In re Bounds

491 B.R. 440, 2013 WL 1897845, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 1682
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedApril 24, 2013
DocketNo. 09-12799-CAG
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 491 B.R. 440 (In re Bounds) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Bounds, 491 B.R. 440, 2013 WL 1897845, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 1682 (Tex. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING CHAPTER 7 TRUSTEE’S OBJECTION AND DAVID FERNEA’S OBJECTION TO DEBTOR’S HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION UNDER 11 U.S.C. § 522(q)

CRAIG A. GARGOTTA, Bankruptcy Judge.

Came on to be considered the Chapter 7 Trustee’s Objection to Debtor’s Homestead Exemption (ECF No. 53) and David Fernea’s (Fernea) Objection to Debtor’s State Law Exemption and Supplemental Objection (ECF Nos. 244 and 246)1 and the Debtor’s Responses thereto (ECF Nos. 258, 259 and 260). For the reasons stated herein, the Court finds the Objections meritorious and GRANTS Trustee’s and Fernea’s Objections to exemption under Section 522(q).

The Court finds that it has subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1334 and that this matter is a core proceeding as defined under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(B) (determination of exemptions). Venue is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1408(1). This matter is referred to this Court under the District’s Standing Order of Reference. This matter is a contested matter as defined under Fed. R. Bankr.Proc. 9014, and, as such, the Court may make findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Fed. R. Bankr.Proc. 7052.

BACKGROUND

Terry Christopher Bounds (Debtor) filed a Chapter 7 petition for relief on October 5, 2009. At the time the Debtor filed his case, Debtor was a defendant in a civil case styled David Fernea v. Terry Christopher Bounds, Cause No. D-1-GN-07-003874, in 250th District Court, Travis County, Texas. Fernea alleged, inter alia, that Debtor took certain actions involving the sale of stock to Fernea in Bounds and Pinto Marketing, Inc., and Austrends, Inc.,2 which constituted common law fraud and violated the Texas Fraud in Stock & Real Estate Transaction statute, Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 27.01 (West 2012).3 Fer-nea maintained that the Debtor falsely [443]*443promised to sell securities to Fernea and to make distributions on account of Fer-nea’s stock ownership. Fernea also contended that the Debtor misrepresented the value of the companies being sold. Additionally, Fernea alleged that Debtor’s actions violated the Texas Securities Act and were actionable under Texas Securities Act § 33 in that the Debtor sold securities that were not registered with the Texas Securities Board even though they were subject to — and regulated by — the Texas Securities Act.

The state district court issued an Order on Plaintiffs [Fernea] Motion for Partial Summary Judgment finding as a matter of law that the sale of stocks to Fernea “involved a sale of unregistered securities” and that the sale was “not exempted from registration as a Non-issuer under 7 Texas Administrative Code § 139.14.” Thereafter, the state district court granted Fer-nea’s partial motion for summary judgment and found as a matter of law that Debtor’s sale of stock to Fernea was not exempted from registration under 7 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 139.16 and 109.13, or Tex. Rev.Civ. Stat. art. 581-5(1).

This Court granted Fernea’s motion for relief from stay (ECF No. 49) to allow the state court to conduct a jury trial on the remaining allegations related to Fernea’s state court petition. A jury of Bounds’ peers found Bounds liable for fraud and violations of the Texas Securities Act.4 A certified copy of the state court judgment was filed of record in Debtor’s Chapter 7 case.

In a related dischargeability action that Fernea brought under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(19) (Adversary No. 10-01018-CAG), this Court held that that Bounds’ debt to Fernea resulted from a violation of Texas securities laws, and, was therefore not dischargeable under § 523(a)(19). This judgment was not appealed and is now a final and enforceable for collateral estoppel purposes.

A. Texas Homestead Law

Texas residents enjoy an unlimited homestead exemption. Tex. Const., Art. XVI, § 50. A Texas homestead cannot be subject to forced sale except for certain exceptions such as a purchase money security interest, taxes, material and mechanics liens; and until recently, home equity loans. A lien may be fixed on a homestead for purchase money, taxes, improvements, an owelty for partition incident to a divorce decree, or the refinance of an existing lien. Tex. Prop.Code § 41.001(a) (Vernon 2000).

Additionally, Texas homestead law traces its origins to the Congress of the Republic. See Woods v. Alvarado State Bank, 118 Tex. 586, 19 S.W.2d 35, 36 (1929). The Congress of the Republic of Texas passed the first homestead law in 1839 that exempted a homestead and personal property from execution. Id. In 1843, the Congress of the Republic exempted homestead property from sale for debts by the probate court, and set apart the property for the sole use and benefit for the widow and children of the decedent father. Id. When Texas was admitted into the Union in 1845, the Texas legislature [444]*444separated the exemption of the homestead from the forced sale of personal property. Thereafter, when Texas voters approved the Texas Constitution in 1876, Article XVI, §§ 50-52 were enacted into law and the homestead exemption has remained relatively unchanged since 1876 but for the ability for residents to obtain home equity loans and court ordered divorce decrees to contain owelty partition provisions.

Texas homestead rights are so embedded in Texas jurisprudence that when Congress passed the 1979 Bankruptcy Code, Texas elected not to “opt out” of the Code’s provision limiting debtors to using only federal exemptions. 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3). The unlimited Texas homestead provision remained unchallenged under the Bankruptcy Code until Congress preempted it in 2005.

B. Cap on Homestead Exemption for Certain Types of Wrongdoing

When Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) it included a number of controversial measures including a cap on a debtor’s homestead exemption for certain violations of federal or state securities law. Passage of BAPCPA was met with heavy criticism in Congress. Notably, a number of members of the House of Representatives, led by Representative John Conyers, found the limitations on homestead exemptions unduly burdensome on some debtors. Representative Conyers and others noted that:

There is also a savings clause that a debtor who owes a debt of the kind described above would not lose her homestead exemption over $125,000, to the extent that equity is reasonably necessary for the support of the debtor and any dependent of the debtor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
491 B.R. 440, 2013 WL 1897845, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 1682, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-bounds-txwb-2013.