Bankruptcy judge reins in routine reopenings

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted April 27, 2023 11:05 AM

Michael Leroy Tarrant was diagnosed with cancer on Dec. 1, 2017, two years after his debts were wiped out in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. But in November 2022 — shortly after the U.S. Trustee in Central Illinois was notified that Tarrant had received a settlement offer of $105,000 in litigation against the manufacturer of the herbicide Roundup — the UST asked Bankruptcy Judge Mary P. Gorman to reopen the case.The UST’s reasoning was that Tarrant “must have been exposed to Roundup for a number of years before his 2017 …

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