Westlaw’s CFN recently published a write-up by Danning Gill Partner Uzzi Raanan about In re Lockhart-Johnson, 2021 WL 3186115 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2021). Deciding a previously unresolved issue, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that, to assert a nondischargeability claim against the non-filing spouse of a debtor, a plaintiff must affirmatively obtain a nondischargeability determination by commencing an adversary proceeding against the non-debtor spouse within 60 days after the meeting of creditors.
The BAP acknowledged that neither the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure nor other courts had previously addressed how a creditor can assert its community claim when nondischargeable acts were committed by the non-filing spouse, or “expressly provide[d] the procedure for asserting hypothetical nondischargeability or objections to discharge under § 524.”
The full write up can be found on Westlaw: click here.