In re Durczynski
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio
405 B.R. 880 (2009)
Mr. and Mrs. Durczynski (plaintiffs) filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy while spending about $2,100 monthly (roughly 40% of their income) on home expenses — 2.5 times the amount the statutory means test allows for a family of their size, even though they technically passed that means test. The bankruptcy trustee moved to dismiss the petition as abusive, and the Durczynskis presented no evidence that their children's health or education would suffer from moving to a smaller home.
Whether a court may scrutinize a debtor's living expenses, including whether they reflect a lifestyle choice rather than a genuine necessity, as part of a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis for dismissing a chapter 7 filing as abusive, even where the debtor technically passes the statutory means test.