The Fifth Circuit Finds a Way to Make It Even Harder to Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy

On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit released an opinion that, if anything, makes it even more difficult to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. Writing for a three-judge panel in a case called In re Thomas, Judge Edith Jones reaffirmed the court's commitment to the existing case law and added yet another judicial gloss to the words of the statute. The opinion was a missed opportunity to return to a reasonable standard that allows debtors to discharge student debt in appropriate cases while still protecting the public fisc.

The debtor was over 60 years old, part of the trend of older filers in bankruptcy court. She had taken out $7,000 in student loans for two semesters of community college. Within a year after leaving community college, the debtor developed diabetic neuropathy, which left her unable to work at any job that required standing for any period of time. The debtor had to leave a retail job, a restaurant job, and a job at UPS. She lost a previous job at a call center after it was acquired by another company who then fired her within three months for wearing headphone and listening to music during her lunch break, a determination that probably not so coincidentally meant the debt was ineligible for unemployment insurance.

Pug Repossession

If you missed it, Thursday's New York Times had a story about a debt collector who seized the family's dog over unpaid bills. The pet, a purebred pug, was sold for the equivalent of $800 on eBay which apparently meant it could be seized under German law which allows valuable pets to be seized in repayment of debts. Mutts are exempt.

In the United States, there are businesses who will give purchase-money loans for pets, which are often structured as financing leases. The consequence of nonpayment is the usual for nonpayment -- repossession of the collateral even if it is the family's beloved Fido or Fluffy. There is legislation in Nevada, California and New York that tries to ban the practice, although the statutes are far from a model of clarity about what they make illegal.

Arbitration in Bankruptcy -- Discharge, the Easy Case

Now that the major work of the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy is done, I seem to have this thing called "time" again. One of the topics that I have been wanting to post about is arbitration in bankruptcy. If I follow through on my intentions, this will be the first of a few posts on arbitration in bankruptcy.

Arbitration has come to the bankruptcy courts. In the coming years, how the Federal Arbitration Act intersects with the Bankruptcy Code will become an increasingly prominent issue. What I want to talk about in this post is arbitration of a violation of the discharge injunction itself. In the typical factual set-up, a debtor alleges a violation of the discharge injunction, and the creditor moves to send the question to an arbitrator under a predispute arbitration clause, almost always embedded in a form contract. Given the ubiquity of these form contracts in consumer transactions, the only thing at stake is the effectiveness of the consumer bankruptcy system.

We can first exclude one approach to the topic that I occasionally see. It goes something like this. The Supreme Court keeps sending disputes to arbitration and thus has signaled repeatedly it favors arbitration. Therefore, the Court would hold that bankruptcy disputes can be arbitrated. This is not how law works. The Court's tendencies are not "law." One of the Supreme Court justices has famously declared he favors a certain malted beverage, but that hardly makes it the drink of the land (although I also would not be against making it so).

ABI Consumer Commission Report Is Nearly Finished

For the past two years, the American Bankruptcy Institute's Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy has been hard at work. As the Commission's reporter, I am very happy to say that the work is nearly finished. All of the drafting is completed, and we are in the final stages of the editing process.

The report will be released on April 11. If you want to learn about the report, come to the ABI's Annual Spring Meeting where there will be a number of sessions about the report.

The Commission's charge was to recommend "improvements to the consumer bankruptcy system that can be implemented within its existing structure." The recommendations represent the work of a broad group of bankruptcy professionals across all types of roles and types of practice. The report will have forty-nine sections across five chapters, with multiple recommendations in many of the sections. Although the substance of the recommendations will not be released until April 11, the topic list is public. You can expect recommendations on student loans, attorney compensation, the means test, rights in repossessed collateral, chapter 13 plans as well as many other topics.

Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making

One of my favorite conferences is the Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making held every summer in Boulder, Colorado, and I am not the only one who feels that way. Next year's conference will occur from May 19-21, 2019. Professor John Lynch from the University of Colorado wrote me two weeks ago to remind everyone that the submission deadline is December 7. My other commitments have been keeping me busy so blame me for posting here so close to the deadline -- did I mention that John wrote me two weeks ago?

The conference is very interdisciplinary. The call for submissions says, "a very high level of opportunity for conversation and interaction around the ideas presented." They are not kidding. If you are a Credit Slips reader, the sessions will be of interest to you. The conference presentations are great. The poster session is fascinating. Whether you are a presenter or not, you will learn a lot. When I have presented, the comments I have received are some of the best feedback I get on a project. The proceedings are at the posh St. Julien Hotel. And, when conference sessions are not occuring, you are in Boulder, Colorado, in May.

To submit, you need to send in an extended abstract of no more than one page in length. Rather than post further details here, I will just link you to the instructions on the web page where you can submit an abstract. More information about the 2019 conference is available on the main conference web page.

Congratulations to Former Slipster and (Congresswoman-Elect) Porter!

The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Hill, and many other media outlets are reporting that former Credit Slips blogger Katie Porter has won her election for California's 45th Congressional District. Anyone who knows Katie's work knows that she will fight for middle-class households. As happy as I am for Katie and for the country, it is bittersweet to lose a great co-author and research collaborator.  

We also have been remiss in not congratulating another former blogger, Senator Elizabeth Warren, on her reelection. It is hard to believe that this modest little blog now has two former bloggers in Congress.

Tempnology and Janger Too!

The Supreme Court granted cert today in the bankruptcy case of Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology, LLC. It sounds like another one of those cases only bankruptcy nerds can love, but it has potentially broad implications. On its face, it is about trademark licenses, but the Supreme Court could fix some case law about all contracts in bankruptcy. Several Credit Slips bloggers (including me) signed a "law professors" amicus brief in support of certiorari. 

I asked the inimitable Professor Ted Janger of Brooklyn Law School (and former Credit Slips guest blogger) to write with his thoughts on the case. Ted had a lot to do with the professors' brief. Here is what he wrote:

The split in the lower courts arose when the First Circuit inexplicably resuscitated the questionable proposition, first articulated in Lubrizol Enters., Inc. v. Richmond Metal Finishers, Inc., 756 F.2d 1043 (4th Cir. 1985), that rejection of an intellectual property license rescinds that license and terminates the licensee’s rights. Congress reversed Lubrizol for copyright and patent by enacting section 365(n), and in 2012, the Seventh Circuit rejected the reasoning of Lubrizol for trademarks, in Sunbeam Prods., Inc. v. Chi. Am. Mfg., LLC, 686 F.3d 372 (7th Cir. 2012). While there remained some question as to the continued vitality of Lubrizol outside the patent and copyright context, the holding was, at best moribund. At least, that is, until the First Circuit’s decision in Tempnology.