Rucker v. Belew, No. 18-3045 (8th Cir. 2019)
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After the trustee discovered that debtor had withdrawn over $30,000 from an account more than one year prior to entering bankruptcy and had placed the cash in a home safe, the trustee objected to debtor's amendment of his schedules to reflect the cash as exempt. The bankruptcy court overruled the objection and held that the Bankruptcy Code did not grant the court the authority to bar an amendment to claimed exemptions based on bad faith. The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed.
The Eight Circuit affirmed and held that Law v. Siegel -- which held that bankruptcy courts could use neither statutory nor inherent sources of broad, general authority to contravene specific statutory provisions -- abrogated Kaelin v. Bassett -- which held that the bankruptcy court has the discretion to deny the amendment of exemptions if the amendment is proposed in bad faith or would prejudice creditors. Therefore, Law precluded the denial of an amendment to a schedule of claimed exemptions based on debtor's bad faith.
Court Description: Melloy, Author, with Kelly and Stras, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Bankruptcy. A proposed amendment to a schedule of claimed exemptions cannot be denied based on a debtor's bad faith; Law v. Siegel, 571 U.S. 415, 412 (2014), abrogates this court's prior decision in Kaelin v. Bassett, 308 F.ed 885 (8th Cir. 2002)that an amendment could be denied if it was proposed in bad faith or would prejudice creditors.
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