Metrou v. M.A. Mortenson Co/

In personal injury action filed by debtor, in which debtor sought to substitute his Bankruptcy Trustee as plaintiff due to fact that debtor had failed to include instant action in his previously-filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, Dist. Ct. erred in finding that Trustee’s recovery in instant action could not exceed value of debts that had not been paid in debtor’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. Dist. Ct. did not find that debtor had deliberately hid instant action from his creditors in bankruptcy proceeding, and Dist. Ct.’s categorical rule that would limit recovery in all cases where debtor had failed to include litigation in bankruptcy petition could potentially hurt creditors under circumstances where limitation would reduce amount at stake to level which would induce Trustee to abandon subsequent litigation. As such, debtors, who in good faith erred by not including all litigation in bankruptcy petition, remain entitled to any surplus recovered in such litigation just as if said litigation had been originally listed in bankruptcy petition.