Rogers v. Anong, LLC
- Jeffrey Bryan
- 0:23-cv-02515
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 4
In Rogers v. Anong, LLC, Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan denied arbitration and dismissed the bankruptcy-stay case without prejudice, sending it to Bankruptcy Court.
Shimone Rogers’s claim against Anong, LLC, concerning an alleged violation of the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay. The case was dismissed without prejudice so the matter could be brought before the District of Minnesota Bankruptcy Court.
What happened
In Rogers v. Anong, LLC, Shimone Rogers alleged that Anong withdrew a loan payment from her checking account after she filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and after Anong knew about the bankruptcy. She brought one claim under the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic-stay protections.
Anong asked the court to require arbitration and dismiss the case. The court instead concluded that Rogers’s claim belonged in the District of Minnesota Bankruptcy Court under the court’s automatic-referral rule because claims for damages under the automatic-stay provision are bankruptcy proceedings.
Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan denied Anong’s motion to compel arbitration and dismissed Rogers’s amended complaint without prejudice. The order said the parties should bring the matter before the Bankruptcy Court and did not prevent Anong from asking that court to compel arbitration.
The detailed version
- Rogers v. Anong, LLC · No. 0:23-cv-02515
- Jeffrey M. Bryan
- July 22, 2024
Background
Shimone Rogers filed an action against Anong, LLC, which the opinion describes as wholly owned by the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and doing business as Availblue.com. Rogers later filed an amended complaint.
According to the amended complaint, Rogers took out a short-term, high-interest loan from Anong in December 2022. Rogers filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on February 17, 2023. She alleged that, despite notice of the bankruptcy, Anong called her and withdrew a loan payment from her checking account. Her only claim alleged a willful violation of the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay, which generally halts specified collection activity after a bankruptcy filing, under 11 U.S.C. § 362(k).
The Motion and the Court’s Analysis
Anong moved to compel arbitration and argued that the case should then be dismissed. Before deciding that request, the court considered whether the matter belonged in the District Court or the District of Minnesota Bankruptcy Court.
The court explained that a claim seeking damages under section 362(k) is a “core proceeding” because the automatic stay is created by federal bankruptcy law. Under the District of Minnesota’s local rules, all bankruptcy cases and proceedings are referred to the district’s bankruptcy judges. Relying on that rule and prior decisions from the District of Minnesota, the court concluded that Rogers’s claim should be heard by the Bankruptcy Court.
The court therefore dismissed the amended complaint without prejudice. It stated that nothing in the order prevented Anong from asking the Bankruptcy Court to compel arbitration.
Disposition
The court ordered that Anong’s motion to compel arbitration was DENIED. It also ordered that Rogers’s amended complaint was DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE. The order directed that judgment be entered accordingly.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.