In re ColeIn re LandersIn re PhelpsIn re Mascaro
UNPUBLISHED
The court considered four chapter 13 cases in which creditors had failed to file timely proofs of claim under Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 13-302(e). The court first held that Rule 13-302(e) was not inconsistent with the new Bankruptcy Code and, therefore, that it continued to apply in Bankruptcy Code cases. Under Rule 13-302(e), a secured creditor that failed to file a proof of claim before the conclusion of the meeting of creditors will be treated as unsecured. An unsecured creditor's failure to file a proof of claim within six months of the creditors meeting will receive no disbursements under the plan. The new Code, however, allows the debtor or trustee to file a proof of claim on behalf of a creditor that did not timely file one, and there is no time limit placed on that action. Therefore, where debtors had filed such proofs on behalf of their creditors, the claims were preserved. The court further held that a provision for payment of a creditor's claim under a debtor's plan amounts to a consent to the claim by the debtor, which has the same effect as debtor filing a proof of claim on creditor's behalf. With respect to untimely proofs of claim filed by the IRS, none of which was included in debtors' plans, the court concluded that taxes become "payable" on the date the returns are originally due, not when the returns were filed, nor when the tax was assessed. Therefore, all but one of the IRS claims were barred by Rule 13-302(e), but a claim that had become payable postpetition was allowed by 11 U.S.C. § 1305(a)(1).