Hoopai

I. Background

A. Pre-Chapter 13 Background

The genesis of the dispute between appellee Lehua Hoopai (“Hoopai”) and appellant Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (“Countrywide”), was Hoopai’s default on two loans from Countrywide, which were secured by mortgages on her real property in Kamuela, Hawaii. Following the default, Country- wide scheduled a non-judicial foreclosure sale for April 23, 2004.

But on the day the sale was to be held, Hoopai filed a pro se petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, auto- matically staying the sale. There were numerous problems with the filing, described by the bankruptcy court as possess- ing “many of the hallmarks of a bad faith filing.” Hoopai claimed as assets trademarks and copyrights covering her own name, failed to list Countrywide as a creditor, and filed finan- cial schedules that “contained numerous questionable entries.” Additionally, she lacked sufficient funds to service her secured debts. The Office of the United States Trustee moved to dismiss or convert the case to Chapter 7, and Hoo- pai herself later moved to dismiss the case. The bankruptcy court ultimately dismissed the case on September 8, 2004, and Countrywide…