The bar date for filing claims cannot be extended by three days just because the notice was mailed, according to Chief Bankruptcy Judge William R. Sawyer of Montgomery, Ala.
In a chapter 13 case, the deadline for filing claims is 90 days after the first meeting of creditors under Bankruptcy Rule 3002(c). As usual, notice of the bar date was sent by mail.
A creditor mailed a proof of claim three days before the deadline. The claim took six days to arrive by mail, making it three days late.
The creditor contended that the claim was timely because three days are tacked on by Bankruptcy Rule 9006(f) following service by mail.
Judge Sawyer rejected the argument. He said that Rule 9006(f) did not apply because the bar date was “a function of the date set for the meeting of creditors, and not by reference to service of anything by mail.”
He cited the Fifth Circuit, which reached the same result in Oppenheim Appel Dixon & Co. v. Bullock (In re Robintech, Inc.), 863 F.2d 393 (5th Cir. 1989).