In Re Wayman

351 B.R. 808, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3067, 2006 WL 2763821
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 16, 2006
Docket05-68056
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 351 B.R. 808 (In Re Wayman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.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 Wayman, 351 B.R. 808, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3067, 2006 WL 2763821 (Tex. 2006).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

BILL PARKER, Chief Judge.

This matter came before the Court upon hearing of the Chapter 13 Plan filed by the Debtor, Brittany Kaye Wayman, and the objection thereto filed by Ronald E. Stadt-mueller, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee (the “Trustee”), in the abové-referenced case. The Trustee objected to the confirmation of the plan on the grounds that, among other deficiencies, the Debtor is not applying all of her projected disposable income as required by 11 U.S.C. § 1325(b)(1)(B). 1 At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court took the matter under advisement. This memorandum of decision disposes of all issues pending before the Court. 2

Background

The Debtor, Brittany Kaye Wayman, was formerly married to Bobby Wayman. As a portion of her pre-petition community property division with Mr. Wayman, she agreed to transfer her interest in the marital homestead to Mr. Wayman in exchange for the payment of $22,000 from her former husband’s 401k plan, such sum representing her undivided % interest in the equity in that homestead which had accrued during the marriage. Such sum was awarded to her in February, 2005, and that amount was initially segregated into a separate account in her name in the former husband’s 401k plan. The Debtor subsequently effectuated a rollover of those sums into her own previously-existing retirement plan in late September, 2005. Those sums constituted the last sums which the Debtor will receive from her divorce settlement.

As is not uncommon during a marital dissolution, the Debtor was experiencing financial problems. Those problems had been exacerbated in August, 2005 by a change affecting her employment as a quality manager for a manufacturing company, wherein she had sustained a salary reduction of approximately $18,000 per year. To address the increasing financial pressures, the Debtor had utilized credit cards and had borrowed money from her father during the transition period.

Once the $22,000 had been rolled over into her own retirement plan, she invaded that plan and withdrew approximately $13,000 in October, 2005 which she utilized to pay outstanding bills. She paid $6,000 to her father, $5,500 to the IRS in satisfaction of 2004 tax claims, $1,250 to American Express and $550 on other miscellaneous installment debt.

The Debtor’s financial struggles continued and, on December 30, 2005, she filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 13. She disclosed in her Statement of *810 Financial Affairs the IRA distributions and all of the creditors which had been paid therefrom. She filed Official Form B22C— entitled “Statement of Current Monthly Income and Calculation of Commitment Period and Disposable Income”- — -but she did not include any of the $13,000 of IRA distributions in the calculation of current monthly income in Part I of that official form. The Debtor also filed a Chapter 13 plan which proposes to pay $400 per month for a period of 48 months which, by the Trustee’s subsequent calculations, will yield the sum of $9,327.44 toward the satisfaction of allowed unsecured claims. 3

The Trustee has objected to the confirmation of the Debtor’s plan on the grounds that the IRA distribution should have been included in the calculation of “current monthly income;” that the inclusion of such income in that calculation would increase monthly disposable income from $160.81 to $1,269.14; and that the Debtor’s alleged failure to include the IRA distribution in the B22C calculation correspondingly results in the Debtor’s subsequent failure to utilize all of her projected disposable income in the first 48 months to fund the plan in violation of 11 U.S.C. § 1325(b)(1)(B).

Discussion

In the context of considering confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan proposed by a debtor who is not engaged in business, 11 U.S.C. § 1325(b), as revised by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (“BAPCPA”), now provides that:

(b)(1) [i]f the trustee or the holder of an allowed unsecured claim objects to the confirmation of the plan, then the court may not approve the plan unless, as of the effective date of the plan—
(A) the value of the property to be distributed under the plan on account of such claim is not less than the amount of such claim; or
(B) the plan provides that all of the debtor’s projected disposable income to be received in the applicable commitment period beginning on the date that the first payment is due under the plan will be applied to make payments to unsecured creditors under the plan.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term “disposable income” means current monthly income received by the debtor ... less amounts reasonably necessary to be expended—
(A)(i) for the maintenance or support of the debtor or a dependent of the debtor ... (emphasis added). 4

The term “current monthly income” or “CMI” is defined by 11 U.S.C. § 101(10A) which, as applied to the current Chapter 13 case, provides that CMI is the equivalent of:

(A) ... the average monthly income from all sources that the debtor receives ... without regard to whether such income is taxable income, derived during the 6-month period ending on—
(i) the last day of the calendar month immediately preceding the date of commencement of the case if the debt- or files the schedule of current income required by section 521(a)(l)(B)(ii);....

*811 The Trustee asserts that the Debtor is not applying all of her projected disposable income to be received in the applicable commitment period to make payments to unsecured creditors as required by 11 U.S.C. § 1325(b)(1)(B) because the IRA distributions were not encompassed in the calculation of disposable income outlined in Official Form B22C. He is right for the wrong reason.

The Debtor was not required to include the IRA distribution in the calculations mandated by Official Form B22C because it did not constitute income received by the Debtor in the preceding six-month period prior to the month in which the case was filed. It is uncontested that the applicable six-month period for this case extended back to June 1, 2005, and the Trustee appears to place reliance upon the fact that the Debtor withdrew the $13,300 from her IRA within that six-month period.

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Bluebook (online)
351 B.R. 808, 2006 Bankr. LEXIS 3067, 2006 WL 2763821, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-wayman-txeb-2006.