Redfield T. Baum Sr.
How Judge Baum rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Baum decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
For a sale free and clear, Baum treated adequate protection as mandatory and refused relocation where the league's non-economic membership and territorial interests could not be protected after the fact.
“The requirement of adequate protection in Section 363(e) is mandatory. If adequate protection cannot be provided, such sale must be prohibited.”
He requires full disclosure from court-appointed professionals and directs them to disclose rather than withhold a connection whenever doubt exists.
“if there is any doubt what should be disclosed, one must err on the side of disclosing information and not withholding information.”
In responsible-person tax disputes, Baum focused on who held final authority over which obligations were paid and when.
“Newton had the requisite authority, i.e., the final word on what bills to pay and when to pay them.”
Procedural preferences
Parties requesting a mediation with Baum should first agree on three proposed dates and coordinate through the assigned judge's courtroom deputy.
“If you would like to schedule a mediation with Judge Baum, please provide three dates agreed to by ALL participating parties and email the Courtroom Deputy of the assigned case judge.”
A proposed sale of substantially all estate assets receives close scrutiny when it risks deciding issues normally reserved for plan confirmation.
“sales of substantial portions of a debtor’s assets under Section 363 must be scrutinized closely by the court.”
Cautions
A professional's failure to disclose required connections may warrant a fee sanction even without proven monetary harm to the estate.
“a disclosure violation may result in sanctions regardless of actual harm to the estate.”
Repeated violations of an injunction and nonpayment of earlier fines can lead to severe monetary sanctions and a broader prohibition on bankruptcy-document work.
“Berry, PLI and PSI are each fined $1,000,000.00 for their actions.”
A strategic debtor name change intended to defeat a security interest may violate the duty of good faith and require a fact-specific remedy.
“every petition before this Court must be filed in good faith.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“As explained below, the Motion is denied, without prejudice.”
“PSE’s bid is denied, with prejudice because the interests of the NHL can not be adequately protected as required by Section 363(e) if the sale to PSE were approved.”
“The NHL’s bid is denied, without prejudice.”
“Accordingly, the objection to that claim is overruled.”
“the fee and cost application is granted, in part, and Sparks is awarded total compensation for fees and costs of $30,000.00 and the balance of the application is denied as a sanction for Sparks’ failure to make required disclosures to this court and the parties involved in these cases.”
“Therefore, Berry, PLI and PSI are found in civil contempt by this court and sanctioned in the manner stated herein. The request for civil contempt and/or sanctions as to Charrette is denied, without prejudice, provided that such request may be reopened on the motion of the court or the UST with this court retaining jurisdiction to further consider such issues.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Varbel shall pay or cause to be paid to Dennis an amount equal to all payments made by Dennis under that agreement or for legal fees regarding this case;”
The court defined which revenue streams were cash collateral but deferred the equitable and alleged fraudulent-name-change issues, so the pending operating-expense motion was not finally classified.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Fourteen terminated sampled matters lasted from 103 to 3,612 days, with a median of 451 days. The fixed sample is descriptive and is not a complete caseload census.
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Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Baum, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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