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Opinions

United States Courts Opinions

United States Courts Opinions (USCOURTS) collection is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to provide public access to opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.

The District of Nebraska offers a database of opinions for the years 1997 to current, listed by year and judge. For a more detailed search, enter the keyword or case number in the search box above.

Creditor Granite Re was entitled to payment on its claim for $9 million in premium payments, plus pre-judgment interest at the contract rate from the date each payment was due and post-judgment interest at the rate specified under 28 U.S.C. § 1961.

Defendant filed a jury demand with its answer and counterclaim. By filing a counterclaim seeking damages from the bankruptcy estate, the defendant brought itself within the court's equitable jurisdiction and waived its right to a jury trial.

The court analyzed jury trial rights in bankruptcy and ruled that by filing a counterclaim against the bankruptcy estate in an adversary proceeding, which is akin to filing a claim in the bankruptcy case, the creditor waived its right to a jury trial.

The court sustained the IRS's objection to debtor's motion for discharge, finding the plan language about payments to unsecured creditors internally inconsistent but interpreting it to require specific payments regardless of disposable income.

An unsecured junior lien on debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments. The bankruptcy court's Sanders decision, interpreting Nobelman, permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

While the debtor's failure to list an unsecured debt was not done in bad faith, it nevertheless prejudiced the creditor's ability to file a claim and participate in the plan confirmation process, so the court excepted the debt from discharge.

The debtor's ex-wife moved to have domestic support obligations and property settlement debts excepted from discharge under §§ 523(a)(5) and (a)(15). The debtor challenged only the amount of the debts, which should have been done in state court.

The priority of the plaintiff's security interest in proceeds of a settlement against the builder of the debtor's house depends on whether the funds are characterized as damages for personal injury or as damages for reduced value of the real property.

The debt owed to debtor's former spouse as part of the parties' divorce decree was not a domestic support obligation and didn't need to be treated as such in the debtor's plan. The plan was a good-faith effort by the debtor to satisfy creditors' claims.

An unsecured junior lien on debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments. The bankruptcy court's Sanders decision, interpreting Nobelman, permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

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