The following excerpt is from Emmert v. Taggart (In re Taggart), 548 B.R. 275 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2016):
fee claim arises. "Under that standard, even if the underlying claim arose prepetition, the claim for fees incurred postpetition on account of that underlying claim is deemed to have arisen postpetition if the debtor returned to the fray postpetition by voluntarily and affirmatively acting to commence or resume the litigation with the creditor." Bechtold v. Gillespie (In re Gillespie), 516 B.R. 586, 591 (9th Cir. BAP 2014) (citing In re Ybarra, 424 F.3d at 102627 ). The rule is invoked to prevent a debtor from using the discharge injunction as a sword that enables him or her to undertake risk-free postpetition litigation at others' expense. Id. (citing In re Ybarra, 424 F.3d at 1026 ). "The Ybarra rule applies regardless of whether the litigation begins prepetition or postpetition, regardless of the nature of the underlying claim, and regardless of the forum in which the postpetition litigation takes place." Id. at 59192 (citing In re Ybarra, 424 F.3d at 102324 ).
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