Bisges v. Gargula, No. 13-3039 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseNoel Bisges represented debtor in her Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. United States Trustee Nancy Gargula moved to reopen the case after it was closed because she learned that debtor possibly failed to disclose in her bankruptcy petition that she owns horses. On appeal, Bisges challenged the district court's decision upholding the bankruptcy court's denial of Bisges's motion to dismiss and the imposition of sanctions against him. The court concluded that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion where there is insufficient evidence of bad faith by Gargula. Further, the court saw no clear error in the bankruptcy judge's findings that Bisges advised debtor to omit from her bankruptcy petition a payment to her mother and Bisges violated 11 U.S.C. 707(b)(4)(C) by attaching to the bankruptcy petition schedules that significantly differed from the schedules that debtor had signed. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Civil case - Bankruptcy. In the absence of any evidence of bad faith by the trustee, there was no basis to sanction her by dismissing her motions for disgorgement of fees and sanctions against Bigses for his actions in representing debtor; the court did not err in sanctioning Bigses for counseling debtor to omit from her bankruptcy petition a payment she made to her mother and attaching schedules significantly different than those prepared by debtor.
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