When You Don't List Copyright Infringement Claims in Your Bankr...

"High up in the pristine White Mountains of Northern Arizona, is a place where...truth and honesty are hard to find, if at all.." [Fair use] So starts Lynnell Levingston's 2008 memoir of politics in Springerville, Arizona. In 2009, Livingston sued a host of defendants asserting, among other things, that one of them violated her copyright in the book by plagiarizing an excerpt from the book in a police incident report. That initial case was dismissed in 2010, without prejudice. Levingston also maintained a blog called Three Men Make a Tiger. In August 2012, Levingston filed a second complaint for copyright infringement alleging the defendants made and distributed copies of the book and content from the blog without authority or license.

But, in 2009, after filing her first lawsuit, Levingston had filed a pro-se chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. She had listed the book as an asset, but had not scheduled the blog as an asset, nor had she listed as assets the claims for copyright infringement.

In a short decision issued in Levingston v. Earle, 2013 WL 6119036 (D. Ariz. 2013), District Court Judge Teilborg dismissed the copyright claims reasoning that because the copyright infringement claims had not been listed as assets in the bankruptcy case, they remained property of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee. Thus, they were not Levingston's property and she lacked standing to bring the infringement actions.

The case seems to have some fascinating undertones and complications. I can't say I could follow them all, but the underlying legal proposition remains clear - if you think someone has infringed your copyrights, make sure you list them on your bankruptcy schedules.