Lawyer's Recovery and Litigation Services, In v. Magafan et al

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
In re
ALPHA RESTAURANT INC.,
Debtor.
____________________________
MARC ALBERT, TRUSTEE,
Plaintiff,
v.
ANGELO MAGAFAN, et al.,
Defendants.
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Case No. 05-00570
(Chapter 7)
Adversary Proceeding No.
07-10012
MEMORANDUM DECISION RE MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF SETTLEMENT
The plaintiff and the defendants appeared through counsel at
a hearing on July 23, 2007, regarding the Motion for Approval of
Settlement filed by the defendants. 	Notice of the settlement has
been given to all creditors, and no objections were filed.
Richard Gins, counsel for the defendants, advised that the
settlement called for the defendants to pay $25,000.00 in
exchange for a dismissal with prejudice of the adversary
proceeding, and that the settlement did not include the term,
The decision below is hereby signed, and it is not
deemed to merit publication in West's Bankruptcy
Reporter. Dated: August 9, 2007.
_____________________________
S. Martin Teel, Jr.
United States Bankruptcy Judge
Case 07-10012 Doc 12 Filed 08/10/07 Entered 08/10/07 14:31:17 Desc Main
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recited in the proposed order he submitted, that the complaints
filed by Yves Courbois in the Superior Court for the District Of
Columbia, Case Numbers 03-8538 and 05-4342, “being an asset of
the estate [are] to be dismissed with prejudice by Mark L.
Shaffer, Attorney for Yves Courbois.” 	Rather than reflecting the
terms of the settlement agreement, it was Gins’s hope that the
provision would serve as a declaration by this court as to the
impact of the settlement on Courbois’s claims. 	The defendants
maintain that the claims that Courbois sued upon in the Superior
Court were claims of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate, and that
Courbois’s attorney acknowledged that fact in furnishing to the
bankruptcy trustee information regarding the claims.
At the hearing, I held that the issue of the impact of the
settlement was not properly before the Bankruptcy Court, as an
adversary proceeding against Courbois would be necessary to
obtain a declaratory judgment in that regard. 	(Moreover, the
Bankruptcy Court would likely lack subject matter jurisdiction to
entertain such a declaratory judgment proceeding regarding the
impact of an approval of the settlement because the impact of the
settlement would not appear to affect the bankruptcy trustee’s
administration of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate.) 	The
defendants, however, remain free to raise in the Superior Court,
or in any other court having subject matter jurisdiction, the
issue of the impact of the settlement on the complaints Courbois
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filed in the Superior Court.
Accordingly, I will approve the settlement, but the
settlement does not include any term regarding the impact of the
settlement on the complaints filed by Courbois in the Superior
Court. 	An order follows.
[Signed and dated above.]
Copies to: All counsel of record; Office of United States
Trustee; and
Mark L. Shaffer
Shaffer, Bock & Antonoplos, PLLC
1211 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
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