In re Deutsch

MEMORANDUM DECISION DENYING CONFIRMATION OF DEBTOR’S CHAPTER 13 PLAN

Carolyn Deutsch (the “Debtor”) filed her voluntary, chapter 7 1 petition on September 2, 2014, and later converted her case to chapter 13. The Debtor’s Chapter 13 Plan (the “Plan”) relies on contributions from a nondebtor third party in order to enable her to make plan payments. Without the contributions, the Debtor’s monthly take-home income is insufficient to pay all of her expenses, let alone the proposed Plan payments.

Chapter 13 plans premised on contributions from family or friends are much too common before the court, and are often proposed by debtors in their impractical and mostly futile attempts to save homes that are over-encumbered by secured debts. Many of these chapter 13 plans not only fail to meet the requirements for confirmation under § 1325 but also defeat the primary purpose of bankruptcy for individual debtors — that of the fresh start. See Kenneth N. Klee & Whitman L. Holt, Bankruptcy and the Supreme Court: 1801-20U, at 316-19 (2015) (quoting Williams v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 236 U.S. 549 , 35 S.Ct. 289 , 59 L.Ed. 713 (1915)). Rather than providing a discharge and a fresh…