Spradlin v. Khouri (In re Bruner)

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Tracey N. Wise, Bankruptcy Judge

Debtor’s Chapter 7 Trustee seeks turnover of a fee paid to Debtor’s criminal defense counsel post-petition. The fee was wire-transferred to Defendants by the Debtor’s elderly mother, and the parties hotly dispute whether the Debtor was the true source of the transferred funds. In their dispute over the fee’s origins, however, the parties miss a more fundamental point. Turnover can only be used to demand return of estate property to the Trustee, not to avoid transfers of what was estate property. Even if the funds were originally property of…