Calder v. Segal (In re Calder), 94 B.R. 200 (Bankr.D.Utah)
PUBLISHED
The Chapter 13 Trustee sent fee payments for legal services rendered by the chapter 7 debtor, an attorney, to debtor's chapter 7 trustee. Debtor filed an adversary proceeding against the chapter 7 trustee, in which he asserted that the legal fees were not property of the estate. Debtor argued that the fees were not estate property because payment of them had been contingent on confirmation of his clients' plans, and that the fees were therefore postpetition payments for services rendered, which belong to the debtor. The court considered 11 U.S.C. § 541, which defines property of the estate. Specifically, § 541(a)(6) includes "proceeds" of estate property within that definition, but excepts earnings from services performed by an individual debtor after the petition was filed. The court concluded that all postpetition payments that were for services actually performed prepetition were "proceeds" of debtor's estate, and therefore property of the estate.