【破產法】CLIENT “WINS” CHAPTER 13 LOTTERY AS UNSECURED CREDITORS DO NOT FILE CLAIMS | 楊清泉律師事務所

Client owns and operates a bakery with two retail stores. She has 4 employees. The pandemic caused businesses to slow down, necessitating the closing down of one retail store. The original store is still profitable and started about 25 years ago. The client wanted to keep doing business with the original store only. Client did business as a single proprietorship. She owed unpaid rent and future rent of $40k on the store that she closed. She also owed $30k of credit card debt. Thus, her total unsecured debt is $70K. She is able to pay all overhead including employee salaries and her own salary from the original store alone. However, after all expenses are deducted, the business just breaks even. She pays herself $3K a month but does not have a mortgage since her condominium is fully paid. The fair market value of the condominium is $680K. This is fully exempt as homestead exemption is $699K but too close to the maximum. There is a risk in Chapter 7 that an aggressive trustee who can sell it for say, $750K, that she may lose the house. So, this risk is not worth assuming. In Chapter 13, there is no risk of losing her house because the Chapter 13 trustee has no power to sell debtor house, unlike Chapter 7 who has such power under the right circumstances. Further, Client wishes to pay a portion of her unsecured debt.

In Chapter 13, only creditors who file claims with supporting evidence within the period deadline are paid by the trustee even if the debts are recognized in the petition schedule F. Failure to file claims within the allowable period results in non-payment of the debt which is wiped out by the discharge.

The client’s court confirmed plan provides for a 5-year or 60-month payment of $300 a month, or a total of $18,000. Of the $18,000, $4K is payable to me as balance of attorney’s fees. In other words, out of $70K unsecured debt, $14K would be paid pursuant to the plan over 60 months. So, this is a 20% plan. After 20% of the $70K is paid, the court will discharge the difference between $14K and $70K or $56K will be wiped out without being paid by the discharge order. In Client’s case after the period to file claims expired, not a single creditor filed a claim for payment! There was only the Attorney fees claim of mine for $4K balance. Hence, after 14 payments of $300, the trustee paid my fees in full, and nothing left was to be paid because no other claims were filed.

Client got a discharge wiping out her $70K of unsecured debt without any portion of that $70K being paid! When Client found out what had happened, she was ecstatic and believed she won the lottery for $70K! I had a similar case in the past where Client’s total unsecured debt was $300K with only one Creditor, a judgment in favor of a well-known bank. For some reason, the bank also did not file a claim within the deadline. In that case the winning lottery is much bigger at $300K.

Not everyone can win this kind of lottery. Most Creditors do file in timely their proofs of claim. In those cases, debtorends up paying a small portion of the unsecured debt depending on what the confirmed plan provides.

Disclaimer: None of the foregoing is considered legal advice for anyone. There is absolutely no attorney clientrelationship established by reading this article.

PRAYING ALWAYS HELPS

It also helps to pray to our God, His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Mother Mary for divine protection against financial problems, because we have a God who loves us and His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, showers us with infinite mercy. All we have to do is humble ourselves and pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for a drop from his ocean of infinite mercy. Jesus revealed in 1930’s to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of Poland that all sinners which we all are and those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus, should all be brought to His sacred heart and be submerged in the ocean of His infinite mercy, for the sake of His Sorrowful Passion. Anything you ask for when you pray the chaplet for His divine mercy will be granted, if compatible with His will. Moreover, you are guaranteed a peaceful death. What is the current proof that God and Jesus are divine and all powerful? I refer to exhibit A, the incorruptible body of Carlo Acutis!

CURRENT ONGOING PHYSICAL PROOF GOD IS ALMIGHTY INCORRUPTIBLE BODY OF CARLO ACUTIS DIED 2007 AT AGE OF 15

Look at the incorruptible body of the blessed Carlo Acutis who died at 15 in 2007. You can look at his body in Rome, Italy, now 14 years after his death. He looks like he’s just asleep in his jogging suit and rubber shoes! That is a perfect example of an ongoing sign on earth that the God of Moses, our God, my God, is almighty and all-powerful that He even suspends the natural laws of biology and physics without any effort. He resurrected His one and only beloved son from death on the cross. Indeed, He has power over death.

I have thought, “What would the other religions believe if they saw the incorruptible body of the blessed Carlo Acutis? I think even Buddha, if he were alive today, would believe that Yahweh is the one True God.” No need to think about reincarnation and nirvana because his incorruptible body is available for all to see in Rome, Italy. We will not need any kind of explanation on the efficacy of modern-day mummification. Come on, man, which is all bull. The truth is in plain sight. Believe your own eyes that the one true God is all-powerful, and His name is Yahweh, “I am who Am.” He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning, and the end.

“ETERNAL FATHER, WE OFFER YOU THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL AND DIVINITY OF YOUR DEARLY BELOVED SON, JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, IN ATONEMENT FOR OUR SINS AND THOSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, FOR THE SAKE OF HIS MOST SORROWFUL PASSION, PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON AMERICA AND THE WHOLE WORLD.” Lawrence Bautista Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has been in Law practice for thirty years. He specializes in Bankruptcy, Business and Civil Litigation and has handled more than five thousand successful Bankruptcy cases in California. He speaks Mandarin and Fujian and looks forward to discussing your case with you personally. Please call (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 20274 Carrey Road, Walnut, CA 91789 or 1000 S Fremont Ave., Mailstop 58, Building A-10 South Suite 10042, Alhambra, CA 91803.

CLIENT “WINS” CHAPTER 13 LOTTERY AS UNSECURED CREDITORS DO NOT FILE CLAIMS