United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa
The Supreme Court released an opinion I’ve been waiting for for quite a while, United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa. In its unanimous decision, it held that a chapter 13 plan is final judgement and that a disappointed creditor cannot upset the judgment by complaining that a court denied it due process protections when the creditor received a copy of the plan.
It was the result I hoped for, they affirmed the Ninth Circuit, and they overturned quite a few other circuits in the process.
My only complaint is that they never addressed an argument that I made for the creditor in my paper on the topic. That is that Mullane (which Justice Thomas relied on) is really a totality of the circumstances test. And one of those cirumstances in this case was that the creditor expected (quite reasonably) the debtor to serve it a complaint. Justice Thomas simply noted (like Judge Kozinski), that the creditor had actual notice through the plan, and that was the end of the matter.
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