Martin-Trigona v. Shiff, Civ. No. B-82-89.
| Decision Date | 19 April 1982 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. B-82-89. |
| Citation | 19 BR 1001 |
| Parties | Anthony MARTIN-TRIGONA, Petitioner, v. Alan SHIFF, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
Anthony Martin-Trigona, pro se.
Richard Coan and Irving Perlmutter, New Haven, Conn., for trustees in bankruptcy, Richard Belford and Daniel Meister.
The question before the Court is whether a United States Bankruptcy Judge has the power to order imprisoned for civil contempt a debtor who refuses to submit to examination by the trustees in bankruptcy pursuant to Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 205. The question has been raised in a purported habeas corpus petition in which the debtor-petitioner has named the bankruptcy judge as respondent. A habeas corpus petition seems an ill-suited vehicle for raising the question, for the bankruptcy judge is not petitioner's custodian. The better procedure might have been for petitioner to appeal the contempt order, but he has not done so.
Two other factors complicate the procedural background of this case. First, when petitioner filed his petition he was incarcerated on a sentence from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Thereafter, on March 9, 1982, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit approved documents submitted in support of petitioner's application for bond, and ordered him released on bond pending appeal of his conviction. At that point, the bankruptcy judge's civil contempt order became the sole reason for petitioner's continued incarceration.
The second procedural twist was petitioner's filing of a lawsuit naming all the judges of the District of Connecticut, among others, as defendants, on April 5, 1982. Even though this Court had issued Orders to Show Cause, and had received responses from the trustees in bankruptcy and from the United States Attorney, it decided to proceed cautiously and to stay any further proceedings because of its having become a defendant. The lawsuit came to the Court's attention because petitioner mailed a "courtesy copy" of the complaint to chambers. Proper service of the complaint, however, has not been made, and apparently no arrangements for service have been undertaken. Because of the risk of creating a stalemate, with petitioner refusing to purge himself of civil contempt and with the Court remaining an unserved though named defendant in petitioner's lawsuit, the better course now appears to be to decide the issue presented, and allow the parties their rights of appeal.
In ordering petitioner confined for contempt, Judge Shiff relied on the grant of power to bankruptcy courts contained in 28 U.S.C. § 1481 (1978), Pub.L. 95-598, § 241(a). Through that statute Congress gave bankruptcy courts the "powers of a court of equity, law and admiralty", excepting certain injunctive and criminal contempt powers. Section 1481 is to become effective April 1, 1984 (Pub.L. 95-598, § 402(b)), but Congress advanced its true effective date to the beginning of the transition period, October 1, 1979 (Pub.L. 95-598, § 405(b)). For all practical purposes, bankruptcy courts have whatever powers Congress intended to and could grant by means of § 1481 now.
The "powers of a court of equity, law and admiralty" certainly include the power to order imprisoned in a civil contempt proceeding a witness who improperly refuses to testify. 28 U.S.C. § 1826 provides that a court may summarily order a recalcitrant witness who refuses to testify when ordered in "any proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States" confined until "such time as the witness is willing to give such testimony", but in any event no longer than the life of the court proceeding. Though Judge Shiff did not specifically identify § 1826, his order confining petitioner appears to be in conformity with its provisions.
The problem is that if civil contempt powers of § 1826 were made applicable to bankruptcy courts by § 1481, they are in conflict with the earlier Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 920. Rule 920 was, and, petitioner argues, still is, a limitation on a bankruptcy judge's contempt powers. That Rule established a ceiling of $250 for any fine imposed as punishment, and placed an order of imprisonment beyond the judge's authority.
One possible answer to the conflict of § 1481 and Rule 920 is provided by Pub.L. 95-598, § 405(d) in which Congress declared any rules inconsistent with the new statute to be nugatory. If this Court relied on that section, it would conclude that § 1481 overrides the limitations of Rule 920, and that Judge Shiff's order was proper.1
However, that result ignores two traditional principles of statutory construction. First, any law which pre-dates a statutory change continues in effect, unless Congress specifically declares it repealed or superseded. According to that principle, the...
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