Mitchell Construction Co. v. Smith (In Re Smith)

180 B.R. 311, 1995 Bankr. LEXIS 438, 1995 WL 154224
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedApril 6, 1995
Docket19-20145
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 180 B.R. 311 (Mitchell Construction Co. v. Smith (In Re Smith)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mitchell Construction Co. v. Smith (In Re Smith), 180 B.R. 311, 1995 Bankr. LEXIS 438, 1995 WL 154224 (Ga. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER

MARGARET H. MURPHY, Bankruptcy Judge.

Before the court are (1) Debtor’s motion in the main ease for imposition of sanctions against Mitchell Construction Company, Inc. (“Mitchell”) and its attorney, David Rutherford, for willful violation of the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362(a); and (2) Debtor’s motion to dismiss as untimely the adversary proceeding filed by Mitchell. The issue central to both motions is when Mitchell received actual notice of the filing of Debtor’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy case,

Mitchell is a creditor of Debtor as a result 0f a state court judgment obtained by default May 14, 1992. After entry of the judgment, Mitchell, through its attorney David Rutherford, served Debtor with postjudgment interrogatories. When Debtor failed to respond to those interrogatories, Mitchell filed a motion to compel November 3, 1992. Unknown to Mitchell, because Debtor had not listed Mitchell as a creditor, Debtor had a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case pending at the time the motion to compel was filed and at the time the order granting the motion to compel was entered February 4, 1993. 1 The Chapter 13 case was dismissed 2 shortly thereafter, February 18, 1993, and Debtor then filed the instant Chapter 7 case March 3, 1993. In Debtor’s Chapter 7 Statement of Financial Affairs, item 4, Debtor disclosed the lawsuit 3 but failed to list Mitchell as a creditor in either his schedules 4 or on the mailing matrix. 5 Therefore, Mitchell received no written notice of the filing of the instant case or of the bar dates for filing complaints objecting to discharge or to determine discharge-ability. 6

*314 On April 7, 1993, as a result of Debtor’s failure to respond to the state court order compelling postjudgment discovery, Mitchell filed a motion for contempt. A hearing on the motion for contempt was scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, 1993 (Monday, May 31, 1993, was the Memorial Day holiday). On Friday, May 28, 1993, Debtor contacted Mitchell’s attorney by telephone and by tele-facsimile (hereinafter referred to as a “fax”) to notify him that Debtor was currently protected by the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362(a) as a result of his pending Chapter 7 ease. The document which Debtor faxed to Mitchell’s attorney and to the state court judge, however, was a notice from Debtor’s prior Chapter 13 case (dismissed in February, 1993) and, therefore, contained an incorrect case number. 7

After contacting the state court judge, Mitchell’s attorney sent a message by fax to Debtor June 1, 1993, to inform Debtor that the state court judge intended to go forward with the contempt hearing. Late in the day after 5:00 p.m. on June 1, 1993, Debtor visited his attorney, Milton Jones, 8 to show Mr. Jones the letter faxed from Mitchell’s attorney.

Later on June 1, 1993, at approximately 6:00-7:00 p.m., Mr. Jones telephoned the offices of Mitchell’s attorney. A senior associate, Mr. Weber, answered the phone, announcing that David Rutherford, the attorney handling Mitchell’s case, was not in the office. A conversation ensued. Mr. Jones testified that it is his habit and practice in similar situations to provide to a creditor’s attorney the following information:

a. his name and telephone number;
b. the debtor’s name;
c. the fact that a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 case had been filed;
d. the case number of the bankruptcy ease filed;
e. the date of filing; and
f.information regarding the automatic stay.

Mr. Jones further testified that it was not his habit and practice to send copies of bankruptcy petitions to creditors and it was not his habit and practice to file pleadings, such as Pleas of Bankruptcy, in pending state court cases. Debtor testified he overheard Mr. Jones’ end of the conversation and heard Mr. Jones identify himself and Debtor and heard Mr. Jones discuss the nature and extent of the automatic stay.

The associate attorney, Mr. Weber, to whom Mr. Jones spoke recalls only that Mr. Jones seemed to be in a hurry and that Mr. Jones informed him that Jones had a conflict and could not attend the next morning’s hearing. Mr. Weber thought it unusual for an attorney to call so late in the day about a conflict for the next morning’s hearing. Mr. Weber testified that if any more specific information, such as a case number, had been provided, he would have prepared a written memorandum of such information. Mr. Weber testified he attempted to contact Mr. Rutherford at home but was unable to reach him. Mr. Rutherford confirmed that he had a telephone answering machine which was in working order. Mr. Rutherford testified he received no message about Mr. Jones’ conflict or about Debtor’s bankruptcy. Mr. Rutherford testified he was not even aware that Mr. Jones had called until after Mr. Jones filed his affidavit April 21, 1994, ten months later.

Mitchell’s attorney attended the contempt hearing June 2, 1993. Neither Debtor nor an attorney for Debtor appeared at that hearing. The state court judge, having received a fax from Debtor regarding a pending bankruptcy case, instructed Mitchell’s attorney to investigate and report regarding Debtor’s bankruptcy status. MitcheU’s attor *315 ney called the Chapter 13 Trustee’s office. 9 That office reported to Mitchell’s attorney that Debtor’s Chapter 13 case (of the erroneous case number which Debtor had provided to Mitchell’s attorney) had been dismissed and that Debtor had no other Chapter 13 case pending. 10

Mitchell’s attorney then called the office of the Clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (the “Bankruptcy Clerk”) to determine whether the records maintained by the Bankruptcy Clerk showed a pending ease for Debtor. 11 Mitchell’s attorney reported that it was his habit and practice when in need of information regarding a ease pending in a state court to call the state court clerk’s office. He stated he was consistently able to obtain reliable information regarding case status through such telephonic communication. Mitchell’s attorney also testified, however, that he does not regularly practice in bankruptcy court and, in fact, in the few years since he began his practice of law in 1990, Mitchell’s attorney had worked on cases on only one or two occasions which had even tangential involvement with bankruptcy court. Therefore, Mitchell’s attorney was unaware of the technical and procedural differences between the state courts’ docketing systems and the bankruptcy court’s docketing system.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 B.R. 311, 1995 Bankr. LEXIS 438, 1995 WL 154224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-construction-co-v-smith-in-re-smith-ganb-1995.