Opinion
No. # 03-11517.
May 3, 2005
ORDER APPROVING SETTLEMENT STIPULATION (#288) AND STIPULATION AND TOLLING AGREEMENT (#297) AS MODIFIED
WHEREAS the Debtors, Middlebury Equity Partners, LLC ("MEP") and John R. Canney, III, in his capacity as chapter 7 trustee (the "Trustee") have entered into a settlement agreement intended to resolve all outstanding issues between the Parties, including but not limited to, MEP's Complaint to deny the Debtors' discharge under § 727 (A.P.# 05-1007) (doc. #288) (the "Proposed Settlement"); and
WHEREAS, on May 2, 2005, the Parties filed a Stipulation and Tolling Agreement (doc. # 297) to supplement and modify the Proposed Settlement in response to the concerns the Court raised at the initial hearing to consider the Proposed Settlement about whether there were sufficient grounds to permit the dismissal of MEP's § 727 Complaint, see Wolinsky v. Maynard (In re Maynard), 273 B.R. 369, 373-74 (Bankr. D. Vt. 2002), aff'd, 290 B.R. 67 (D. Vt. 2002); and
WHEREAS the Parties have given proper and sufficient notice of the motion to approve the settlement agreement, pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 7041;
NOW, AFTER DUE CONSIDERATION of the particular facts and circumstances of this case, specifically, the many complicated causes of actions the Parties have initiated against one another both in this Court and state court, the level of personal animus between the Parties, the extent and cost of the litigation that would be necessary to resolve the pending disputes, MEP's unwillingness to prosecute the § 727 complaint, the global nature of the settlement presented, and the apparent thoroughness and reasonableness of the Proposed Settlement and the Stipulation and Tolling Agreement,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 7041, that the Proposed Settlement as supplemented and modified by the Stipulation and Tolling Agreement is approved on the following terms:
1. the acts contemplated by the Proposed Settlement, including but not limited to, those set forth in Sections 2 through 8, shall be completed within the timeframes set forth in the Proposed Settlement, and where no timeframe is set forth, then those acts shall be performed with due diligence and completed as soon as practicable;
2. the Trustee's time for filing a complaint objecting to the Debtors' discharge under § 727 (which had previously been extended to April 30, 2005, see doc #285) is further extended to the later of
(a) the Trustee's filing of a report of no distribution or final report; and
(b) the complete consummation of all acts required under the Proposed Settlement, but nothing herein shall be interpreted to prohibit the Trustee from terminating his right to file the complaint for the extended period of time upon his verification that all allowed unsecured claims have been paid in full.SO ORDERED.