Opinion
Case No. 01-50227-JRG
August 2, 2002
ORDER ON FEE APPLICATION OF DAVID A. BOONE
I. INTRODUCTION
The Court has before it the Application For Compensation filed by David A. Boone on February 27, 2002.
Following the filing of this petition, Applicant was awarded $2,350 in compensation at the time the Chapter 13 plan was confirmed. This award was pursuant to the fee guidelines maintained by the Court. Pursuant to the guidelines, the $2,750 was composed of:
The Chapter 13 fee guidelines are the Court's attempt to predict what the typical case should cost a debtor when the specified aspects are present. It is the court's intent to accurately predict the legal in a case in an attempt to avoid the additional cost and delay of fee applications. As a general rule the fee guidelines accurately represent the legal fees in the great majority of cases.
$1,400 for the basic case; and an additional $750 if the case involves real property claims; $200 of the case involves vehicle loans or leases; . . .
Applicant now seek additional compensation in the amount of $1,248.
II. THE NATURE OF THE CASE
While the scheduled fee of $2,350 included three components, it does not appear there were problems in all of these areas. The vehicle loan is $30,179 and encumbers a 2000 Dodge Durango. There is no suggestion of a problem in this area. The Eliapos have seven unsecured creditors (five are credit cards) totaling $14,480.98. There are no apparent problems with unsecured creditors.
The debtors' problems stem from their inability to service the mortgages on their home. Their home is located at 3802 Maui Drive in San Jose and they value it at $380,000. They have a first mortgage in the amount of $215,818 which had pre-petition defaults of $9,600 according to the lender. There is also a second mortgage in the amount of $80,000 which was current at the time of the filing.
III. DISCUSSION
In seeking additional fees, applicant describes two basic areas in which work was performed. The first deals with the normal preparation of the petition, schedules and statement of affairs and the moving of the case to confirmation. For this work applicant billed 9.6 hours (26 time entries) at a cost of $2,254. In a basic case such as this the cost of these services should not exceed the guideline amount of $1,400 absent extraordinary circumstances.
No extraordinary circumstances are evident. There were two objections by the Trustee. The first indicated that the debtors had omitted their monthly property tax obligation from Schedule J — Current Expenditures. Delinquent property taxes were set forth on Schedule D so applicant was aware of the tax problem and neglected to address it on Schedule J. The Trustee's second objection simply pointed out that when applicant filed an amended plan for the debtors it neglected to have one of the debtors sign it. Another administrative error.
The second area of work involves relief from stay motions brought by both the first and second mortgage holders. For this work applicant billed 5.2 hours (20 time entries) at a cost of $1,219. The $750 Guideline amount is normally sufficient to cover these problems since the debtors are not required to file a response to the motion and the hearing is conducted by telephone at no cost to the debtors.
IV. CONCLUSION
The problems faced by Applicant in this case seem no more difficult than those faced by Chapter 13 practitioners on a regular basis. There is no justification shown for the filing and confirmation of the plan in this case exceeding the guideline amount of $1,400. A reduction of the difference is appropriate. The work on the relief from the stay motion appears suspect. However, given the debtors problems with their mortgage payments, the Court will not second guess the applicant invested in these motions.
The Court grants the application in the amount of $394. This is in addition to the $2,350 approved at the time of confirmation. The balance of the application is denied.