Owen v. Garrett Auto Sales, LLC (In re Owen)

519 B.R. 869
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedSeptember 8, 2014
DocketBankruptcy No. 11-03422-BGC-7; Adversary No. 11-00396-BGC
StatusPublished

This text of 519 B.R. 869 (Owen v. Garrett Auto Sales, LLC (In re Owen)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Owen v. Garrett Auto Sales, LLC (In re Owen), 519 B.R. 869 (Ala. 2014).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion on Count VI of the Plaintiff-Debtor’s Second Amended Complaint and the Defendant’s Motion for Relief from and Annul of Stay

BENJAMIN COHEN, Bankruptcy Judge.

The matters before the Court are Count IV of the Second Amended Complaint filed pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 362(k)(l) by the plaintiff-debtor, Mr. Harold U. Owen, III, on September 21, 2012 (A.P. Docket No. 24), and the Motion for Relief From and Annul of Stay filed by the defendant, Garrett Auto Sales, LLC. (“GAS”) on December 4, 2012 (Case Docket No. 103).

In Count Four, the plaintiff seeks to recover damages pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 362(k)(l) for an alleged willful violation of the automatic stay.1 The defendant seeks to obtain relief from the stay, preferably annulment of the stay ab initio, or at least from the time its agents repossessed the automobile involved herein.

After notice, a trial was held on March 14, 2014. The plaintiff, Mr. Harold U. Owen, III; his attorney, Mr. A. Wilson Webb; Mr. Solomon Garrett, a principal of the defendant, Garrett Auto Sales, LLC; Mr. James M. Wooten, the defendant’s attorney; and Mr. Gene Falls, an employee of Garrett Auto Sales, LLC; were present at the hearing.

The matter was submitted on the testimony of Mr. Owen and Mr. Falls; exhibits admitted into evidence; the records in this adversary proceeding and bankruptcy case No. 11-03422-BGC-7; and arguments of counsel.

I. Findings of Fact

The plaintiff, Mr. Harold Owen, purchased a 2001 Ford Mustang automobile from the defendant, Garrett Auto Sales, on December 27, 2010. The purchase price was $9,883.95. He paid $3,000 of the purchase price and GAS financed the remainder.

Mr. Owen filed the present case under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code on July 8, 2011. He did not claim the Mustang as exempt in his schedule of assets. Moreover, he did not list GAS in his schedule of secured creditors or on his creditor [871]*871matrix. Instead, he listed “Car Financial Services, Inc.” (“CFSI”) of Lake Mary, Florida as the security holder on the Mustang. He proposed in both the first Chapter 13 plan that he submitted on July 10, 2011, and the amended plan that he submitted on August 7, 2011, to make fixed monthly payments for a period of 60 months to CFSI.

CFSI never filed a proof of claim. But on September 1, 2011, GAS did. The proof of claim avers, and the documents attached thereto substantiate, that GAS, rather than CFSI, is the holder of the purchase money security interest in the Mustang. No one disputes that fact. Consequently, in his second amended Chapter 13 plan he filed on September 20, 2011, Mr. Owen proposed to pay the balance owed on the Mustang to GAS, rather than CFSI, in 60 monthly installments of $159 each. That plan was confirmed by order of this Court dated October 29, 2011.

Mr. Owen converted his case to chapter 7 on June 27, 2012. A First Meeting of Creditors (Section 341 meeting) was set for July 23, 2012, in the converted case. Notification of the conversion of the case and the 341 meeting were mailed to GAS.

On July 15, 2012, Mr. Owen filed a document entitled “Certificate of Service.” Case Docket No. 93. On the first page of that document, he represented that he served copies of the following documents on the trustee and the Bankruptcy Administrator: a “Summary of Schedules and Statistical Summary of Certain Liabilities,” an “Attorney’s Statement of Compensation,” a “Statement of CMI and Form 22A, Means-Test Calculation,” and a “Statement of Intention.” The documents were attached to the “Certificate of Service.” He also indicated on the front page of the “Certificate of Service” that he was making no amendments to the schedules he had theretofore filed while the case was proceeding under chapter 13.

In the “Chapter 7 Individual Debtor’s Statement of Intention” attached to the “Certificate of Service,” Mr. Owen indicated that he intended to retain the Mustang and reaffirm the debt that he owed to GAS. In the section of that form in which he expressed his intention with respect to the Mustang, he marked a block labeled “Not claimed as exempt.” Neither the statement of intention nor the “Certificate of Service” indicates that the former, which is mandated by 11 U.S.C. § 521(a)(2)(A), was served on GAS, as required by Rule 1007(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure.

According to Mr. Owen, Mr. Wooten, GAS’s attorney in this proceeding, appeared at the 341 meeting on July 23, 2012, and questioned him regarding his intentions with respect to the Mustang. Mr. Owen testified that he told Mr. Wooten on that occasion that he intended to retain it and reaffirm the debt to GAS.

After he left the 341 meeting,'Mr. Owen drove the Mustang to a hospital for a doctor’s appointment. While he was in the doctor’s office, repossession agents contracted by GAS took the car. He said that he was shocked and “discombobulated” to find his car missing from the parking lot. He said that he called GAS and asked one of the identical twins who managed the establishment, either Eddie or Edward Reid, if they had repossessed the car and, if so, if he could have it back. He said that the person he talked to, either Eddie or Edward, told him that they had in fact repossessed the car and had no intention of either returning it to him or allowing him to reaffirm the debt to GAS. Two or three days later, Mr. Owen went to GAS to retrieve personal items that were in the car when it was repossessed by GAS. He said that the manager he dealt with on [872]*872that occasion refused to permit him to look in the Mustang for his personal items but indicated that the items had been placed in a garbage bag and stored in the trunk of another car on the lot. Mr. Owen retrieved the bag with the items from the other car. He did not suggest that anything in the Mustang when it was repossessed was missing or otherwise not in the bag he retrieved from the other car.

Mr. Gene Falls, GAS’s account manager, testified that one of his duties was to monitor the cases of customers who were making payments to GAS through the bankruptcy court, including Mr. Owen. In his performance of that duty, he routinely monitored the Chapter 13 trustee’s website for the purpose of remaining current on the status of those cases. He said that on July 3, 2012, the information posted on that website reflected that Mr. Owen’s chapter 13 case had been closed on June 28, 2012. See GAS Exhibit 7, which was idéntified by Mr. Falls as a screen shot of the information page relating to Mr. Owen’s case that appeared on the Chapter 13 trustee’s website on April 10, 2013. That document indeed bears the entry “Close Date: 6/28/2012.” Next to that entry, however, the following words appears: “Converted to Another Chapter.” Mr. Falls did not print out the entry that he purportedly viewed on July 3, 2012, but later printed the April 2013 entry in anticipation of trial to show as an example of what he had earlier viewed.

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519 B.R. 869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owen-v-garrett-auto-sales-llc-in-re-owen-alnb-2014.