Sheffield v. HomeSide Lending, Inc. (In Re Sheffield)

281 B.R. 24, 2000 Bankr. LEXIS 1961, 2000 WL 33907668
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Alabama
DecidedDecember 29, 2000
Docket15-01097
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 281 B.R. 24 (Sheffield v. HomeSide Lending, Inc. (In Re Sheffield)) 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
Sheffield v. HomeSide Lending, Inc. (In Re Sheffield), 281 B.R. 24, 2000 Bankr. LEXIS 1961, 2000 WL 33907668 (Ala. 2000).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING CLASS CERTIFICATION MOTION

MARGARET A. MAHONEY, Chief Judge.

This case is before the Court on the Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification pursuant to Rule 7023 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. This Court has jurisdiction to hear this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334 and the Order of Reference of the District Court. This is a core proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2) and the Court has the authority to enter a final order. For the reasons indicated below, the Court is granting certification of the requested class.

The Court has broken the opinion into six parts. Part I sets forth the facts of the case. Part II discusses the requirements of Rule 7023(a). Part III discusses the requirements of Rule 7023(b). Part IV deals with the scope of the class — nationwide or not? Part V examines whether a class should be certified for plaintiffs whose only cause of action is that the fee charged to them is not reasonable under 11 U.S.C. § 506(b). Part VI discusses the issue of defining the class.

I.

The facts stated in the summary judgment order dated December 29, 2000 are incorporated by reference and will not be restated here. HomeSide, through the Shapiro & Tucker law firm in Birmingham, filed a proof of claim in the Sheffield case on May 8, 1997. That proof of claim fee included as part of the arrearage an attorneys fee in the amount of $150.

The proof of claim did not disclose that the attorneys fee consisted of postpetition/ preconfirmation bankruptcy fees.

The same or a similar procedure is used by other attorneys hired by LOGS to file proofs of claim in other areas of the country. The attorneys are instructed to include a fee for filing a proof of claim on the proof of claim form. There are thousands of debtors whose claims have been handled according to these procedures.

II.

The first issue is whether a class of debtors should be certified under Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7023. There are four basic requirements that a case must meet for class certification pursuant to Rule 7023(a):

1. The class is so numerous that join-der of all members is impracticable (nu-merosity requirement);
2. There are questions of law or fact common to the class (commonality requirement);
3. The claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class (typicality requirement); and
4. The representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class (adequacy requirement).

In re FIRSTPLUS Financial, Inc., 248 B.R. 60, 74 (Bankr.N.D.Tex.2000). Once the four requirements listed above are met, the class must then be categorized under one of the three class types found in Rule 7023(b). These plaintiffs are seeking to have the class certified under Rule 7023( b)(2) or (b)(3). The Court will discuss the requirements of Rule 7023(a) first and then discuss which section of Rule 7023(b) is the appropriate one for this class.

A.

The numerosity standard requires proof that “the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable.” Fed. R. Bankr.P. 7023(a)( 1). The purpose of the requirement is so that class actions will be utilized only when a class action would resolve numerous claims. The test does not mean joinder would be impossible, only that it would be very difficult. Bradley v. Harrelson, 151 F.R.D. 422 (N.D.Ala.1993). Mr. Sheffield seeks to certify a class of debtors: (1) who had proofs of claim filed by HomeSide in their cases which either disclosed charges for postpetition/preconfirmation fees or did not; (2) who had these same attorneys fees or other fees posted to their accounts by HomeSide after filing bankruptcy; and (3) the fees were never approved by the bankruptcy court. The Court concludes certification of a class of debtors is appropriate. The class would be chapter 13 debtors (1) who had proofs of claim filed by HomeSide in their cases which did not disclose charges for postpetition/preconfirmation fees at all or which did not disclose them with sufficient specificity to allow the fee to be treated as part of the arrearage claim; (2) who had no fee application filed by HomeSide for postpetition fees; (3) who had these same attorneys fees posted to their accounts in some way by Home-Side after filing bankruptcy; and (4) who confirmed a plan seeking to cure the debt- or’s mortgage arrearage through the plan. Based upon the evidence of the practices and procedures of HomeSide and its outside counsel presented at the certification hearing, the Court concludes that nationwide there are likely thousands of debtors who fit the description stated above. The evidence at the hearing showed that a fee was paid to LOGS to file claims in all of the loan cases. This fee was posted to bankruptcy debtors’ accounts. As stated in the summary judgment order in this *28 case dated December 29, 2000, certain of the fees are not collectible from the debt- or, except through a chapter 13 plan, and should not be posted to the debtor’s account for later collection while the bankruptcy case is pending. Therefore, the numerosity requirement is satisfied. There will be hundreds or thousands of potential class members in all states. Generally, classes of more than 40-100 members satisfy the numerosity requirement. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Coca-Cola Co., 95 F.R.D. 168 (D.Del.1982). Due to the numbers, joinder of every one of them will be impracticable. Ardrey v. Federal Kemper Ins. Co., 142 F.R.D. 105 (E.D.Pa.1992).

B.

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Bluebook (online)
281 B.R. 24, 2000 Bankr. LEXIS 1961, 2000 WL 33907668, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sheffield-v-homeside-lending-inc-in-re-sheffield-alsb-2000.