Summary
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon grants debtor Tansy Peschel’s motion for summary judgment in an adversary proceeding against Michael Jay Warden. The court holds that a $1,104.66 wage garnishment made within 90 days before the bankruptcy petition was an avoidable preferential transfer under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b). The court rejects the defendant’s asserted defenses based on contemporaneous exchange for new value and ordinary course of business.
Court
United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon
Jurisdiction
United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon
Decision date
March 30, 2026
Docket number
Adv. Proc. No. 25-6036-pem; Case No. 25-61990-pem13
Disposition
other
Questions Presented
- Whether the defendant's July 1, 2025 paycheck garnishment constituted an avoidable preferential transfer under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b).
- Whether the defendant established the affirmative defenses of contemporaneous exchange for new value under 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(1) or ordinary course of business under 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(2).
- Whether summary judgment was appropriate where the defendant failed to respond to the debtor's statement of undisputed material facts.
Holdings
- The garnishment satisfied all elements of a preferential transfer under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b): it transferred an interest in the debtor's property to a creditor, on account of an antecedent debt, within 90 days before the petition while the debtor was presumed insolvent, and enabled the creditor to receive more than it would have received in a chapter 7 liquidation.
- The defendant did not establish the contemporaneous exchange for new value defense because the garnishment merely partially satisfied an existing judgment and was not made in exchange for new value.
- The defendant did not establish the ordinary-course-of-business defense because garnishing the debtor's paycheck to collect a judgment for unpaid residential rent was not a payment made in the ordinary course of business as a matter of law.
Court Document
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