Finding that the debtor’s string of very bad luck unrelieved by his concerted efforts to increase his earnings, satisfied the Brunner test, a bankruptcy court granted him a partial discharge of his student loan, reducing the debt from $440,000 to $8,291.67. Koeut v. U.S. Dept. of Ed., No. 12-7242, Adv. Proc. No. 18-90130 (Bankr. S.D. Cal. Dec. 4, 2020). Read More
Tag Archive: Student loans
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Med School Loans Partially Discharged after Debtor Fails to Match for Residency
Posted by NCBRC - December 9th, 2020
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Sanctions Against Student Loan Servicer
Posted by NCBRC - October 28th, 2020
A student loan servicing company’s failure, over the course of five years, to respond to an adversary complaint and multiple court orders, justified a finding of contempt and sanctions against the servicer requiring it to pay off the debtor’s student loans to the DOE in the amount of $354,629.62, and pay damages to the debtor in the amount of $24,000. Leary v. Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, No. 15-11583, Adv. Proc. No. 15-1295 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Sept. 8, 2020).
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10th Circuit – Student Loan Not Excepted from Discharge as Educational Benefit
Posted by NCBRC - September 3rd, 2020
An educational benefit is not a student loan for nondischargeability purposes under section 523(a)(8)(A)(ii). McDaniel v. Navient Solutions, LLC, No. 18-1445 (10th Cir. Aug. 31, 2020).
When the debtors filed their chapter 13 petition, they had many outstanding student loans including six private educational loans held by Navient totaling approximately $107,000 (the Loan). The trustee objected to confirmation of the plan citing its failure to provide for nondischargeable student loans. The debtors filed an amended plan specifically to correct certain inaccuracies not related to student loans. They also added the provision that “[s]tudent loans are to be treated as an unsecured Class Four claim or as follows: deferred until end of plan.” The plan defined unsecured Class Four claims as “[a]llowed unsecured claims not otherwise referred to in the Plan.” Navient agreed that class four claims were dischargeable. Read More
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Loan to Refinance Student Loan Need Not Be Educational Loan to be Nondischargeable
Posted by NCBRC - April 9th, 2020
A debt incurred when a debtor refinances a student loan through a non-institutional lender may be nondischargeable in bankruptcy without regard to whether the debt itself constituted a qualified educational loan. Juber v. Conklin (In re Conklin), No. 19-91 (W.D. N.C. Apr. 6, 2020).
The debtor, Lina Conklin, financed her college education, in part, through private student loans. After she graduated, Ms. Conklin became engaged to the creditors’ son, Christopher Juber. At that time, she owed over $100,000 in private student loans at an interest rate of 9.5%. In an effort to assist the as-yet-unmarried couple financially, Christopher Juber’s parents, Kevin and Linda Juber, paid off Ms. Conklin’s student loans using their home equity line of credit (HELOC) at an interest rate of 1.99%. In exchange, Ms. Conklin orally agreed to make biweekly payments to the Jubers in the amount of $500, and, when the Jubers sold their home, Ms. Conklin agreed that she and their son would refinance the remaining principal on the HELOC loan. When Ms. Conklin later broke off her engagement with their son, the Jubers and Ms. Conklin entered into a promissory note under which Ms. Conklin agreed to repay the loan over ten years at 9.5% interest. Read More
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Bankruptcy Court May Not Enforce Discharge Order from Other District
Posted by NCBRC - November 15th, 2019
On direct interlocutory appeal, the Fifth Circuit found that courts may not use their contempt powers to enforce discharge orders issued by other courts outside their judicial districts. The court also held that the private student loans at issue were not subject to section 523(a)(8)(A)(ii)’s nondischargeability provision because that provision applies only to educational benefits where, as in the case of grants or scholarships, the obligation to repay is conditional. Crocker v. Navient Solutions LLC, No. 18-20254 (5th Cir. Oct. 22, 2019). Read More
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Bankruptcy Court Gets Undue Hardship Right on Remand
Posted by NCBRC - October 11th, 2019
The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts applied the totality-of-the-circumstances test to find that the chapter 7 debtor was entitled to have her student loans discharged in bankruptcy notwithstanding the fact that she had substantial exempt equity in her home. Schatz v. U.S. Dept. of Ed., No. 14-30825, Adv. Proc. No. 15-3001 (Bankr. D. Mass. Oct. 2, 2019).
When the debtor, Audrey Schatz, was in her fifties she attempted to improve her earning potential by attending law school, for which she incurred $106,000 in student loans. After becoming a lawyer, however, she was unable to find satisfactory employment and was earning approximately $25,000 when she filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court rejected her position that the student loan debt caused her undue hardship and found that the loans were nondischargeable under section 523(a)(8). Read More
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5th Circuit Finds No Room for Sympathy for Student Loan Debtor
Posted by NCBRC - September 11th, 2019
In an exercise in disingenuous hand-wringing, the Fifth Circuit essentially acknowledged that its application of the Brunner test eviscerates the undue hardship avenue to discharge of student debts. In so holding, the court affirmed the denial of discharge and sent the debtor packing to perform, if not the impossible, at least the highly improbable task of finding employment. Thomas v. Dept. of Educ., No. 18-11091(5th Cir. July 30, 2019).
Vera Thomas worked at a call center for eight years at just over $11/hour when, in 2014, she developed diabetic neuropathy causing her to take numerous unpaid work days and incur extensive medical expenses. When the call center was sold in 2016, she lost her job for “company policy violations” and moved to Texas. From 2016 to 2017, Ms. Thomas acquired and lost three jobs—Whataburger, Perfumania and UPS—due to her diabetic neuropathy and consequent inability to stand for any length of time. By the time she filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, she was in her 60s and living off public assistance and private charity. Her monthly expenses were over three times her monthly income. After obtaining her bankruptcy discharge, Ms. Thomas sought to have her student loans discharged. The bankruptcy court, noting that in fifteen years on the bench it had never granted undue discharge of student loans, found that Ms. Thomas did not meet the standard for undue hardship discharge. The district court affirmed.
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Accrued Interest on Student Loan Discharged as Undue Hardship
Posted by NCBRC - May 3rd, 2019
A Kansas bankruptcy court did not err in granting the debtor a discharge of the accrued interest on her student loans where she met the Tenth Circuit’s flexible version of the Brunner test, and the court has equitable power to grant less than a complete discharge. ECMC v. Metz, No. 18-1281 (May 2, 2019).
The debtor, age 59, was never in default on her student loans. Though she was continuously employed over the repayment period, the amount she owed grew over time from the original loan amount of $16,613.73, to $67,277.88. Beginning in 2001, she filed three chapter 13 bankruptcies and made all payments under her plans, receiving a discharge in the first two. In the third and current bankruptcy the debtor sought to discharge her consolidated student loan. The bankruptcy court found undue hardship but discharged only the accrued interest on the debt. The student loan creditor, ECMC, appealed. The debtor filed a cross-appeal seeking to have the entire debt discharged. NCBRC filed an amicus brief on behalf of the NACBA membership in support of the debtor. Read More
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Court Orders Student Loan Discharge
Posted by NCBRC - April 3rd, 2019
In a compassionate and pragmatic opinion, a bankruptcy court in the Northern District of Georgia found that the debtor met the difficult burden of showing a “certainty of hopelessness,” and that she otherwise satisfied the Bruner test for a hardship discharge of her student loans. Hill v. Educ. Credit Mgmt. Corp., No. 17-56656, Adv. Proc. No. 17-5131 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. April 1, 2019). Read More
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Attorney Fee Award Upheld Against Student Loan Servicer
Posted by NCBRC - March 21st, 2019
The district court found that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in holding the student loan servicer in contempt for failing to apply the student debtor’s payments outside the plan in accordance with pre-petition payments as required by the debtor’s confirmed chapter 13 plan. Penn. Higher Educ. Assistance Agency v. Berry, No. 18-444 (D. S.C. March 5, 2019).
Berry had student loans issued by the Department of Education (DOE) and administered by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). She was paying off her loans under an Income-Driven Repayment plan (IDR) and a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. In her chapter 13 bankruptcy, her confirmed amended plan provided for continued payments on her student loan debts outside the plan with those payments being applied exactly as before thereby allowing her to continue to benefit from the IDR and PSLF. The PHEAA, however, put the loans into administrative forbearance under which it applied the payments to principal and interest. Ms. Berry filed a Motion to Enforce seeking sanctions in the amount of $22,317.30, representing the attorney fees she incurred pursuing proper application of the payments. The DOE eventually settled its portion of the action for $6,000 and Ms. Berry sought the remaining amount from PHEAA. The bankruptcy court granted Ms. Berry’s entire attorney fee request consisting of $22,317.30 of which, after the DOE’s $6,000 settlement, the PHEAA owed $16,317.30. Read More
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HAVEN Act Guide
The Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019 (“HAVEN Act”) excludes certain benefits paid to veterans or their family members from the definition of current monthly income (“CMI”) found in the Bankruptcy Code. The HAVEN Act amends § 101(10A) of the Bankruptcy Code and supplements the 2005 amendments to the Code that excluded other government benefits, such as social security income.
This Guide provides an overview of the HAVEN Act identifies benefits that are excluded, and answers frequently asked questions.
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