Q: As a creditor at a 341 meeting, can I only ask questions about the debtor's assets or can I ask questions to show fraud
We went to small claims court. He did not show up the final hearing and we won our judgement for the full amount. He started bankruptcy chapter 7 2 days later.
In this case, we had paid for and had materials listed in the invoice that were not used and instead use other materials for a bait and switch I am trying for fraud in our objection of discharge.
We will be attending the creditors meeting this week.
What questions can we ask? Can we begin to show fraud and reason not to discharge the debt in this meeting? Or is this simply around his assets?
For instance can we ask why the fence is failing when he himself said it would last a lifetime in email? we have written testimony that it is clearly not what was in the contract.
Also since Chapter 7 is normally consumer debt does the fact that this is a business mean we can get it discharge for that?
Thank you so much.
A:
You ask a lot of questions.
A 341 meeting in a chapter 7 case, over which the trustee presides, in a consumer case, normally lasts about 12 minutes.
When a corporation operating a business decides to "give up", it files a Ch. 7 because it is not eligible to file for Ch. 13 relief. A business that desires to reorganize, financially, files a Chapter 11 case, which is both expensive and complicated.
Although your description is about a bankrupt business venture, it seems it is actually about a single individual. For that reason alone, you can expect that the trustee will want to keep the 341 meeting short (he schedules several for one day, and wants to complete all of them). The subject matter of your proposed inquiry, while perhaps interesting to a trustee if it amounted to grounds to deny a discharge to the debtor, sounds more like it has to do with your individual claim, and an argument about whether your claim, as opposed to all claims, might be dischargeable as one procured by fraud or fraudulent misrepresentations or pretenses. Compare Section 727 of the Code to the grounds to except an individual debt in Section 523.
As to your final question- no. imho
Timothy Denison agrees with this answer
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