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A judge who imposed a $45 million penalty on Bank of America Corp. over a foreclosure on a California couple still isn’t ready to forget the case he described as a “Kafkaesque nightmare,” Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein voiced exasperation yesterday as the bank sought for the third time to win his approval of a confidential settlement that would nix the monetary penalty and also erase the 107-page ruling he issued in March detailing the bank’s “callous” and “cruel” treatment of the Sundquist family after they sought a mortgage modification. The judge said that it looked to him like the bank was “holding the Sundquists hostage” by making the settlement contingent on the ruling being dismissed. Jonathan Hacker, a lawyer for the bank, told the judge the concern is that the ruling could be used in other cases against the bank. Hacker agreed to consult with his client and let the judge know by day’s end about whether the bank will still honor the settlement if the judge refuses to dismiss the case entirely, including his March ruling.

Bankruptcy filings are decreasing nationwide but not in the Southern District, where judges are presiding over "a record high number of large mega cases," according to the State of the District report released today, the New York Law Journal reported today. U.S. District Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York lauded the performance of all the courts under her jurisdiction but said that she was concerned about the impact of federal budget cuts on the entire system. "Our overworked bankruptcy judges are working 24/7 365 on some of the most complicated cases in the country," McMahon said. The bankruptcy court's mega filings have increased 60 percent in fiscal year 2016 to 2017 compared to the previous year. Overall, total chapter 11 filings for the period have increased 8.5 percent and international cases, chapter 15, are up 70 percent. chapter 13 cases have risen almost 13 percent but chapter 7 cases have remained steady.