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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.

The bankruptcy court remanded a state-court lawsuit filed by debtors concerning the basis for the creditors' claim. The issues raised, including state-law causes of action and arguments regarding preclusion, are not unique to bankruptcy and can be decided in state court.

The bankruptcy court remanded a state-court lawsuit filed by debtors concerning the basis for the creditors' claim. The issues raised, including state-law causes of action and arguments regarding preclusion, are not unique to bankruptcy and can be decided in state court.

The debtors did not receive credit counseling within 180 days before filing their petition, instead completing the counseling briefing 20 days post-petition. The 180-day period in § 109(h)(1) is "plain and mandatory," and those who do not comply are ineligible to be debtors under the Bankruptcy Code. As a result, the court dismissed the bankruptcy case without prejudice.

An unsecured junior lien on the debtors' residential real estate may be avoided after the debtors complete Chapter 13 plan payments. The case law in the Eighth Circuit permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

An unsecured junior lien on the debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments. The case law in the Eighth Circuit permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

The bankruptcy court remanded a state-court lawsuit that the debtors had removed in connection with their bankruptcy case. The lawsuit did not deal with bankruptcy issues – it involved breach of contract and tortious interference with business relations – and it was ready to be tried when it was removed from the state court, so the bankruptcy court abstained and equitably remanded the case for trial and liquidation of the claim, which could then be addressed in the debtors' Chapter 11 plan.

An unsecured junior lien on the debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments. The case law in the Eighth Circuit permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

The court granted summary judgment and revoked the debtor's Chapter 7 discharge after the U.S. Trustee learned the debtor had obtained a Chapter 7 discharge in another district less than eight years ago and had made false oaths in connection with the present case. The debtor filed the Nebraska case using a different Social Security number, so the previous bankruptcy did not show up on a PACER search. The debtor also lied at her § 341 meeting when asked if she'd ever filed bankruptcy before, and she failed to disclose certain business interests in her statement of financial affairs. She also failed to disclose more than $20,000 in fines, penalties, and disgorged fees she had been ordered to pay for her unauthorized practice of law while acting as a bankruptcy petition preparer.

An unsecured junior lien on the debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments. The case law in the Eighth Circuit permits wholly unsecured liens to be stripped off.

On the bankruptcy trustee's complaint alleging securities fraud and common-law causes of conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and tortious interference with business relationships/expectancy against the defendant, the bankruptcy court ruled that it had non-core related-to jurisdiction over the matters and, under Executive Benefits Ins. Agency v. Arkison (In re Bellingham Ins. Agency, Inc.), ___ U.S. ___, 134 S. Ct. 2165, 2170 (2014), could enter final judgment with the consent of the parties. Accordingly, the court granted summary judgment to the defendant.

    In ascertaining the applicable choice-of-law rules governing disputes arising from a Nebraska resident's business transactions with a Colorado corporation, the court determined that the "most significant relationship" test favored Colorado because the alleged fraud and wrongful refusal to transfer stock that caused harm to the debtor occurred in Colorado. The adoption of the U.C.C. displaced the bankruptcy estate's common-law claims, so the court dismissed those. Moreover, even if those causes of action were not supplanted by the U.C.C., the claims were not brought within Colorado's three-year statute of limitation and were dismissed as untimely. The trustee unsuccessfully argued that the "continuing tort" doctrine should apply. Likewise, with regard to the trustee's allegation of federal securities law violations, the court found it to be untimely as it was filed outside of the two-year statute of limitations.

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