04 B 19670

Through counsel, the chapter 7 debtors moved to redeem a vehicle under § 722. The court granted the motion but requested that counsel provide the court with additional information on the fee arrangement between the debtors and the debtors’ counsel. Supplemental documents revealed that (1) although the bankruptcy case was not filed until May 20, 2004, counsel began billing for the motion on February 8, 2004; and (2) a tripartite arrangement existed between the debtors, debtors’ counsel and a third party where the third party made a post-petition loan to the debtors to pay counsel for the pre-petition debt created by counsel’s pre-petition retainer agreement with the debtors and to redeem the vehicle from the secured creditor. The court found that the additional revenue from the redemption motion was not voluntarily disclosed to the court. The court concluded that counsel was not entitled to a fee for bringing the motion to redeem.