In Re Gibbons

52 B.R. 861, 13 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 759, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 5334, 13 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 705
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedSeptember 13, 1985
DocketBankruptcy 8100702
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 52 B.R. 861 (In Re Gibbons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy 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 Gibbons, 52 B.R. 861, 13 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 759, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 5334, 13 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 705 (R.I. 1985).

Opinion

ARTHUR N. VOTOLATO, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

On remand to the Bankruptcy Court by Francis J. Boyle, Chief Judge of the District Court for the District of Rhode Island, for reconsideration in light of the Rhode *862 Island Supreme Court’s advisory opinion, In re Gibbons, 459 A.2d 938 (R.I.1983), which discussed the effect of attachments against property owned as tenants by the entirety.

The specific issue before us is whether a debtor’s interest in property held as tenants by the entirety is “exempt from process” under Rhode Island law, so that it qualifies as exempt property under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(2)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code. That section provides:

11 U.S.C. § 522. Exemptions.
(b) Notwithstanding section 541 of this title, an individual debtor may exempt from property of the estate ...
(B) any interest in property in which the debtor had, immediately before the commencement of the case, an interest as a tenant by the entirety ... to the extent that such interest ... is exempt from process under applicable nonbank-ruptcy law.

In Rhode Island, creditors of one spouse may attach, but may not levy upon the debtor’s interest in property held as tenants by the entirety. 1 See Bloomfield v. Brown, 67 R.I. 452, 25 A.2d 354 (1942). Therefore, in analyzing the exemption provisions of § 522(b)(2)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code as they apply in Rhode Island, the dispositive question is whether the ability to attach, without the additional right to levy upon the debtor’s interest in such property, constitutes “process” as that term is used in the Bankruptcy Code.

The debtor urges that it is final process, 1.e., levy or execution, that Congress had in mind when it drafted § 522, and that “this Court should recognize the power to levy as being the instrumental process for [§ 522 exemption] purposes.” Appellee’s Additional Brief at 4.

On the other hand, the creditor argues that the original act of attachment constitutes process; that tenancy by the entirety property, which may be attached in Rhode Island, is not “exempt from process” under state law; and that, therefore, in Rhode Island, property owned as tenants by the entirety may not qualify as exempt property under federal bankruptcy law.

TRAVEL AND FACTS 2

For more than four years this proceeding has been working its way through the First Circuit, Rhode Island federal, and state court systems, as follows. On August 31, 1981, George Gibbons filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, listing Donna Parkinson as a creditor, for personal injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. The debtor’s wife, Toni Gibbons, did not join in the petition. Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(2)(B), the debtor claimed as exempt his interest in the marital home located at 9 Balsam Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, which he and his wife own as tenants by the entirety. On February 5, 1982, we allowed the claimed exemption, over Parkinson’s objection. 3 *863 See In re Gibbons, 17 B.R. 373 (Bankr.D.R.I.1982), (Gibbons I). We held in that decision that an attaching creditor’s “inchoate and/or contingent right to levy” was insufficient to deprive the debtor of the exemption under § 522(b)(2)(B):

A creditor’s right to levy may be extinguished if the spouses convey their interest to a third party, or if the debtor predeceases his/her spouse. This contingent/future right to levy does not constitute a sufficient interest to deprive a debtor of the § 522(b)(2)(B) exemption.

17 B.R. at 375.

In reaching that conclusion in 1982, and endeavoring to follow applicable state law, 4 we relied (in retrospect, unwisely), on implications contained in Cull v. Vadnais, the Rhode Island Supreme Court decision which suggests that a debtor “may” defeat an attachment by a joint conveyance of the property to a third party. See Cull v. Vadnais, 122 R.I. 249, 406 A.2d 1241 (1979).

Our holding was appealed on February 12, 1982 to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit. The Appellate Panel, preliminary to determining whether in Rhode Island an attachment constitutes “process” within the rheaning of § 522(b)(2)(B); certified two questions to the Rhode Island Supreme Court:

(1) Whether, in fact, after a valid attachment of the husband’s interest in a tenancy by the entirety, that attachment can be defeated by a joint conveyance of the property.
(2) Whether, in fact, after a valid attachment of the husband’s interest in a tenancy by the entirety, that attachment can be defeated by a conveyance of the husband’s interest to the wife.

Certification, No. 82-9012 (B.A.P. 1st Cir. July 12, 1982), (Gibbons II).

The Rhode Island Supreme Court responded on May 10, 1983, (Gibbons III), declaring that a valid attachment of the debtor’s interest in tenancy by the entirety property cannot be defeated, either by a joint conveyance or by a conveyance of the debtor’s interest to the non-debtor spouse. In re Gibbons, 459 A.2d 938 (1983).

Before the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel was able to consider the bankruptcy issue in light of the advisory opinion {Gibbons III), it (the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel) became yet another casualty of the Marathon decision, and was judicially extinguished by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. 5

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Bluebook (online)
52 B.R. 861, 13 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d 759, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 5334, 13 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-gibbons-rib-1985.