Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 4/24/2007

Question
I sued and won a $6700 judgment (for fraud) against someone in CA small claims court back in November of '06. The defendant filed a motion to vacate the judgment on the grounds that he claimed he wasn't served. I produced the registered process server at the January court hearing, so the judge determined that the defendant was indeed served. However, just as the judge was about to enter the verdict, the defendant asserted to the judge that he had filed Ch 13 bankruptcy (which I had no previous knowledge of). The judge then continued the matter pursuant to the notice of bankruptcy. A couple of days later, I received a "Debtor's Application for Voluntary Dismissal" letter in the mail from the defendant's attorney... so apparently the bankruptcy has been abandoned.

My question is this: Shouldn't the judge have just stayed the judgment at the point where he determined that the defendant was properly served and not continue the matter pursuant to the bankruptcy? Particularly since it was obvious that the defendant just used it as a stall tactic, which ultimately kept me from attempting to collect on the judgment prior to his filing bankruptcy. I understand that the bankruptcy could effect my ability to collect on the judgment, but do I have any recourse against the defendant for intentionally stalling the judgment from being entered? Thank you for your consideration.

Answer
Well, I suppose you could file a motion to reopen the bankruptcy case to have the judge determine that the defendant's actions were a stall tactic, in which case the remedy is to dismiss the bankruptcy case, which you state has already happened, so that would obviously be nonsensical.  As to your other questions, I need to know the dates of the hearings and dates of the bankruptcy case filing to give you any more of an answer.