Verna R. Green

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
In re
VERNA R. GREEN,
Debtor.
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Case No. 05-00311
(Chapter 7)
OPINION RE MOTION TO RECONSIDER DISMISSAL OF CASE
The debtor, Verna R. Green, has filed a letter in which
she may be asking for reconsideration of the order dismissing
this bankruptcy case. Treating the same as a motion to
reconsider, the court will deny the motion except that the
prior dismissal will be made without prejudice.
Green filed her voluntary petition on March 3, 2005,
listing in the box for her address “4562 Eads Street, N.E.,
Washington, D.C.,” but with a diagonal a slash alongside that
address after which the handwritten words “5111 Ayers Wash
Plac--Loc 4 SE 20019." The point is that only the Eads Street
address was given as an intelligible address.
The clerk set pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 341 a meeting of
creditors for April 7, 2005. The clerk never issued a notice
The opinion below is hereby signed. Dated: November
19, 2005.
_____________________________
S. Martin Teel, Jr.
United States Bankruptcy Judge
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of that meeting because the debtor never filed a mailing
matrix or list of creditors as required by the Federal Rules
of Bankruptcy Procedure and the Local Bankruptcy Rules of this
court. On April 15, 2005, the court issued an order to show
cause why the case ought not be dismissed for failure to file
the mailing matrix. Again, on May 23, 2005, the court issued
a second order to show cause why the case ought not be
dismissed for failure to file the mailing matrix. Both orders
were mailed to the debtor at her Eads Street address. No
response was filed to either order. On June 21, 2005, the
court entered an order dismissing the case with prejudice for
180 days. A copy of that order was mailed to the debtor at
the Eads Street address.
On November 14, 2005, almost five months after the case
was dismissed, and more than eight months after she commenced
the case, the debtor filed a letter in which she states that
she was evicted from the Eads Street address prior to 2005 so
that her mail got tossed around. She further states that she
attempted to get a credit report but has been unable to get
one. She shows that she requested one around April 27, 2005
(the date of a money order receipt she sent the credit
reporting company).
The court infers that she is attempting to justify why
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she did not file a timely mailing matrix (because she thinks
she needed a credit report to do so, perhaps because
creditors’ bills were not being received once she had left the
Eads Street address). She may also be saying that she was not
receiving any of the mail from the court. The court further
infers that she seeks to have the dismissal of this case
vacated.
The debtor used an erroneous address on her petition as
she no longer resided at the Eads Street address, and the
Ayers Place address she attempted to place beside the Eads
Street address was unintelligible. She has only herself to
blame for not listing a correct address.
Even if the debtor received none of the mail, she was
obligated to file a mailing matrix and to do so in a timely
fashion to permit creditors to be notified of the pendency of
the case. Her schedules, moreover, listed addresses for each
creditor, so it is hard to understand why she could not have
used those addresses to prepare a mailing matrix. In any
event, the debtor's delay in preparing a mailing matrix is
intolerably long whatever the reason for the debtor's delay in
preparing the mailing matrix. Dismissal was warranted once
the debtor did not file a mailing matrix in a timely fashion.
The court will not set aside the dismissal of the case.
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4	O:\JUDGTEMP\Green (Verna) Opinion re Motion to Reconsider.wpd
The debtor may be asking to modify the dismissal order so
that she can be free to file a new case, and the court will
amend the prior dismissal order to make it one without
prejudice. Although she was obligated to file a mailing
matrix, it is not clear that she received an order directing
her to file a mailing matrix. Although that may stem from her
use of the Eads Street address (for which she bears the
blame), her failure to file a mailing matrix would not have
stemmed from a willful failure to comply with an order of the
court.
An order follows.
[Signed and dated above.]
Copies to:
All entities on BNC mailing list (including debtor at her
address of record); Verna R. Green, at additional address of
5111 Ayers Place, S.E., Apartment 4, Washington, DC 20019-
6453.
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