SouthFloridaBankruptcyLawBlog

Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer Jordan E. Bublick has over 25 years of experience in filing Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. His office is centrally located in Miami at 1221 Brickell Avenue, 9th Fl., Miami and may be reached at (305) 891-4055.  www.bublicklaw.com

Quality Engineered Installation, Inc. v. Higley S., Inc., 670 So.2d 929 (Fla. 1996) resolved a conflict among the Florida District Courts of Appeal and held that an award of prejudgment interest merges into and becomes part of a single total sum adjudged to be due and owing and as such the amount awarded for prejudgment interest, like all other components of the judgment, automatically bears interest as provided by section 55.03, Florida Statutes. The Florida Third District Court of Appeals, in Westport Recovery Corp. vs. Batista, 32 Fla.L.Weekly D2173 (Fla. 3rd.

The Florida Third District Court of Appeals issued its decision in Capital Factors, Inc. v. Alba Rent-a-Car, Inc., et al., 32 Fla.L.Weekly D21070 (Fla. 3rd. DCA 2007) and held that an unconfirmed arbitration award qualifies as a "debt due" by the garnishee subject to garnishment under Section, 77.01, Florida Statutes. The Court held that an arbitration award does not require judicial confirmation to be collectible by garnishment.

The case of Quartemont v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary Opinion 2007-19 (Jacobs, J.) illustrates the tax consequences of the settlement of debt at less than the full amount and specifically addresses the calculation of "insolvency" for the insolvency exception to the discharge of indebtedness income provision of the Internal Revenue Code. 26 U.S.C. 108. In this case, the taxpayers negotiated with their credit card companies to pay a lesser amount than what was owed instead of filing for bankruptcy relief.

In the case of In re Bast, ___ BR ___, 2007 WL 1429481 (Bkrtcy.S.D. Fla.)(Friedman, J.) where the court found that the requirements for a technical abandonment of certain non-exempt real property were met and that it was therefore abandoned from the estate to the debtor at the close of the case. The trustee's subsequent efforts to administer the non-exempt real property for the benefit of the creditors were denied by the Court.