a letter from their personal injury counsel advising that 25% of the Settlement Proceeds could be applied to Mrs. Graves’ loss of consortium claim. Memorandum of Opposition, Exhibit A. Legal Discussion The only issue before this Court is whether as a matter of law Mrs. Graves is entitled to apply her § 522(d)(ll)(D) exemption to the Settlement Proceeds. To decide this issue, this Court must determine whether any portion of the Settlement Proceeds constitutes property of Mrs. Graves’ bankruptcy estate. A. The Debtors’ Bankruptcy Estates To claim an exemption in property, a debtor must have an interest in the property. “[T]he sine qua non for claiming an exemption is that the item must first be property of the debtor’s estate.” In re Bippert, 311 B.R. 456, 460-61 (Bankr.W.D.Tex.2004) (<HOLDING>) (emphasis in original). Pursuant to section
holding that a debt or could only exempt an item of property that exceeded the exemption limit by paying the difference between the value of the property and the exemption limit to the estate holding that because property was no longer property of the estate the court could not order turnover recognizing that exempt property ceases to be property of the estate holding that the debtor could retain exempt property because it was not property of the estate holding that spouse could not claim exemption in property that was only property of other spouses estate