Anyone ever had their trustee dismissed by the courts????

[arkienurse]

We received notice today that our trustee has been removed from all cases in which she is serving, and has been replaced by someone else. It gave reference to the specific case, which I have looked up on Pacer.

Seems a specific CH13 case received a 30,000 tort claim. This money was sent to the trustee for disbursement. Standard proceedure is to disburse any moneys received like this to the Unsecured claims first( to keep the debtors from dropping the case after the secured claim is paid off). The debtors lawyer requested a 10,000 refund (for roof repair and vehicle repairs), as well as requesting that the 20,000 be used to pay off the secured claim of the debtor's motgage. The trustee agreed to pay the secured claims first, on the trust that the debtors wouldn't file to dismiss the plan after the secureds were paid. But she forgot to let her staff know, so the money went to the unsecured claims first. Then she "stretched the truth" under oath.

And the debtors never amended schedules I and J, and actually spend most of the $$ on a gambling trip instead of the roof and vehicle. And of course they later filed to dismiss their bankruptcy.

Bottom line, the trustee and the debtors both got in trouble.

If anyone is interested in reading the 32 page opinion, I am willing to send the case #, but I am leery of posting it out in public without one of mods OKing it. Oh, and pacer doesn't charge for opinions, so I think it cost me less than a quarter to find the proper page to look at.

[arkienurse]

Sorry, I did want to post the conclusion from the big BK judge:

"False testimony, Judge Mixon's findings of wilful breach of duty, and self preservation at the expense of her duties as a chapter 13 trustee each form an independent basis for removal. Each reflects adversely on her capacity to act as a trustee in any case before the bankruptcy courts in this State and her assigned jurisdiction. Accordingly and for cause pursuant to 11 USC 324, Goldman is hereby removed as trustee from this case and from all other cases under this title in which she is now serving."

so ordered 15th day of March 2007

Signed by Richard D Taylor, United States Bankruptcy Judge.

[SinkingFast]

WOW!!

I read about one Trustee who made racist, demeaning, and sexually explicit comments toward Debtors during 341's over a period of YEARS. Finally, enough Debtors complained that the Court reviewed his behavior.

That Trustee was pulled out of rotation from overseeing BK's for several months. He was ordered to undergo sensitivity training during his leave of absence. The counseling was paid for by the BK system, ie,....... Us, the Filers. When he returned to the bench, his cases would be supervised for a specified period of time to be sure his behavior improved.

Amazing!! She makes and Admin error and tells a little fib to cover herself and she get's Fired. He's verbally abusive to filers for YEARS and get's a handslap.

Guess we know where their priorities are. MONEY!!!

[Spartan]

oh c'mon. You know the different ramification in making abussive remarks vs lying to cover up. You can't be grossing over that based on gender. A lying trustee, is just not going to cut it. It undermines the system. Cannot be excused just b/c she is a woman, if that is what you are suggesting.

[SinkingFast]

oh c'mon. You know the different ramification in making abussive remarks vs lying to cover up. You can't be grossing over that based on gender. A lying trustee, is just not going to cut it. It undermines the system. Cannot be excused just b/c she is a woman, if that is what you are suggesting.

Nah,............. I know it was about the perjury. I'm fully aware it wasn't a gender thing.

But still, I wish I had the link to the story about this guy.

He would verbally abuse filers calling them deadbeats.

Make sexual comments to women about their breasts. Or say "What's a looker like you doing with a slob like him??"

He berated more than a few male filers who'd become disabled and simply could no longer provide for their families. As if they didn't already feel bad enough, the Trustee told a few they should just kill themselves and be done with it.

He would insinuate if female filers would perform favors for him, he'd make their BK go better.

That kind of thing. He was a RUDE, RUDE man. And the Testimony was recorded on the infamous Black Box.

It took NUMEROUS complaints from Debtors for the UST to even investigate. I mean, those Black Box tapes are kept by the UST for 2 years. And when the UST finally did investigate, all that Trustee got was a slap on the hand out of the deal!! He's still hearing cases today!!

[lrprn]

But still, I wish I had the link to the story about this guy.

I believe this is the trustee, SF - http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/rules_re...ase00-0001.htm

And here's a link to US DOJ investigations of Ch 7 and Ch 13 trustee misconduct and performance issues between 1997 and 2004 - http://0225.0145.01.040/ust/eo/rules...s-Redacted.pdf . Unfortunately the case links to the DOJ site no longer work, but the case summaries are interesting to read.