Palmer v. Laying

559 B.R. 746, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157936, 2016 WL 6778855
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedNovember 15, 2016
DocketCase No. 15-cv-02856-RM
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 559 B.R. 746 (Palmer v. Laying) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palmer v. Laying, 559 B.R. 746, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157936, 2016 WL 6778855 (D. Colo. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

RAYMOND P. MOORE, United States District Judge

On the last day of 2015, appellants Rich-ard William Palmer (“Mr. Palmer”) and Dar Mae Palmer (collectively, “appel-lants”) appealed the decision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colo-rado ("the Bankruptcy Court”), granting appellee the U.S, Trustee’s (“the UST” or “appellee”) Motion to Dismiss Debtors’ Case Under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(1) and § 707(b)(2) or, in the Alternative, Under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(3) (“the motion to dis-miss”). (EOF No. 1.) In their Opening Brief, appellants raised the following issue for judicial review: whether the Bankrupt-cy Court erred in finding that Mr. Palm.er’s student loan debt was a consumer debt. (ECF No. 15 at 5.)1 Appellee has filed a Response Brief (ECF No. 17), and appellants have filed a Revised Reply Brief (ECF No. 20-1).

With this matter now being fully briefed, and for the reasons discussed herein, this Court REVERSES the decision of the Bankruptcy Court, and DENIES the motion to dismiss.

I. Background

On August 27, 2014, appellants filed a voluntary petition for relief under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. (ECF No. 11-1 at 6-8.) In the Schedules attached to ap-pellants’ chapter 7 petition, they listed a debt of $91,312.00 in student loans (“the [748]*748student loan debt”)- (Id. at 35.) That debt has become the source of the parties’ con-flict in this case. This is due to the operation of 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(1) (“707(b)(1)”), which provides that a court may dismiss a chapter 7 case if the debts of the debtor are “primarily consumer debts” and the granting of relief to the debtor would be an abuse of chapter 7. 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(1).

With that provision in mind, the UST, on October 31, 2014, filed the motion to dismiss, asserting that (1) appellants’ debts were primarily consumer debts, including the student loan debt, and (2) a presumption of abuse arose under ■§ 707(b)(2). (ECF No. 11-1 at 82-86.) On October 5, 2015, an evidentiary hearing was held on the motion to dismiss, at which Mr. Palmer testified. (ECF No. 11-2 at 3-62.) Prior to the evidentiary hearing, the parties limited the scope of their dispute to the singular issue of whether the student loan debt was a consumer debt under 11 U.S.C. § 101(8) (“§ 101(8)”). (ECF No. 11-1 at 115.) The parties agreed that, if the student loan debt was a consumer debt, then the motion to dismiss should be granted, but, if the converse was true, the motion to dismiss should be denied. (Id.)

After the evidentiary hearing, on De-cember 15, 2015, the Bankruptcy Court entered an Order granting the motion to dismiss. (Id. at 147-158.) Addressing the singular issue before it, the Bankruptcy Court first explained that the Bankruptcy Code defines a consumer debt as a debt incurred “primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.” (Id. at 150 (internal quotation marks omitted)). The Bankrupt-cy Court then summarized and discussed the varying, and differing, approaches taken by courts in deciding whether a student loan constitutes a consumer debt for bank-ruptcy purposes. (Id. at 151-153.) Impor-tantly, the Bankruptcy Court noted that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has spoken, to an extent, on this issue. Specifi-cally, the Bankruptcy Court discussed the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Stewart v. U.S. Trustee, 175 F.3d 796 (10th Cir. 1999) (“Stewart III ”). In Stewart III, the Tenth Circuit stated that “[c]onsumer debt is fur-ther distinguished from non-consumer debt as a debt incurred with a ‘profit mo-tive.’” 175 F.3d at 806 (quotations omit-ted).

The Bankruptcy Court then stated that the following four concepts were impor-tant to its determination of whether a stu-dent loan is a consumer debt: (1) the Tenth Circuit’s reference to “profit mo-tive” in Stewart III should be interpreted narrowly because this was in keeping with the intent of the changes made to the Bankruptcy Code in 2005; (2) trying to determine whether a debt is a business or personal investment will ’ be problematic ■without a narrow, objective standard; (3) without a narrow interpretation of “profit motive,” it could be applied to virtually all student loans, and thus, would become an exception that swallows the rule; and (4) “[a] narrow standard, tied to an existing business, or to some requirement for ad-vancement in a current job or organization, is necessary to avoid a student’s aspi-rational goal, or a wished-for ‘hope and dream’ being the focus, as opposed to the advancement of a tangible opportunity.” (ECF No. 11-1 at 155-156.)

These four concepts led the Bankruptcy Could to conclude that, for a student loan to be incurred with a profit motive, “the debtor must demonstrate a tangible bene-fit to an existing business, or show some requirement for advancement or greater compensation in a current job or organization.” (Id. at 156.) With that test for reference, the Bankruptcy Court found that the student loan debt was a consumer debt because Mr. Palmer did not incur the debt [749]*749“with the objective of profiting” his em-ployer, Essential Insurance Services (“EIS”), and EIS did not require Mr. Palmer to pursue the education resulting in the student loan debt. (Id. at 156-157.)

II. Legal Standards

The Bankruptcy Court’s legal conclusions are reviewed de novo, while its findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. In re Stewart, 215 B.R. 456, 459 (10th Cir. BAP 1997) (“Stewart II ”). The determination that a debt is primarily a consumer debt is reviewed de novo. Stewart III, 175 F.3d at 803.

The burden of proof is on the mov-ant to support a motion to dismiss under § 707(b)(1) by a preponderance of the evidence. (ECF No. 11-1 at 150 (citing In re Cherrett, 523 B.R. 660, 668 (9th Cir. BAP 2014))). As before the Bankruptcy Court, the only issue before this Court is whether the student loan debt constitutes a consumer debt under the Bankruptcy Code. Section 101(8) defines “consumer debt” as “debt incurred by an individual primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.” 11 U.S.C. § 101(8). Thus, the only issue here is whether the student loan debt was a debt incurred “primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.” See id.

III. Discussion

Because of its importance, the Court begins with the “profit motive” test, and the Bankruptcy Court’s formulation of the same. In Stewart III, the Tenth Circuit explained that consumer debt, apart from being of a personal, family, or household nature, is further distinguished from non-consumer debt by being incurred with a “profit motive.” Stewart III, 175 F.3d at 806. In applying that concept to the stu-dent loans in Stewart III,

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Bluebook (online)
559 B.R. 746, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157936, 2016 WL 6778855, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palmer-v-laying-cod-2016.