An Assignee Has the Same Right of Non-Dischargeability Under Section 523(a)(2)(B) as the Assignor

(Excerpt) The Bankruptcy Code affords an “honest but unfortunate debtor” a “fresh start” by discharging certain prior financial obligations of the debtor. The bankruptcy process allows debtors to “reorder their affairs, make peace with their creditors, and enjoy ‘a new opportunity in life with a clear field for future effort, unhampered by the pressure and discouragement of preexisting debt.’” However, there are limitations on a debtor’s ability to obtain a discharge. For example, a creditor that lent money to a debtor based on a fraudulent writing can seek a determination that the debt is non-dischargeabile under section 523(a)(2)(B). Issues arise where the original lender assigns the debt to a third party that in turn asserts that the debt is non-dischargeable. Specifically, the debtor may argue that the assignee can assert a non-dischargeability claim because a fraud claim is unassignable and/or the assignee cannot assert reliance since it was the original lender that actually relied on the misrepresentations. Recently, in Pazdzierz v. First American Title Insurance Co., the Sixth Circuit recently held that an assignee of a loan that the debtor allegedly obtained through a fraudulent writing could assert that the debt was non-dischargeable. There, the court rejected the debtor’s argument that the assignee “could not pursue an action under [section] 523(a)(2)(B) because it was an assignee of an interest in the [promissory] notes and, under Michigan law, claims for fraud cannot be assigned.” The court determined the assignee was not asserting a naked claim for fraud, but rather, the assignee was seeking to enforce its rights under the promissory notes, which may be transferred under Michigan law. Moreover, the court held that the assignee could assert the same reliance as the original lender. The Pazdzierz ruling reinforces the idea that a debt purchaser has the same non-dischargeability rights as the original lender, which will allow an assignee to assert that its debt is non-dischargeabile under section 523(a)(2)(B). This Article examines the issue presented in Pazdzierz and is separated into four parts. Part I discusses the standard for asserting that a debt is not dischargeable pursuant to section 523(a)(2)(B). Part II discusses that when fraud is not at issue, an assignee can assert section 523(a)(2)(B) non-dischargeability. Part III discusses how an assignee can assert the same reliance as the assignor under section 523(a)(2)(B). Part IV discusses the implications of Pazdzierz

Levantamento fitossociológico em Floresta Ombrófila Densa Submontana, Município de Guaraqueçaba, localidade de Serra Negra, Paraná.

1 CD-ROM. Autoria bilíngue: CONGRESSO E EXPOSICAO INTERNACIONAL SOBRE FLORESTAS, 5., 1999, Curitiba

The impact of moderate endurance exercise on cardiac telomeres and cardiovascular remodeling in obese rats

Introduction: Hypercaloric nutrition and physical inactivity cause obesity, a potential driver of myocardial apoptosis and senescence that may accelerate cardiac aging. Although physical activity reduces mortality, its impact on myocardial aging is insufficiently understood. Here we investigated the effects of a hypercaloric high-fat diet (HFD) and regular exercise training on cardiac cells telomeres and histomorphometric indices of cardiac aging. Methods: Ninety-six 4-months old female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed for 10 months normal (ND) or a HFD diet. Half of the animals in each group performed 30 min treadmill-running sessions on 5 consecutive days per week. At study end, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area (CSA), interstitial collagen content, vascular density, apoptotic and senescent cells, relative telomere length (RTL), and expression of telomerase-reverse transcriptase (Tert) as marker of telomere-related senescence and apoptosis were analyzed. Results: Compared to ND, the HFD group developed obesity, higher CSA, lower capillary density and tended to have more apoptotic cardiomyocytes and interstitials cells. Myocardial RTL and the expression of Terf-1 and Terf-2 were comparable in sedentary HFD and ND animals. In the HFD group, regular moderate endurance exercise improved myocardial vascularization, but had no effect on CSA or apoptosis. Notably, the combination of exercise and HFD increased senescence when compared to sedentary ND or HFD, and reduced RTL when compared to exercise ND animals. Exercising HFD animals also showed a trend toward higher Tert expression compared to all other groups. In addition, exercise reduced Terf-1 expression regardless of diet. Conclusion: HFD-induced obesity showed no effects on myocardial telomeres and induced only mild morphologic alterations. Summarized, long-term moderate endurance exercise partially reverses HFD-induced effects but may even trigger cardiac remodeling in the context of obesity

Object Detection Through Exploration With A Foveated Visual Field

We present a foveated object detector (FOD) as a biologically-inspired alternative to the sliding window (SW) approach which is the dominant method of search in computer vision object detection. Similar to the human visual system, the FOD has higher resolution at the fovea and lower resolution at the visual periphery. Consequently, more computational resources are allocated at the fovea and relatively fewer at the periphery. The FOD processes the entire scene, uses retino-specific object detection classifiers to guide eye movements, aligns its fovea with regions of interest in the input image and integrates observations across multiple fixations. Our approach combines modern object detectors from computer vision with a recent model of peripheral pooling regions found at the V1 layer of the human visual system. We assessed various eye movement strategies on the PASCAL VOC 2007 dataset and show that the FOD performs on par with the SW detector while bringing significant computational cost savings.Comment: An extended version of this manuscript was published in PLOS Computational Biology (October 2017) at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.100574

Diploma Privilege and the Constitution

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns are affecting every aspect of society. The legal profession and the justice system have been profoundly disrupted at precisely the time when there is an unprecedented need for legal services to deal with a host of legal issues generated by the pandemic, including disaster relief, health law, insurance, labor law, criminal justice, domestic violence, and civil rights. The need for lawyers to address these issues is great but the prospect of licensing new lawyers is challenging due to the serious health consequences of administering the bar examination during the pandemic. State Supreme Courts are actively considering alternative paths to licensure. One such alternative is the diploma privilege, a path to licensure currently used only in Wisconsin. Wisconsin\u27s privilege, limited to graduates of its two in-state schools, has triggered constitutional challenges never fully resolved by the lower courts. As states consider emergency diploma privileges to address the pandemic, they will face these unresolved constitutional issues. This Article explores those constitutional challenges and concludes that a diploma privilege limited to graduates of in-state schools raises serious Dormant Commerce Clause questions that will require the state to tie the privilege to the particular competencies in-state students develop and avenues they have to demonstrate those competencies to the state\u27s practicing bar over three years. Meeting that standard will be particularly difficult if a state adopts an in-state privilege on an emergency basis. States should consider other options, including privileges that do not prefer in-state schools. The analysis is important both for states considering emergency measures and for those that might restructure their licensing after the pandemic

The Bar Exam and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need for Immediate Action

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted life in the United States. Among other challenges, jurisdictions are unlikely to be able to administer the July 2020 bar exam in the usual manner. It is essential, however, to continue licensing new lawyers. Those lawyers are necessary to meet current needs in the legal system. Equally important, the demand for legal services will skyrocket during and after this pandemic. We cannot close doors to the profession at a time when client demand will reach an all-time high.In this brief policy paper, we outline six licensing options for jurisdictions to consider for the Class of 2020. Circumstances will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but we hope that these options will help courts and regulators make this complex decision. These are unprecedented times: We must work together to ensure we do not leave the talented members of Class of 2020 on the sidelines when we need every qualified professional on the field to keep our justice system moving