Opinion
No. 06-20978 Summary Calendar.
May 23, 2007.
Ian M. Cain, Houston, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Blake E. Rizzo, Porter Hedges, Houston, TX, for Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston, USDC No. 4:06-CV-2477.
Before KING, HIGGINBOTHAM, and GARZA, Circuit Judges.
We affirm the district court's judgment affirming the bankruptcy court's judgment avoiding unauthorized post-petition transfers under 11 U.S.C. § 549 in the amount of $85,456.35. Both courts correctly concluded that the funds held in the debtor's bank account on the petition date were property of the estate under 11 U.S.C. § 541 because, at a minimum, legal title to the funds was held by the debtor. The plaintiff-appellant's assertion that the funds at issue were trust funds under the Texas Trust Fund Statute and therefore excludable from property of the estate is, as the trustee argues, premature. The issue of whether a trust exists and the identity of its beneficiaries remains to be litigated. The plaintiff-appellant will have his day in court on that issue. The other matter that the plaintiff-appellant would like to pursue is whether the funds at issue were held by the debtor "as of the commencement of the case." That question, which is fact-intensive, was not raised in the bankruptcy court and is not properly before us.
AFFIRMED.