In re Fredman
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Illinois
471 B.R. 540 (2012)
The Fredmans (plaintiffs), who declared their intent to surrender their Colorado home while keeping their Illinois home under the homestead exemption, nonetheless included the Colorado mortgage payments in their means-test deductions for future secured-claim payments, and those combined mortgage deductions produced a negative 60-month disposable income allowing them to qualify for Chapter 7 rather than being pushed into Chapter 13; the trustee objected that the Fredmans should not be permitted to deduct payments on a home they had no intention of actually paying for going forward.
Whether, for purposes of the chapter 7 means-test calculation, a debtor may deduct a secured debt that exists at the time of filing but that the debtor will not actually be required to pay.