Ladd Ladd v. W’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 2 district ·

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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under these circumstances, we find that the cause of action is not the same for res judicata purposes. The key operative facts of the federal exemption litigation would have been whether the Ladds’ interest in the homestead was greater than the maximum allowed by federal bankruptcy law — $34,850. The key facts in a proceeding under the Minnesota exemption would be whether their homestead interest exceeded 160 acres or the $500,000 limit. The substance of what the debtors would have to prove in each action is substantially different. Under federal law, a debtor’s focus would be on value, and under Minnesota law, it would be on acreage. Since the Ladds had so little equity in their home, it made sense for them to initially proceed under the federal scheme and try to exempt other personal property pursuant to the wildcard statute. But there was “little motivation” and “little incentive” for the Ladds to engage in costly litigation defending the federal homestead exemption in order to exempt $1,600 worth of personal property.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Romano

2. “Once the Trustee objected to the homestead exemption, questioning the value of the Ladds’ homestead interest, it became too costly to proceed with the federal exemptions because the Ladds would have had to obtain expert testimony and expend attorney fees for litigation regarding the value of their homestead. Since the value of the miscellaneous personal property was so low, it was not worth the expense of litigation over the valuation of their homestead. So rather than litigate the federal homestead issue, and assuming that they could amend their schedules at any time before the close of the bankruptcy case pursuant to Rule 1009, the Ladds chose not to fight the objection and al lowed a default judgment on the federal exemption to be entered against them.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Romano

3. “Because there have been no allegations of bad faith by the debtors or prejudice to the creditors, we hold that the bankruptcy court abused its discretion in not allowing the Ladds to amend their schedules to claim the Minnesota homestead exemption.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Romano