In Re Lambert’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 3 district · 3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the old Bankruptcy Act, some courts held that filing a bankruptcy petition did, indeed, sever a joint tenancy. Flynn v. O’Dell, 281 F.2d 810 at 817 (7th Cir.1960); and In re Bonant, 1 B.R. 335 (Bkrtcy.C.D.Cal.1979) and the cases cited therein. This Court can find no cases which follow Flynn and Bonant under the Code. Perhaps this is because the Code does not provide explicitly for a transfer of title of the debtor’s property to the Trustee. The Code provides that the Trustee can administer property of the estate but does not provide that the Trustee holds title to the estate property. However, legislative history provides some clarification. “The debtor’s interest in property also includes ‘title’ to property, which is an interest, just as are a possessory interest, or leasehold interest, for example.” Senate Report No. 95-989, 95th Cong.2d Sess. 82-3 (1978), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1978, pp. 5787, 5868. And further, in that same report, it is stated: “Once the estate is created, no interests in property of the estate remain in the debtor. Consequently, if the debtor dies during the case, only property exempted from property of the estate remain in the debtor. Consequently, if the debtor dies during the case, only property exempted from property of the estate ... will be available to the representative of the debtor’s probate estate. The bankruptcy proceeding will continue in rem with respect to property of the estate, and the discharge will apply in personam to rel”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Tyson

2. “Although several Code sections appear to support the thesis that a joint tenancy survives the filing of a bankruptcy petition, on closer examination those sections lend support to the antithesis. For example, Sec. 363(h) provides in pertinent part, “... the trustee may sell both the estate’s interest ... and the interest of any co-owner in property in which the debtor had, immediately before the commencement of the case, an undivided interest as a ... joint tenant_” (Emphasis added.) Likewise, Sec. 522(b)(2)(B) provides in pertinent part that a debtor may exempt from property of the estate “... any interest in property in which the debtor had, immediately before the commencement of the case, an interest as a ... joint tenant_” (Emphasis added).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Tyson

3. “Based on the foregoing, it is the opinion of this Court that the filing of a petition in bankruptcy effects a severance of any joint tenancy the debtor may have had in property and that the Trustee and the other former joint tenants of the debtor become tenants in common. Thus, the right of survivorship enjoyed by the former joint tenants is destroyed. The result in this case is that there is, indeed, an undivided one-half interest in the subject property which is property of the estate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Feldman v. Panholzer