United States Fifth Circuit

In a bankruptcy matter involving a trustee's action to trace and recover assets that a debtor "self-settled" into a spendthrift trust of which he is the beneficiary, a judgment finding that only certain successfully-traced trust assets would be included in a bankruptcy estate and denying the debtor a discharge in bankruptcy is affirmed as: 1) the lower courts did not err in stopping short of declaring that the trust was a sham or illusory trust, and that the trust property was totally included in the bankruptcy estate; 2) the burdens and elements of proof were correctly applied for purposes of tracing and recovering the self-settled property; 3) there was no error in failing to impose a constructive trust on the trust assets; and 4) the circuit court rejects arguments raised by the debtor and the trustee of the spendthrift trust.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/20/2007
• Published 09/21/2007

Judges

• DENNIS, Circuit Judge:, Before SMITH, BENAVIDES and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Raymond W. Battaglia, Douglas Wayne Sanders, Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison & Tate, San Antonio, TX, Jeffrey Thomas Cullinane, Richie & Gueringer, Austin, TX, for Bradley., Michael Paul Massad, Jr., Jarrett Lee Hale (argued), Hunton & Williams, Dallas, TX, Frank N. Ikard, Jr., Mary E. Haught, Patrick Charles Hargadon, Bankston & Richardson, Austin, TX, for Ingalls., Lynne Liberato (argued), Kent Geoffrey Rutter, Katharine D. David, Haynes & Boone, Houston, TX, Eric Jay Taube, Sarah J. Starnes, Hohmann, Taube & Summers, Austin, TX, for Thompson.