annulment should be denied.

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The Motion to Annul Stay is therefore granted to April 17, 2019, the date PriorityOne requests, thereby validating the foreclosure. The stay having been annulled, the Motion for Violation of the Stay is denied. ALLEGATIONS THAT WILL NOT BE ADDRESSED

The Motion for Violation of Stay is one of dozens of objections, other contested matters, and adversary proceedings that Dr. Okorie has filed in rapid-fire succession pro se, mostly seeking to undo events that he himself set in motion. Twenty of the claims objections were overruled in the Opinion and Order on Debtor’s Objections to Claims (“Order Overruling Claims Objections”), ECF No. 932, including an objection to PriorityOne’s claim. The arguments against PriorityOne’s claim have already been determined to be without merit and will not be reconsidered. In addition to alleging a violation as to the real property, Dr. Okorie alleges a violation as to the sale of medical equipment that collateralized a loan held by Wells Fargo Bank. ECF No. 735 at 5. But a month after filing the Motion for Violation of Stay, Dr. Okorie testified at the hearing on his claims objections that he now knew it was not PriorityOne that sold the equipment.

Hr’g Tr., ECF No. 792 at 22 (“I thought it was Mr. Henderson [PriorityOne’s attorney] that sold the property until two days ago when he told me it wasn’t him. . . . That’s when I realized it was Wells Fargo that sold it.”). The allegation as to the medical equipment is therefore considered withdrawn. FACTS

Dr. Okorie has been a debtor in bankruptcy either under chapter 11 or, as now, under chapter 7 for the past five years. His medical practice, Inland Family Practice Center LLC (“Inland”), has been operating under a confirmed chapter 11 plan for approximately three years. See In re Inland Fam. Practice Ctr. LLC, No. 19-50020-KMS, Conf. Order, ECF No. 358; Plan, ECF No. 333 (Bankr. S.D. Miss. filed Jan. 3, 2019) (“Inland Case”). The events that pushed Dr. Okorie and Inland into bankruptcy are recounted in the Order Overruling Claims Objections. The events relevant to the present motions also are recounted in the Order Overruling Claims Objections and are reiterated and expanded on here. I. The Bankruptcy Cases

Between them, Dr. Okorie and Inland have filed three bankruptcy cases. Two have been Dr. Okorie’s individually: the present case, filed by counsel under chapter 11 and converted two years later to a case under chapter 7, after which counsel withdrew, ECF No. 491; and an earlier case under chapter 11, filed pro se and pending only a brief time, In re Ikechukwu Hyginus Okorie, No. 18-52169-KMS (Bankr. S.D. Miss. filed Nov. 6, 2018, dismissed Jan. 14, 2019) (“2018 Case”). The cases were filed in this sequence: first, Dr. Okorie’s 2018 Case; then, the Inland Case in January 2019; and finally, Dr. Okorie’s present case in February 2019. II. PriorityOne and the Automatic Stay Several months before filing the 2018 Case, Dr. Okorie guaranteed a promissory note that Inland executed to PriorityOne. 2018 Case, Claim No. 4-1 at 6. As security, Dr. Okorie also

executed a deed of trust granting PriorityOne a first priority lien on the property where Inland operated its clinic: 908 West Pine Street, Hattiesburg, Mississippi (“Clinic Property”). Id. at 4, 12; ECF No. 932 at 4. As of the filing of the 2018 Case, Inland owed $814,770.44 on the note. 2018 Case, Claim No. 4-1 at 4. On the filing of the 2018 Case, PriorityOne promptly moved for relief from the stay on the grounds that (1) Inland had defaulted on the note, (2) PriorityOne was not adequately protected, and (3) that because the Clinic Property was pledged to secure the debt, there was little to no equity to benefit the estate. 2018 Case, ECF No. 31 at 3. Dr. Okorie did not respond but instead filed a motion to dismiss his case, id., ECF No. 44, which was followed by the U.S. Trustee’s motion to

dismiss for Dr. Okorie’s failure to file schedules and statements and to submit requested documents, id., ECF No. 55 at 2. Before dismissing the case, this Court granted PriorityOne’s motion for relief to foreclose on the Clinic Property. Id., ECF No. 53.1 On Inland’s filing, PriorityOne again promptly moved for relief from the stay as to the Clinic Property on the same grounds as before. Inland Case, ECF No. 23 at 3. This time, the Court

entered an agreed order requiring Inland to make monthly payments beginning March 1, 2019. Id., ECF No. 75 at 5. Inland missed the March 1 payment, the stay lifted, and the Clinic Property was abandoned from Inland’s bankruptcy estate. Id., ECF No. 86 at 1. At this point, Dr. Okorie’s present case had been pending for approximately one month. On the filing of Dr. Okorie’s present case, PriorityOne did not move for relief from the stay. Instead, PriorityOne’s attorney, Derek Henderson, emailed a letter to Dr. Okorie’s then- attorney, Patrick Sheehan, on April 17, 2019, seeking Sheehan’s agreement that the automatic stay had terminated. After referencing the orders on stay relief in the 2018 Case and the Inland Case, Henderson wrote: I am proceeding with foreclosure of the property at 908 West Pine Street. However, there has not been an Order to Lift Stay in Dr. Okorie’s [present] case. I note that 11 U.S.C. § 362(c)(3) provides that in [an] individual Chapter 11 case that is filed when the debtor had a case pending within the preceding one-year period but was dismissed, the stay is terminated as to property securing debt on the 30th day after the filing of the second case. My calculations show the second case was filed on February 27, 2019. So the 30th day is March 29, 2019. I did not see a motion to extend the stay in the case. Thus, as of March 29, 2019, the stay is terminated.

Do you agree that the stay is not in effect as to PriorityOne Bank in the second case (19-50379 KMS) and do you have an objection to PriorityOne Bank proceeding to foreclosure? Please confirm whether you agree or disagree. If you do not agree, could you please tell me what you rely upon that the stay is still in effect?

1 As in earlier filings, Dr. Okorie asserts that PriorityOne did not properly serve him with this motion. See ECF No. 735 at 3; see also Obj. to Cl., ECF No. 612 at 2; Mot. to Vacate J.

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