The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the 10th Circuit recently addressed a thorny issue about amending schedules in reopened cases. See In re Dollman, BAP No. NM-18-030(10th Cir. B.A.P. February 5, 2019). The question is whether a debtor in a reopened case seeking to amend schedules must first move for an extension of time pursuant to Fed.R.Bankr.P. 9006, and demonstrate excusable neglect.
In Dollman and the consolidated companion case In re Mendoza, both debtors unknowingly failed to disclose personal injury claims in their schedules. Both cases received a chapter 7 discharge. Both debtors reopened their cases to amend their schedules and claim exemptions in the settlements. In both cases the chapter 7 trustee objected to the amended schedules asserting that the debtors must show excusable neglect under Fed.R.Bankr.P. 9006(b) before they could exercise their rights to amend under Fed.R.Bankr.P. 1009(a). The bankruptcy courts sustained those objections on the basis that neither of them could show excusable neglect for failing to amend schedules prior to the closing of their cases.
