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Bankruptcy Keyed to Bussel, 12th Ed.
Hamilton v. Lanning
Citation:
560 U.S. 505 (2010)Facts
Stephanie Kay Lanning filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in October 2006 with $36,793.36 in unsecured debt. In the six months before her filing, she received a one-time buyout from her former employer that greatly inflated her income for April 2006 ($11,990.03) and May 2006 ($15,356.42). As a result, her “current monthly income,” averaged over the six-month look-back period, was calculated at $5,343.70—a figure exceeding the median income for a family of one in Kansas. However, at the time of filing, Lanning was working at a new job earning only $1,922 per month—well below the state median. After subtracting her actual monthly expenses of $1,772.97, her true monthly disposable income was only $149.03. Lanning proposed a plan that would require her to pay $144 per month for 36 months. The Chapter 13 trustee, Jan Hamilton, objected to confirmation of the plan, arguing that the “mechanical approach” should be used, which would have required Lanning to pay $756 per month for 60 months—an amount she could not possibly afford given her actual income.
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