October 2020 – Creditors Rights 101

Where are all the bankruptcy filings in Nashville?

Many years ago, I got a call from a bank attorney who was in the middle of a 4 day trial in Williamson County. It was a lawsuit by a bank to collect its post-foreclosure deficiency balance. The lawyer called me to tell me that the debtor’s attorney had printed out my very own blog post and had introduced it into evidence as a learned treatise under Tennessee Rule of Evidence 618 in order to cross-exam the bank’s expert witness.

While I was flattered (my initial reaction was to ask if the Chancellor was impressed), it was also strange–given my long allegiance to banks and creditors in litigation–that Creditor Rights 101 would be used against a bank. (Also, that debtor’s counsel must have been desperate if he resorted to using my blog post as his Exhibit 15).

Regardless, man-o-man, beware of using this law blog as learned evidence of anything, because I can be really wrong sometimes.

Like, on April 3, 2020, when I boldly predicted that bankruptcy filings in the Middle District of Tennessee would hit an all-time high in June 2020.

It didn’t happen. Not even close. Literally, the opposite happened.

As of today, October 29, 2020, there have been 4,820 bankruptcy cases filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. That sounds like a lot, but, for comparison’s sake, consider that the 4,820th case was filed on the following dates over the past decade: July 30, 2019; July 20, 2018; July 18, 2017; July 6, 2016; July 15, 2015; June 17, 2014; May 31, 2013; May 23, 2012; May 11, 2011; and May 4, 2010.

Not only are we not hitting a record high, but, instead, new bankruptcies are being filed at a record low pace.

As late as July, we were still wrong about the future of bankruptcy (I say “we” because the Nashville Post joined me on the bad predictions).

So, today’s news brings more predictions (but, this time, far less bold) via this American Bankruptcy Institute story, which predicts that the new bankruptcies are coming…in 2021.

“As stimulus checks and other forms of temporary relief run out, experts are projecting an increase in personal bankruptcy filings, which have so far been muted during the coronavirus pandemic,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Only a new stimulus program targeting individuals or government actions forgiving or deferring student loans can keep individual filings from rising.”

In light of all this, I’m not making more predictions, because these are unpredictable times. Our General Sessions Court shuts down evictions and collections dockets, then re-opens them, then drastically limits them, and then reopened them again. People are afraid to leave their houses. Banks are afraid to foreclose on those houses. Lawyers are afraid to go to their offices.

The bankruptcies are coming. But who knows when.

Finally, to all you crafty debtor lawyers out there: I can edit any these blog posts on a moment’s notice.

It may be time to start filing Davidson County evictions in Circuit Court.

The new 25 case limit on the civil dockets in Davidson County General Sessions has been the problem we thought it would be.

As of last Thursday, the next available civil hearing date for new and pending cases was December 9, 2020.

Since last Thursday, 357 new cases have been filed in Sessions Court.

Given the usual holiday court schedule, I’d bet that–as of this blog post— there are no more open civil dockets in 2020.

The Nashville Bar Association hosted a General Sessions Court Town Hall today to talk about these issues, but, given the unprecedented nature of this problem, nobody knows what’s next and how to solve it. Will there be afternoon dockets? Staggered morning dockets? Video appearances?

I’ve received a handful of calls from local lawyers, for advice on how to navigate all this. In some cases, the best move is to file the matter and just get a date locked down before things get worse (even if it’s in mid-January).

Another option, though, if you aren’t going to get into Court until January or February, is to file your commercial eviction lawsuits in Circuit Court (which has jurisdiction, per Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-18-108).

If you file an eviction action in Circuit, today, and get it served this week, you may be able to get a judgment by early December (or early January).

And, yes, I know I’ve criticized lawyers for filing Sessions-sized and eviction matters in Circuit Court (a move that generally presents no tangible strategic advantage, other than the lawyers get more billable hours).

But these unprecedented times call for novel ideas.

After a judgment for possession, does res judicata prevent a landlord from taking a money judgment?

I represent a lot of commercial landlords, and, when there’s a payment default and they want to evict a tenant, there’s an early strategy question that they all face: (1) Do we sue for possession only; or (2) Do we sue for money and unpaid rent (through the date of the court hearing)?

It’s a nuanced question. Most landlords choose # 2, especially since detainer lawsuits are filed in General Sessions Court and, due to a little-known exception, you can take a huge money judgment in “small” claims court.

But, they’ll generally say, what about the unpaid rent for time periods after we get a judgment and evict them from the property? That’s a second lawsuit. Isn’t there a rule against two lawsuits on the same issues?

Yes, it’s called res judicata, which we talked about last year.

So, can you sue a tenant two times on the same lease agreement?

Davidson County General Sessions Caps Dockets at 25 Cases: This is a Big Problem

Last week, the Davidson County General Sessions Court entered an Administrative Order that limited the number of cases that can be set on the civil dockets in Courtrooms 1A & 1B, with a cap of 25 cases per day (effective October 5, 2020).

That sounds like a lot of cases. It is not.

A typical General Sessions civil docket might have 50 to 100 cases on the docket. Davidson County has civil dockets every day of the week.

By my math, this represents a minimum 75% cut in capacity.

Granted, when I first heard about the 25 case limit, it didn’t sound like too much of a problem, since I don’t have a high volume consumer or residential eviction practice. The high volume lawyers who routinely have 25 of their own cases on each docket would be the ones with the problem, right?

Then, I got a call from a commercial landlord whose tenant hasn’t paid rent since March and has “gone dark.” The landlord asked me to get a judgment for possession as soon as possible.

Spoiler-alert: The 25 case limit is a problem.