In re Kelly

281 B.R. 62, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 2004, 2001 WL 1913981
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Alabama
DecidedFebruary 13, 2001
DocketNo. 00-11742
StatusPublished

This text of 281 B.R. 62 (In re Kelly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Kelly, 281 B.R. 62, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 2004, 2001 WL 1913981 (Ala. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER ON UNITED STATES’ MOTION TO DISMISS CHAPTER 13 CASE AND MOTION TO CONSTRUE AND MODIFY PLAN

WILLIAM S. SHULMAN, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter came before the Court on the United States’ motion to dismiss the Debtors’ Chapter 13 case and motion to construe and modify plan. Irvin Grodsky appeared for the Debtors; Charles Baer appeared for the United States and Jeffrey Hartley appeared for the Chapter 13 Trustee. The Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law based on the pleadings, briefs, testimony, evidence and arguments of counsel:

FINDINGS OF FACT

The Debtors, Carolyn and John Kelly (hereinafter collectively “the Kellys”), filed their Chapter 13 petition on May 3, 2000. They submitted their plan on the standard form subscribed by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Paragraph 2a of the plan states (with emphasis added):

2. From the payment so received, the Trustee shall make disbursement as follows:
a. The following priority payments shall be paid in full:
Trustee’s commission (monthly)
Attorney’s fees (over 7 months) Internal Revenue Service (over 60 months)... 1

[64]*64Paragraph 5 of the Debtors’ plan provides: “Other provisions: See attached.” 2 The plan has a handwritten notation in the top right corner: “ Page 1 of 2.” The plan in the Court’s file has a second page, which has a handwritten notation in the same position: “Page 2 of 2.” The attachment to the plan reads as follows:

CHAPTER 13 PLAN

The vehicles belonging to KLK Delivery-listed on Exhibit “A” shall be transferred to the United States of America as the indubitable equivalent of a cash payment in the amount of $100,000.00 and the United States of America shall credit the Debtors’ [sic] with $100,000.00 against the Debtors’ federal tax liabilities in exchange for said vehicles. The Debtors shall deliver the vehicles to the Mobile Alabama office of the Internal Revenue Service on the 10th day following confirmation of the Plan unless the Internal Revenue Service directs a different location. Debtors shall be responsible for the cost of delivery of said vehicles to the Montlimar Drive, Mobile, Alabama office of the Internal Revenue Service. The Internal Revenue Service shall pay the cost for only delivery to any other location.

Betty Stalbert, a bankruptcy specialist with the New Orleans office of the Internal Revenue Service, testified that her duties as a bankruptcy specialist include reviewing chapter 13 plans and filing proofs of claim on the IRS’s behalf.3 She had worked with the IRS for 26 years and has been a bankruptcy specialist for one and half years. If Stalbert detects a problem with a plan under her review, she refers the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the appropriate state.

Stalbert reviewed the Debtors’ chapter 13 plan in June 2000. Stalbert testified that when she saw paragraph 2a indicating that the IRS’s claim would be paid in full, she did not check any of the other provisions of the Debtors’ plan. Government Exhibit 1 is the IRS’s copy of the Debtors’ chapter 13 plan. Exhibit 1 is a single sheet with the information contained on Page 1 of 2 on the front, and the information contained on Page 2 of 2 on the back. The IRS’s case history sheet on the Debtors’ case indicates that Stalbert received the Debtors’ plan on June 13, 2000, and that the plan listed the “IRS as priority & to be paid in full.”4

Stalbert testified that she did not calculate the amount of the Debtors’ plan payment over the 60-month life of the plan because paragraph 2a identified the IRS’s claim as priority to be paid in full. In addition, she believed that the Chapter 13 Trustee would dismiss or convert the plan if the payment was not sufficient to meet the terms of the plan. She did not remember looking at the payment required by the plan. The Debtors’ plan required them to pay $1,000.00 for 60 months for a total of $60, 000.00 to be paid into the plan. The IRS’s proof of claim indicates liability in excess of $100,000.00. Stalbert did not recall looking at the dollar amount to be paid by the Debtors in their chapter 13 plan. She saw no provisions other than paragraph 2a that would affect the IRS. She stated that there was no attachment to her copy of the Debtors’ plan. She did not know if there were additional provisions on the back of the plan. If she had seen the information on page 2 of 2 of the [65]*65Debtors’ plan, she would have referred the plan to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The IRS’s case history indicates that Stalbert prepared a proof of claim for the IRS on May 30, 2000, claiming $128,073.76 and including $88, 820.079 in priority taxes and $39,252.97 in non-priority taxes. A notation indicated that the Debtors had not filed a 1999 tax return on that date. Stalbert added a notation on May 30, 2000, stating that she corrected the government’s proof of claim to reflect a total of $160, 316.13 with $121,061.16 in priority taxes and $39,252.97 in non-priority taxes. She had not received a copy of the Debtors’ chapter 13 plan at that time. Stalbert testified that she notified her supervisor of the claim and the Debtors’ case was assigned to another bankruptcy specialist in the Birmingham office. Stalbert testified that the Debtors’ case was no longer under her supervision after May 30, 2000. She discovered that the case had been reassigned on July 13, 2000. The IRS’s copy of the Debtors’ plan is stamped “May 31 2000 Special Procedures Staff Birmingham Alabama.” Stalbert testified that the New Orleans Special Procedures Office of the IRS (her home office) did not receive a copy of the Debtors’ plan until June 2, 2000.

The Debtors plan was confirmed as filed on June 29, 2000. The IRS Special Procedures office in Birmingham received a copy of the confirmation order on July 6, 2000.5 Stalbert made an entry on the IRS case history that she received the confirmation order stating that the IRS would receive vehicles valued at $ 100,000.00 by the 10th day following the confirmation order. Stalbert testified that she contacted Mary Ann Capps, the bankruptcy specialist to whom the Debtors’ case had been reassigned, and told her about the confirmation order. Stalbert faxed a copy of the Debtors’ plan and the IRS’s proof of claim to Capps on July 18, 2000. The IRS filed a motion to dismiss the Debtors’ case and a motion to construe and modify the plan on August 8, 2000.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

The IRS alleges that the Debtors’ plan was at best ambiguous and at worst not filed in good faith. It seeks to modify the plan on grounds that the plan was contradictory, calling for full payment of the IRS’s priority claim over the life of the plan on page one of the plan, and offering to turn over automobiles to the IRS as the indubitable equivalent value of $100,000.00 on page two. The IRS also seeks to dismiss the Debtors’ plan on grounds that the Debtors sought to mislead the IRS by placing the provision about turning over the vehicles to the IRS on the second page of the plan.

The IRS filed a motion to dismiss the Debtors’ case based on the theory that the plan was filed in bad faith. As an initial ruling, the Court finds no evidence of bad faith on the part of the Debtors or their counsel. The Debtors used the form authorized by this District to outline their Chapter 13 plan.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
281 B.R. 62, 2001 Bankr. LEXIS 2004, 2001 WL 1913981, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-kelly-alsb-2001.