The court approved a reduced amount of fees for debtor's counsel after finding the requested fees to be excessive and unreasonable, with very little progress made or benefit provided to the estate during the eight months the case has been pending.

The court granted a secured creditor's motions for sanctions and disgorgement of fees against counsel for a debtor whose case was dismissed for acting in bad faith. The debtor was a successor entity to a previous Chapter 11 debtor. The prior debtor defaulted on its plan payments and the secured creditor obtained relief from the automatic stay.

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.

The court denied the trustee's motion for summary judgment in a preference action because the evidence before the court did not establish the element of insolvency, nor was it clear that the property transferred was property of the debtor.

After a trial on a creditor's motion to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee, with a joinder by the U.S. Trustee, the court granted the motion, finding clear and convincing evidence that such an appointment is warranted under subsections (1) and (2) of 11 U.S.C. § 1104(a). The court identified the debtor's "vendetta" against family members who were more interested in protecting their own financial interests than in helping him reorganize as an obstacle to the debtor in possession's ability to exercise his fiduciary duties and to act in the estate's best interests.

On a motion by non-debtor defendants to withdraw the reference of this adversary proceeding, the bankruptcy court recommended to the district court that the motion be denied. The trustee alleges in this lawsuit that the debtor fraudulently transferred property of the estate to entities ostensibly owned by his relatives.

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.

The court is unable to determine whether or not the defendant in a § 523(a)(2)(B) dischargeability proceeding is entitled to summary judgment because the movant failed to submit any evidence in support of the motion.

The court granted summary judgment to the debtor, ordering that a wholly unsecured junior lien on the debtor's residential real estate may be avoided after the debtor completes Chapter 13 plan payments.

After a trial, the court overruled the debtors' objections to the claims of their lenders, finding that the debtors had ratified the loans and waived any challenges to the loans' validity by virtue of their conduct and course of dealing with the lender. The court also dispensed with the debtors' "mutual mistakes" argument concerning the loan documents, and ruled that the debtors failed to produce sufficient evidence that they are not liable on the loans to overcome the prima facie validity of the lender's claims.