Case No. 05-11582.United States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Alabama.
November 29, 2007
ORDER DISMISSING CASE
DWIGHT WILLIAMS JR., Bankruptcy Judge
On November 14, 2007, the chapter 13 trustee filed a motion to dismiss this case (Doc. #52). The motion was set for hearing on November 28, 2007. At the hearing, the debtor was represented by her counsel, Cameron A. Metcalf, and the trustee was represented by his attorney, Sabrina L. McKinney.
At the time of the filing of this case, the debtor had a cause of action against Redman Homes, Inc. The debtor’s plan provided that any non-exempt recovery from that cause of action would be paid to the trustee for disbursement to unsecured creditors.
The trustee contends, and the debtor does not dispute, that the claim against Redman Homes, Inc. was settled for $5,935.21 in July 2007 with the debtor receiving all of those funds. Neither does the debtor dispute that none of the settlement proceeds were paid over to the chapter 13 trustee as required by the confirmed plan. The trustee’s motion to dismiss the case is premised upon this breach of the plan’s terms.
Subsequent to the trustee’s motion to dismiss, the debtor filed a modified plan (Doc. #53). There, the debtor contends that the non-exempt proceeds from the Redman Homes, Inc. cause of action are $3445.21 and proposes to increase plan payments in order to pay that amount to the trustee within the remaining term of the plan. The trustee objects to the modified plan and insists on the dismissal of the case.
A confirmed plan binds both the debtor and his creditors to the terms of that plan. See 11 U.S.C. § 1327(a). A debtor is not free to ignore a provision of a confirmed plan. That is what occurred in this case, and as a result, creditors are deprived their rights under the confirmed plan. Accordingly, it is
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ORDERED that the trustee’s motion to dismiss this case is GRANTED, and the case is hereby DISMISSED.