Christopher M. Alston
How Judge Alston rules, drawn from 5 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Alston decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
The court used proportional allocation when one vehicle loan contained both purchase-money and non-purchase-money components.
“The Court concludes it is appropriate to allocate the prepetition payments in the same manner as in Brodowski.”
Alston declined arbitration when it would fragment and interfere with the bankruptcy court's resolution of a student-loan dischargeability dispute.
“Since the requested arbitration would inherently conflict with the underlying purposes of section 523(a)(8) of the Bankruptcy Code, it is appropriate to decline to enforce the arbitration provision.”
In evaluating forced conversion to chapter 11, he weighed the benefit to creditors and the debtor together rather than treating the debtor's preference as controlling.
“But the Court must consider the benefit to all parties in interest, not just the Debtor.”
Procedural preferences
Where poor records prevented allocation between business and personal charges, the party seeking a credit did not receive the benefit of uncertainty.
“her failure to keep records that would show which portion of the Grocery Store purchases benefitted the Mint precludes her from receiving a credit for any value allegedly conveyed to the Mint.”
Cautions
Material omissions and false statements that concealed the debtor's financial condition supported denial of discharge.
“The statements were material because they prevented the Trustee and creditors from knowing her true financial condition, thus allowing her to divert estate assets for many months.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that the Objection to Claim No. 1 of Kitsap Credit Union shall be and is hereby SUSTAINED;”
“The Court therefore grants the UST’s Motion to Convert. The Debtor’s case will be converted from chapter 7 to chapter 11 under § 706(b) forthwith.”
“the Court DENIES Navient’s Motion to compel arbitration”
“The Trustee shall be awarded judgment against Ms. Erdmann in the amount of those payments less the Amex Account charges for business expenses, for a total judgment amount of $430,462.00”
“The Court concludes the Trustee did not meet his burden to show an actual intent to defraud.”
“he may not pursue this equitable remedy since he has an adequate remedy at law under both Federal and Washington state fraudulent transfer law.”
“The Court declines to award any prejudgment interest”
“the judgment against Ms. Erdmann shall bear interest at the federal judgment rate in effect as of the date of entry of the judgment.”
“Defendant’s discharge under each of 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(2), (a)(3), and (a)(4).”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Ten sampled matters were terminated and one remained pending. The only express outcome was the Jones claim-objection ruling; the other reviewed timelines contained filing labels without attributable disposition text.
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