Foreclosing On The Life Story In Your Head

In the fictional worlds of Charles Yu, George Saunders, or Etgar Keret, a person's accumulated life stories and thoughts when she files for bankruptcy might be withdrawn, like blood, then filtered for marketability. In such a world, a debtor might be required to spin her tale for the sole benefit of creditors, or forever silenced. Planning to give a five-minute anecdote about your childhood at The Moth? Don't even think about it.

Casey Anthony's bankruptcy was filed in January 2013 as a no-asset Chapter 7, with nearly  $800,000 in debt - not counting scores of claims with amounts identified as "unknown." Ms. Anthony's income and expense schedules list, literally and rather remarkably, zeroes all the way down. At the 341 meeting of creditors in
March, Ms. Anthony asserted that friends and strangers take care of her needs. Presumably, this arrangement is not sustainable. Will she seek to support herself in the future by talking about her past? 

The bankruptcy trustee wants to auction off something that probably has never been expressly sold in a bankruptcy case (it certainly wasn't listed as an asset in the schedules): exclusive rights in perpetuity to the commercialization of Ms. Anthony's life story, including "her version of the facts, her thoughts and impressions of whatever nature, in so far as these pertain to her childhood, the disappearance and death of her daughter . . . her subsequent arrest . . . and withdrawal from society. . . ." (see the lengthy paragraph 3 in
here). How much debt would be satisfied by such a sale? 

The reported written offers, so far, are a pittance compared to the nearly $800,000 debt: $10,000 and $12,000. Don't forget to deduct trustee and auction expenses.  

Maybe bids are low because public appetite for Ms. Anthony's inner life and history is sated (the $10,000 bid was specifically tied to the intent to bury her story, not to pursue it). Or, perhaps, because the emperor has no clothes, e.g., there doesn't seem to be a property interest to sell at this time, and enforcement of such a sale order likely would strain the power and authority of a bankruptcy court. The motion to sell isn't focused on a right of publicity (see this reliable source's summary of Florida law) - assuming that rights of publicity are even alienable. This is not about a name or likeness. Or a tag line ("Here's Johnny" portable toilet). Or an existing performance (the human cannonball). Other basic intellectual property categories don't seem to be implicated. What is the property interest of the debtor at the time of the bankruptcy? The trustee has a few more days to supplement the record with legal authority, so let's see what emerges. Although we may need to call for reinforcement from property theorists,
federal court experts, and First Amendment scholars, as of now the requested
auction seems to venture into speculative fiction territory. 

For general readers out there: I carry no brief for this particular debtor. But the trustee and creditors have other, more legally grounded avenues to pursue if they would like to prevent Ms. Anthony from getting chapter 7 bankruptcy relief in whole or in part. That's what this dispute in bankruptcy court is, or should be, about. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.