In Re: Wesley Leandrew Brown Debtor.
| Court | United States Bankruptcy Courts. Third Circuit. U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Western District of Virginia |
| Parties | In re: WESLEY LEANDREW BROWN Debtor. |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 04-00291 |
| Decision Date | 12 November 2010 |
IN RE: WESLEY LEANDREW BROWN Debtor.
CASE NO. 04-00291
UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
ROANOKE DIVISION
ENTERED: November 12, 2010.
The Debtor has filed a Motion to reopen his case for the purpose of adding a creditor not included in his original schedules. The Motion did not set forth any information about the debt in question as to its nature and when it was incurred. Accordingly, the Court set a hearing for November 8, 2010. At that hearing the Debtor appeared, was sworn, and testified in response to the Court's questions. He indicated that the debt in question is a very old one for child support arising out of a divorce case during the 1970s. He claimed that he was unaware of the liability at the time he filed his petition in this Court in 2004. He said that he became aware of it only recently when an effort was apparently made to compel him to pay and that he has no ability to pay it. He stated that he had not given any notice to his former spouse to whom such obligation is apparently owed of his Motion to reopen this case. For the reasons which follow, the Court will deny the Motion without prejudice to the right of either the Debtor or the holder of the obligation to request that his case be reopened for the purpose of determining whether the obligation in question is one which is dischargeable pursuant to the provisions of 11 U.S.C. § 523.
The Debtor filed his petition commencing this case on January 23, 2004. The docket entries in the case indicate that the Trustee filed a "no distribution" report on February 26, 2004. In short, this case is one of those commonly known as a "no asset" chapter 7 case.
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The Debtor was issued a discharge on April 20, 2004. On the same day a final decree was entered and the case was closed. The present Motion to Reopen Case was filed on October 25, 2010.
This Court has jurisdiction of this proceeding by virtue of the provisions of 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334(a) and 157(a) and the delegation made to this Court by Order from the District Court on July 24, 1984. The Court concludes that a motion to reopen a bankruptcy case for the purpose of scheduling a previously unscheduled creditor is inherently a "core" bankruptcy proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(O).
Although it is common for bankruptcy debtors and their creditors to believe that reopening a closed bankruptcy case and listing a creditor who was omitted from the original schedules means that the debt is now "included" in the bankruptcy case and discharges the debtor from the obligation, the actual legal effect of such an action is somewhat different. In a "no asset" bankruptcy case in which there is never a deadline to file a proof of claim, the debtor's...
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