In re Garcia

479 B.R. 488, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4922, 2012 WL 4890325
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedSeptember 7, 2012
DocketNo. 09-22828 JPK
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 479 B.R. 488 (In re Garcia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Garcia, 479 B.R. 488, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4922, 2012 WL 4890325 (Ind. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION CONCERNING MOTIONS TO DISMISS/BAR TO REFILING

J. PHILIP KLINGEBERGER, Bankruptcy Judge.

This contested matter had its genesis with the filing on November 19, 2010, as record # 748, of a Joint Motion to Dismiss to Dismiss With Prejudice Filed by Pilgrim Financing, LLC and Arthur D. Pringle, III (“Joint Motion”). Pilgrim Financing, LLC (“Pilgrim”) and Arthur D. Pringle, III (“Pringle”) asserted in the Joint Motion that the Chapter 11 case of Sergio Garcia (“Sergio”) and Marisa Garcia (“Marisa”) should be dismissed based upon a number of grounds, and that Sergio and Marisa should be barred from seeking relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Code, in essence permanently.

A preliminary pre-trial conference was held on December 17, 2010, the results of which were memorialized in pertinent part in record # 765 as follows:

ORDER CONCERNING FURTHER PROCEEDINGS ON JOINT MOTION TO DISMISS
Pursuant to the court’s order entered on December 6, 2010 (record entry No. 757), a preliminary pretrial conference was held on December 17, 2010 with respect to the Joint Motion to Dismiss filed on November 19, 2010 by Pilgrim Financing LLC and Arthur D. Pringle III (record entry No. 748). The debtors appear by counsel Catherine Molnar-Boncela; Arthur D. Pringle III appears by counsel Greg A. Bouwer and James Yannakopoulos; Pilgrim Financing LLC appears by counsel Natasha Wojtkowski and Jonathan Petersen; the appearance of Carol Fraley for Wells Fargo Financial is noted.

[490]*490IT IS ORDERED as follows:

1. Issues raised by the joint motion will be bifurcated for the purposes of hearing. The following issues/grounds asserted by the joint movants will be first heard and determined:
A. Alleged violations by the debtors of cash collateral orders entered by the court, including manner of collection of rents;
B. Alleged failures by the debtor to disclose interests in property which should comprise property of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy estate;
C. Alleged failures by the debtors to cooperate with respect to Rule 2004 examinations, including alleged failures to comply with orders of the court regarding those examinations; and
D. Alleged misrepresentations, misstatements, or fraudulent statements made by the debtors at meetings of creditors held pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 341.
2. A Final Hearing with respect to the joint motion will begin on February 15, 2011, at 9:30 a.m.; the court has reserved February 15, 16, 17 and February 18 beginning at 1:00 p.m., for the final hearing.
4. There are compelling circumstances, as stated by the court on the record at hearings held on December 1, 2010 and December 17, 2010, that prevent the court from deciding the joint motion not later than 15 days after the commencement of the hearing on that motion, which hearing is deemed to have commenced on December 17, 2010.

On February 15, 2011, Sergio and Marisa filed their Debtors’ Verified Statement Concerning Joint Motion to Dismiss by Pilgrim Financing, LLC and Arthur Prin-gle.1

The initial evidentiary hearing on the Joint Motion was held on February 16 and February 17, 2011. At the close of the movants’ case on February 17, 2011, counsel for Sergio and Marisa moved for what the court deemed as a “Judgment on Partial Findings”. The court made an initial ruling on this request at the February 17, 2011, hearing, and then stated its written memorialization of that ruling in record # 801, filed on March 15, 2011. This document states the following:

ORDER ON FEDERAL RULE BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE 7052/FEDER-AL RULE CIVIL PROCEDURE 52(c) MOTION BY THE DEBTORS AT THE CLOSE OF THE MOVANTS’ CASE ON DISMISSAL OF THE DEBTORS’ CASE
At the close of the movants’ case on February 17, 2011, the counsel for the debtors moved for what the court construes as a Judgment on Partial Findings pursuant to Fed.R.Bankr.P. 9014(c)/Fed.R.Bankr.P. 7052/ Fed. R.Civ.P. 52(c). The court ruled that with respect to Sergio Garcia, the motion was denied because the movants had established a prima facie case. The debtors’ counsel moved separately as to the debtor Marisa Garcia. That motion was denied as well.
This order is the written memorialization of the court’s ruling, and constitutes the order on the debtors’ motion, supplanting the court’s February 7, 2011 in-court ruling.
The case before the court is the joint Chapter 11 case of Sergio Garcia and Marisa Garcia. 11 U.S.C. § 302(a) provides that a joint case is commenced by [491]*491a single petition by a husband and wife. One case is thus created.
11 U.S.C. § 302(b) provides: “After the commencement of a joint case the court shall determine the extent, if any, to which the debtors’ estates shall be consolidated.” There has been no determination in this case that the debtors’ estates should be consolidated. Fed. R.Bankr.P. 1015(b)(1) provides for joint administration of the estates in a joint husband/wife case. There has been no order of joint administration of the estates of Sergio Garcia and Marisa Garcia.
11 U.S.C. § 1112(b)(1) provides for dismissal of a case under stated circumstances. Despite the existence of two separate estates, there is only one case: the joint case of Sergio Garcia and Marisa Garcia. The contested matter arising from the movants’ joint motion concerns this joint case: there are not two different cases to consider.
The debtors’ counsel’s motion under Rule 52(c) confuses the concepts of joint estates with the concept of a joint case. Marisa Garcia is not the debtor in a separate case, and the fate of both her and Sergio Garcia’s joint case under a motion pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1112(b)(1) is to be determined in relation to the independent conduct of one in relation to the joint case. As husbands’ and wives’ fates sometimes rise or fall on the individual fortunes or actions of one spouse, so too goes the fate of the joint case of Sergio Garcia and Marisa Garcia.
The court determines that the motion made pursuant to Rule 52(c) on behalf of Marisa Garcia has no sustainable basis: The court determines that the movants have established a

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
479 B.R. 488, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 4922, 2012 WL 4890325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-garcia-innb-2012.