17bk03367
On the competing motions of the chapter 13 trustee to dismiss a debtor’s case for failure to make plan payments and the debtor’s motion to modify his plan to allow it to complete without further payment, held:  Both the debtor’s defense to the trustee’s motion and the debtor’s motion addresses the understandable confusion that arises when a chapter 13 trustee neglects over an extended period of time to act in a way consistent with a debtor’s plan obligations.  While the debtor correctly contends that the trustee should be estopped from enforcing conditions that the trustee has neglected, that contention ignores the fact that the underlying default to the plan remains even with the motion to dismiss denied.  The debtor is in an unfortunate position—a plan that cannot be extended and obligations that cannot be met by an elderly debtor on fixed retirement income within the time of the plan—through actions not entirely of his own making.  Though it is unlikely Congress anticipated these exact circumstances, this is the type of conundrum that Congress and the United States Supreme Court have empowered the court to resolve when the former granted the court broad-sweeping authority under 11 U.S.C. § 105(a) and the latter empowered the court to address the equitable enforcement of its orders under Rule 60(b)(5) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  As a result, the court exercises that authority to determine that the debtor has fulfilled all the conditions of the plan that he might reasonably be required to perform under the circumstances and vacates the debtor’s confirmation order as to any remaining unfulfilled condition in it.  The debtor’s plan is therefore complete.  As a result, the trustee’s motion is DENIED and the debtor’s motion is GRANTED, insofar as it is necessary to effectuate that relief.