After an evidentiary hearing, the court denied a creditor’s complaint objecting to discharge and dischargeability. The debtors are the only two members in an LLC that once owned and operated golf equipment retailer with five locations in Nebraska and Iowa. The plaintiff and his business loaned money to the LLC because the plaintiff was close friends with the debtors’ family. Regular payments were made on the loan until the LLC’s cash-flow issues intensified.

The court dismissed the debtor’s fourth Chapter 13 case for cause and barred him from refiling for 180 days. In each of the cases, the debtor failed to timely file schedules, the statement of financial affairs, and a plan. His intent in filing bankruptcy is to delay or prevent his former wife from collecting a property equalization judgment awarded to her as part of the marital dissolution. This delay is prejudicial to creditors and is cause for dismissal under § 1307(c).

The court granted the trustee’s motion for turnover of a motor vehicle titled in the debtors’ names but allegedly owned by the debtor’s sister. While the debtors argued that the court should discern a resulting trust in favor of the sister because she paid for the vehicle, the court found that Nebraska statutory law is clear and unambiguous in not recognizing a resulting trust in a motor vehicle.

The bankruptcy court granted the defendant-debtor’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint as untimely, with no leave to further amend because the original complaint did not plausibly set forth a § 523(a)(6) claim or contain a § 727(a)(5) claim, so any additional amendment would not relate back.

The court awarded sanctions in the form of attorneys’ fees to the debtor’s wife after determining that the debtor filed his Chapter 7 petition for an improper purpose. The evidence at trial showed that the debtor was not insolvent, was not under the weight of oppressive indebtedness, and did not required a fresh start. The debtor also knowingly and fraudulently represented his assets in his bankruptcy schedules, and the court found that “he did not intend to surrender his property for distribution as required in a Chapter 7 case.”

After a trial, the court denied the Chapter 12 debtors’ open-ended motion to use cash collateral because the debtors could not prove they had a sufficient equity cushion in land, equipment, and livestock available to the secured creditors.

The court granted summary judgment to the Chapter 7 trustee and avoided a preferential transfer. The debtor and a non-debtor jointly purchased a vehicle on an installment contract prior to filing bankruptcy and are both listed as owners on the title. The non-debtor is in possession of the vehicle and makes the payments on it. The seller noted its lien on the certificate of title within 90 days prior to the petition date, which led the trustee to file this adversary proceeding to avoid the lien under § 547(b).

The bankruptcy court granted the debtor’s objection to the claim of a creditor holding a promissory note signed by a member of the debtor in his personal capacity. The creditor had also obtained summary judgment against the individual in a state court lawsuit, where the automatic stay prevented the state court from considering the allegations against and defenses of the debtor.

The plaintiff was injured by the debtor in a bar fight. The debtor pled no contest to criminal charges and was ordered to pay restitution. The plaintiff also obtained an award of damages in a state-court civil lawsuit against the debtor. After a trial, the bankruptcy court excepted the debt from discharge under § 523(a)(6), finding that the debtor acted willfully – by invading a legally protected interest of the plaintiff – and maliciously, because in striking the plaintiff, harm was substantially certain to occur.

After a trial on a creditor’s motion for relief from the automatic stay and the debtor’s objection to that creditor’s proofs of claim, along with a request for valuation and cramdown, the court granted the motion for stay relief because the debtor did not own nor did he have a leasehold or possessory interest in the secured real estate, and no justification was shown for extending the automatic stay to third parties.