Opinion ID: 3050390
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: R.S. was unable to timely locate the delinquent

Text: taxes at issue. Id. at . The bankruptcy court disagreed and found in favor of the debtors, concluding that the IRS had received reasonable and adequate notice of the bankruptcy. Id. The court noted that the § 341(a) notice sent to the IRS contained “the correct names and addresses of the debtors and their counsel” and that “Carol Bringe’s social security number was also correctly given.” Bringe, 1992 WL 12003983 at . “The I.R.S. could have then conducted further checks using the debtor’s name, his wife’s name, or his wife’s social security numberall of which were correctly supplied in the § 341 notice.” Id. The unpublished decision in Bringe is not binding on this court. In addition, the facts are distinguishable from those described in the matter before us. In Bringe, the § 341 notice received by the IRS carried the correct SSN for Ms. Bringe. Thus, even though the IRS relied completely on SSNs for researching and determining whether there were any delinquent taxes to be listed on a proof of claim, the IRS could have successfully conducted such research on Ms. Bringe and identified her as a debtor. The bankruptcy court noted this as a factor in its decision, explaining that the IRS could have conducted further research on the debtors by using this information. Id. [3] Mr. Ellett also cites In re Ohio Movers & Storage, Inc., 118 B.R. 533 (Bankr. N.D. Ohio 1990), in support of his argument. The bankruptcy court in Ohio Movers held that the IRS received proper notice of a corporate debtor’s bankruptcy petition despite the fact that the petition listed an incorrect EIN for the debtor. Id. at 534. It reasoned as follows: 14258 ELLETT v. GOLDBERG The IRS argument that it received ineffective notice due to the incorrect tax identification number is without merit. It received actual notice of the bankruptcy filing and the claims bar date and is bound thereby. It is unfortunate this notice was ineffective because of IRS’s procedural policy of relying solely on Debtor’s identification number to review tax liability and file proofs of claim. Id. Like Bringe, however, the bankruptcy court’s decision is not binding on this court. Moreover, there are numerous cases in which other bankruptcy courts have concluded that a creditor is not required to conduct a search if any of the requisite identification is incorrect or missing from the Rule § 341(a) notice. See In re Pecovsky, 241 B.R. 530, 533-34 (Bankr. M.D. Pa. 1999) (holding that debtor’s notice to IRS of his bankruptcy filing was deficient because it provided debtor’s SSN but failed to provide his EIN and debtor himself had no unpaid tax liabilities); In re Anderson, 159 B.R. 830, 837-38 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 1993) (concluding that the debtor’s notice was insufficient because, although the creditor received notice of the debtor’s bankruptcy filing, the debtor failed to list in its notice all of the names under which it had previously operated, thus failing to notify creditor about the relevance of the bankruptcy proceeding to some of its claims); In re Friedman, 184 B.R. 883, 889-90 (Bankr. N.D.N.Y. 1994) (“A creditor should not have to undertake its own independent investigation to discover the true identity of a debtor in order to protect its rights.”); In re Gamble, 85 B.R. 150, 152 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. 1988) (same). [4] Mr. Ellett was in the best position to list the correct SSN on his petition and comply with the additional requirements of Rule 1005 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. Requiring a creditor to ferret out a debtor’s correct identity when incorrect identifying information is provided would be overly burdensome and inappropriate. As stated in Maya, “[the debtor] seeks to free itself of an obligation by ELLETT v. GOLDBERG 14259 means of a federal court judgment.” Maya, 78 F.3d at 1399. Thus, it is not unreasonable to place the burden on the debtors to ensure that their creditors received proper notice of their bankruptcy filing. [5] Here, due to Mr. Ellett’s negligence in listing an erroneous SSN on his bankruptcy petition and § 341(a) notice, proper notice was not provided to the FTB. Consequently, Mr. Ellett’s Chapter 13 plan did not “provide for” the FTB taxes. The FTB should not be punished because Mr. Ellett failed to provide proper notice including his correct SSN. Because we conclude that the taxes owed by Mr. Ellett to the FTB were not discharged, we need not consider Mr. Ellett’s request for attorney’s fees and costs. AFFIRMED. Costs are awarded to the FTB.