Micoz v. Carter (In re Carter), 125 B.R. 631 (Bankr.D.Utah)
PUBLISHED
Sellers of a residence to debtors filed an adversary proceeding seeking to deny debtors' discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(4). Debtors' previous bankruptcy case, in which they had not listed either the property or the debt to plaintiffs, had been dismissed. In the case before the court, however, debtors listed both the property and the debt. The court rejected plaintiffs' claim that debtors' false oath in their previous bankruptcy case provided grounds for denial of discharge in the pending case, concluding that neither the language of § 727(a)(4), nor a reading of § 727(a) as a whole, led to a conclusion that a false oath in a previous bankruptcy case could be used as grounds for denial of discharge in a subsequent case. The court further concluded that § 727(a)(7) did not provide grounds for denial of debtors' discharge, as that provision only applies to misconduct in a substantially contemporaneous related case, other than the debtor's own.