Chapter 7 Meeting Continuance Error Not Fatal, Fifth Cir. Rules

A Chapter 7 debtor afforded more time to adjust his court paperwork can’t benefit from the trustee’s failure to affirmatively continue a creditor examination meeting, an appeals court ruled.

Joseph F. Langston Jr. waived any right in his Chapter 7 bankruptcy case to enforce a procedural rule that would have prevented Dallas Commodity Co.—his primary creditor—from challenging his efforts to exempt cash in his retirement accounts from being used for debt repayment, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday.

The appeal centered on a question of whether the Chapter 7 trustee’s failure to follow a procedural ...