Justia Bankruptcy Opinion Summaries

Mello appealed the bankruptcy court's order confirming debtors' second amended plan without a hearing. The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that the bankruptcy court was in the best position to determine when an evidentiary hearing on the issue of good faith was necessary. The panel also held that the bankruptcy court did not err in overruling Mello's objections and confirming debtors' second amended plan. View "Mello v. Wojciechowski" on Justia Law

Agriprocessors wired funds covering overdrafts at Luana Savings Bank in the 90 days before the company filed for bankruptcy. After the bankruptcy court found that the bankruptcy trustee could recover some deposits, the trustee and the bank cross-appealed. The Eighth Circuit held that the true overdrafts were debt because the bank made an unsecured loan and/or extension of credit to Agriprocessors and thus Agriprocessors was legally obligated to the bank for the amount of the overdrafts. Therefore, the district court correctly found that the trustee could recover Agriprocessors' true-overdraft-covering deposits from the bank. Furthermore, the payments did not qualify as contemporaneous exchanges for new value, debts and transfers in the ordinary course of business, nor transfers creating security interests. The court affirmed the bankruptcy court's decision to base the bank's liability on the uncorrected balances; the bankruptcy court did not err in finding a netting agreement; and the transfer was not for or on account of an antecedent debt owed by the debtor before such transfer was made, and thus not voidable; View "Sarachek v. Luana Savings Bank" on Justia Law

General Mills filed an adversary proceeding to determine the dischargeability of a debt in debtor's Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Applying Minnesota law to its preclusion analysis, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the bankruptcy court's rejection of debtor's claim preclusion defense. In this case, because all claims between codefendants were dismissed without prejudice by stipulation, there was no final adjudication on the merits. Furthermore, because General Mills' adversary claim arose from its rights and remedies with respect to debtor's execution of a promissory note secured by the property at issue, there was no final adjudication of that issue. The court affirmed the bankruptcy court as to issue preclusion as well. The court rejected debtor's claim of judicial estoppel where General Mills did not take inconsistent positions. The court also held that General Mills' fraud claims were not barred by the statute of limitations; rejected debtor's challenges to the bankruptcy court's evidentiary rulings; and affirmed the bankruptcy court's finding that debtor's debt was not dischargeable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Hernandez v. General Mills Federal Credit Union" on Justia Law

The bankruptcy trustee filed suit against Pennie Glasser, seeking to recover from her, as a preference, a payment made by debtor to her. Glass is the former wife of an insider of debtor, as well as a minor investor and employee of debtor at the time of payment. The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that Glasser was not an insider of debtor and the payment was not an avoidable preference under 11 U.S.C. 547(b) and Minnesota Statute 513.45(b). In this case, Glasser did not have sufficient closeness to be treated as an insider. View "Seaver v. Glasser" on Justia Law