In re Cafaro

33 B.R. 160, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5990
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedJune 17, 1983
DocketBankruptcy No. 8200823
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 33 B.R. 160 (In re Cafaro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Cafaro, 33 B.R. 160, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5990 (D.R.I. 1983).

Opinion

ORDER ON TRUSTEE’S OBJECTION TO MOTION FOR ATTORNEYS’ FEES FILED BY COUNSEL FOR SECURED CREDITOR

ARTHUR N. VOTOLATO, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

The applicant, counsel for Household Finance Corporation (HFC), filed a Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, seeking $750 in attorneys’ fees and $80 in advertising costs incurred during foreclosure proceedings. The debtors object on [161]*161the ground that such fees are not “reasonable fees, costs, or charges” under 11 U.S.C. § 506(b). At the hearing the trustee also objected on the ground that under regulations in effect at the time that the debtors entered into a secondary mortgage loan agreement with HFC, the statutory maximum for attorneys’ fees in foreclosure actions was $75.00.

HFC’s memorandum in support of its motion states that “a copy of the schedule listing permissible foreclosure expenses” is attached. Such a schedule is indeed attached, but it is not a copy of the one signed by the debtors, nor does it contain the same provisions as the schedule to which the debtors affixed their signatures. Instead of the schedule providing for “[ajctual attorney’s fees not exceeding $75.00,” the applicant submitted an unsigned, updated schedule which now provides for “actual attorney’s fees not to exceed $750,” with an additional provision allowing a maximum of $1000 in some circumstances.

If it were not for the trustee’s objection pointing out that the applicant had submitted a form with provisions which were not in effect at the time of the debtors’ execution of various documents on October 10, 1980, it is quite likely that the ten-fold increase in the allowable attorneys’ fees would not have reached the Court’s attention. Only after the trustee had raised this point did HFC submit a supplemental memorandum arguing that the new statutory maximum fees should apply retroactively. The Court cautions counsel for HFC to provide all pertinent facts in the future. Justice is ill served by such a highly selective, even deceptive, representation of the law and facts.

Although the debtors signed a mortgage deed providing for “foreclosure expenses as permitted by law,” they also signed on the same date a form entitled “Secondary Mortgage Loans — Maximum Service Charges,” which provides that attorneys’ fees for foreclosure expenses incurred pursuant to R.I. Gen.Laws § 19-25.2-1 et seq. shall not exceed $75.00.

Although it appears probable that the statement signed by the debtors restricting attorneys’ fees to no more than $75.00 controls over a subsequent amendment to the Secondary Mortgage Loan Law, and thus prevents retroactive application of the amendment, the question need not be decided in this case. Similarly, we need not decide whether a fee of $750.00 for five hours of legal work (at the time the motion for attorneys’ fees was filed) is “reasonable” pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 506(b). The fee application in question is sufficiently slipshod and misleading to justify an award of no more than $75.00 plus expenses.

Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the applicant be awarded attorneys’ fees of $75.00, plus $80.00 in expenses for advertisement of the mortgagee’s sale.

DECISION ON MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION

Counsel for Household Finance Corp. (HFC) has filed a Motion for Reconsideration of a June 17, 1983 order awarding a $75 attorneys’ fee and $80 in expenses to HFC’s counsel. After review of (1) HFC’s ■motion for award of attorneys’ fees and expenses, and memorandum in support thereof, (2) the transcript of the March 15, 1983 hearing on HFC’s application, and (3) HFC’s Motion for Reconsideration and memorandum -in support thereof, the Motion for Reconsideration is granted. Following are the findings and conclusions of the Court upon reconsideration.

Counsel for HFC contends that the record does not support the Court’s findings that counsel for HFC “made a highly selective, even deceptive, representation of the law and facts and that HFC’s fee application was slipshod and misleading.” Memorandum in Support of Motion for Reconsideration at 1. The Court made these findings based primarily on the applicant’s statement in the Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fee and Expenses that “a copy of the schedule listing permissible foreclosure expenses” (pursuant to R.I.Gen.Laws § 19-25.2-1 et seq.) was attached. The Court noted in its June 17 decision:

[162]*162Such a schedule is indeed attached, but it is not a copy of the one signed by the debtors, nor does it contain the same provisions as the schedule to which the debt- • ors affixed their signatures. Instead of the schedule providing for “[a]ctual attorney’s fees not exceeding $75.00,” the applicant submitted an unsigned, updated schedule which now provides for “actual attorney’s fees not to exceed $750,” with an additional provision allowing a maximum of $1000 in some circumstances.

The applicant does not comment upon this finding1 in the motion for reconsideration, nor does he address his failure to discuss the changed fee schedules in his original memorandum.

HFC’s attorney specifically objects to the Court’s finding in the June 17 decision that

[i]f it were not for the trustee’s objection pointing out that the applicant had submitted a form with provisions which were not in effect at the time of the debtors’ execution of various documents on October 10, 1980, it is quite likely that the ten-fold increase in the allowable attorneys’ fees would not have reached the Court’s attention.

Counsel for HFC points out that before the trustee raised any objection, he made the following statement at the March 15 hearing:

In support of my motion for awarding of attorney’s fees, I have appended to memorandum, a regulation promulgated by the Rhode Island [Director of Business Regulation. The form is dated as revised in the eleventh month of 1981, which allows foreclosure expenses including actual attorney’s fees not to exceed $750....

Transcript at 2. The applicant then concludes that “[cjounsel thus did reveal that the form was not in effect on October 10, 1980.” (Memorandum in Support of Motion for Reconsideration at 1.) At the point in the hearing when the applicant made this statement, there had been no reference to the October 10, 1980 date on which the debtors signed various documents. Counsel’s reference to a form “dated as revised in the eleventh month of 1981” was hardly sufficient, at least by my standards, to “reveal that the form was not in effect” when the debtors affixed their signatures to an earlier version of the fee schedule which provided for a maximum of $75.00 in attorney’s fees. This statement by HFC’s counsel apparently also failed to alert the debtors’ attorney that a drastically revised fee schedule was now in effect, since he continued to oppose the application solely on the ground that a $750 fee was excessive for the time and effort spent on the case.

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Related

In Re Miracle Enterprises, Inc.
57 B.R. 133 (D. Rhode Island, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 B.R. 160, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 5990, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-cafaro-rid-1983.