In re Sjoquist

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION REGARDING MOTION TO DISALLOW THE CLAIM OF ERIKA SJO-QUIST [DOCKET 99], MOTION TO COMPEL TRUSTEE TO ABANDON [DOCKET 102], AND MOTION TO COMPROMISE [DOCKET 108]

Background

This litigation centers on a note (the “Note”) and other contract rights that the debtor (“Debtor” or “Robert”) received on account of the sale of his business in 2001. Debtor and his wife (“Erika”) divorced in 2007 and Debtor assigned the payments from the Note to Erika in lieu of child and spousal support. (She received some payments on the Note, but the buyers of the business ultimately stopped paying in 2009.) Over the course of the next five years, Robert and Erika each filed for chapter 7 relief (at different times and in different divisions), entered into two separate court-approved agreements with Debtor’s trustee (“Trustee”) over entitlement to the proceeds of the Note and responsibility for enforcing the Note, and entered into a new support and child custody arrangement in Superior Court. Trustee has now brought a motion for approval of a compromise with the buyers of Debtor’s business, which Debtor opposes. Debtor has brought a motion to compel Trustee to abandon the Note and…