In re Jose Sandy Buco v. Thomas C. Frost
- Garnett
- 1:25-cv-05496
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Buco v. Frost, Judge Garnett dismissed Buco’s bankruptcy appeal because he was ineligible for Chapter 13.
Jose Sandy Buco, whose Chapter 13 petition was dismissed and whose appeal was dismissed; Thomas C. Frost was the appellee.
What happened
In In re Jose Sandy Buco v. Thomas C. Frost, Jose Sandy Buco appealed the Bankruptcy Court’s dismissal of his Chapter 13 petition. The District Court had previously reviewed the appeal’s merits while considering Buco’s request to pause a foreclosure sale, but allowed him time to explain why the appeal should continue.
The court concluded that Buco was not eligible for Chapter 13 because he had $6,395,647.89 in noncontingent, liquidated debt, exceeding the limits in Section 109(e) of the Bankruptcy Code. The court rejected his argument that some debts should not count because they were allegedly fraudulent or disputed.
Judge Garnett dismissed the appeal after Buco failed to identify a valid basis for continuing it. The court also ruled that all pending motions were moot and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the appeal.
The detailed version
- In re Jose Sandy Buco v. Thomas C. Frost · No. 1:25-cv-05496
- Garnett
- Oct. 30, 2025
Background
Jose Sandy Buco, the debtor and appellant, appealed the Bankruptcy Court’s dismissal of his Chapter 13 petition. The District Court had previously denied Buco’s emergency request to stay a foreclosure sale. In that earlier order, the court treated the request as also seeking a stay of the bankruptcy-petition dismissal and evaluated the merits of the pending appeal.
The District Court concluded in the earlier order that the Bankruptcy Court had correctly determined that Buco was ineligible to be a Chapter 13 debtor. Because Buco was proceeding without a lawyer and the appeal was not fully briefed, the court did not immediately dismiss the appeal. Instead, it ordered Buco to explain why the appeal should not be dismissed. Buco did not identify a valid basis for keeping the appeal, and the Chapter 13 trustee submitted an affirmation further supporting the conclusion that Buco was ineligible.
Chapter 13 eligibility
The Bankruptcy Court dismissed the petition under Section 109(e) of the Bankruptcy Code. The District Court stated that, when Buco filed the petition, he had $6,395,647.89 in noncontingent, liquidated debts. Those debts exceeded Section 109(e)’s eligibility limits for Chapter 13.
Buco argued that some of the debts were fraudulent and therefore should not count. The District Court rejected that argument. It explained that a disputed debt is not necessarily contingent or unliquidated. The court concluded that even if it fully credited Buco’s assertions that he was not liable for the listed debts, he still did not qualify as a Chapter 13 debtor.
Other arguments and ruling
The court also considered Buco’s conclusory and unclear arguments about alleged constitutional violations, violations of controlling law by the Bankruptcy Court, and alleged creditor misconduct. It found that those arguments did not present a legally sufficient basis to overcome the conclusion that Buco was ineligible for Chapter 13.
The court dismissed Buco’s appeal. It ruled that all pending motions were moot and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the appeal.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.