Marrama v. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, 549 U.S. 365 (2007), is a United States Supreme Court case about bad faith in bankruptcy. Facts On March 11, 2003, Robert Marrama filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7, thereby creating an estate consisting of all his property “wherever located and by whomever held.” Respondent Citizens Bank of Massachusetts was the principal creditor. In his petition, Marrama made a number of statements about his house in Maine that were misleading or inaccurate. While he disclosed that he was the sole beneficiary of the trust that owned the property, he listed its value as zero. He also denied that he had transferred any property other than in the ordinary course of business during the year preceding the filing of his petition. Neither statement was true. In fact, the Maine property had substantial value, and Marrama had transferred it into the newly created trust for no consideration seven months prior to filing his Chapter 13 petition. Marrama later admitted that the purpose of the transfer was to protect the property from his creditors. Procedural history At the hearing, Marrama explained that his misstatements about the Maine property were attributable to a “scrivener’s error” and claimed an absolute right to convert his claim from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13. The Bankruptcy Judge rejected these arguments. Marrama appealed to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit, which affirmed the lower court's ruling. On appeal from the panel, the full First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, rejecting the argument that §706(a) gives a Chapter 7 debtor an absolute right to convert to Chapter 13. Marrama appealed again to the Supreme Court. Because other circuit courts had issued contrary opinions, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve the difference. Decision Issue Does a debtor who acts in bad faith before, or in the course of, filing a Chapter 13 petition by, for example, fraudulently concealing significant assets, thereby forfeit his right to obtain Chapter 13 relief? Parties' arguments Marrama’s argument was that he had an absolute right to convert his case from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13 under the plain language of §706(a) of the Code. Citizens Bank argued that the statute uses the word “may” rather than “shall,” leaving room for the courts, in their discretion, to construe a "bad faith" exception to the general rule. Opinion of the Court Justice Stevens wrote the opinion for