Justia U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The bankruptcy appellate panel dismissed debtor's appeal based on lack of jurisdiction, because debtor failed to show that she was a person aggrieved by the bankruptcy court's order overruling her objection to the trustee's final report. Therefore, debtor did not have standing to appeal the bankruptcy court's order. In this case, debtor did not challenge in her objection, nor on appeal, the amount the trustee reported had been returned to her following dismissal of her case. Furthermore, debtor has not demonstrated that the bankruptcy court's order directly and adversely affected her pecuniarily. View "Marshall v. McCarty" on Justia Law

The Garvens contracted with Debtor and DRMP for home repairs and improvements. Unhappy with the results, the Garvens sued Debtor and DRMP in state court and obtained a default judgment against them. At the Garvens' request, the sheriff levied a writ of execution on Debtor's ownership interest in DRMP and scheduled an execution sale. At the execution sale, the Garvens purchased Debtor's ownership interest and became the sole owners of DRMP. Upon learning of the execution sale, Debtor allegedly began withdrawing assets from DRMP and transferring them to a different entity. Debtor then filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. The bankruptcy court lifted the automatic stay to allow the Garvens and DRMP to commence a state court action against Debtor and related third parties to avoid the allegedly fraudulent transfers. The Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel dismissed an appeal. The Garvens and DRMP filed their motion for relief from the automatic stay on June 5, 2019. The bankruptcy court rendered its final decision on September 19, 2019, more than 60 days after the motion was filed. The 60-day period was not extended, so the automatic stay was terminated by operation of law on August 5, 2019, rendering the order lifting the stay superfluous. View "Paczkowski v. Garven" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the bankruptcy appellate panel's judgment upholding the bankruptcy court's determination that debtor's interest in his ex-wife's IRA and 401(k) retirement accounts that were awarded to him after the dissolution of marriage were not exempt as retirement funds. The court explained that debtor's interest in his ex-wife's IRA and 401(k) accounts lacked most of the legal characteristics of ordinary "retirement funds." View "Lerbakken v. Sieloff and Associates, P.A." on Justia Law

The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed the bankruptcy court's dismissal of debtor's Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. The panel held that the bankruptcy court properly dismissed the Chapter 13 case as void because it was a violation of the automatic stay in his pending Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. In this case, by filing his Chapter 13 petition, debtor attempted to exercise control over his interest in the property, which was undisputed to be property of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate. View "In re: Benitez" on Justia Law

The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed the bankruptcy court's grant of debtor's motion to avoid a judicial lien. The panel upheld the bankruptcy court's determination that the value of the real estate at issue was fixed on the date that the petition was filed and thus the pre-restoration value of the property was the appropriate value to use in the avoidance analysis. The panel rejected the creditor's claims of unjust enrichment and laches. View "Waltrip v. Sawyers" on Justia Law

The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed the bankruptcy court's order dismissing debtor's request for relief for alleged violations of the automatic stay and discharge injunction. In this case, debtor's 2019 request did not clearly identify the matters at issue and how they were related to specific automatic stay or discharge injunction violations. Furthermore, debtor provided nothing to show that she was complaining of debts that were derived from something other than matters concerning the children and incidental court orders. Therefore, the panel held that debtor failed to state a cause of action based on an automatic stay violation and a discharge injunction violation. View "Doughty v. Douglas" on Justia Law

Appellant attempted to appeal two bankruptcy court orders to the district court by filing a single notice of appeal. The district court struck the notice of appeal as violating the local bankruptcy court rule.The Eighth Circuit held that, although Local Bankruptcy Rule 8001(A) was valid, the district court erred by treating the rule as a jurisdictional requirement without providing appellant an opportunity to cure the defect by filing separate notices of appeal for each order and paying the accompanying fees. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Briggs v. Rendlen" on Justia Law

The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed the bankruptcy court's orders granting a motion to dismiss an adversary proceeding; denying a motion for an extension of time to file a motion to reconsider and for rehearing; and denying a motion to declare that plaintiffs have a right to appeal as a right or to extend the time to appeal.The panel held that plaintiffs failed to show excusable neglect under Bankruptcy Rule 8002(d)(1)(B), and thus the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to appeal out of time. The panel also held that, because plaintiffs did not file a motion of the type listed in Rule 8002(b)(1), nor a motion for extension of time in which to file a notice of appeal under Rule 8002(d)(1)(A), the period for appealing the dismissal order expired without a timely appeal being filed. Finally, the court held that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to declare that plaintiffs appeal was timely. View "Conway v. Heyl" on Justia Law

After the trustee discovered that debtor had withdrawn over $30,000 from an account more than one year prior to entering bankruptcy and had placed the cash in a home safe, the trustee objected to debtor's amendment of his schedules to reflect the cash as exempt. The bankruptcy court overruled the objection and held that the Bankruptcy Code did not grant the court the authority to bar an amendment to claimed exemptions based on bad faith. The bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed.The Eight Circuit affirmed and held that Law v. Siegel -- which held that bankruptcy courts could use neither statutory nor inherent sources of broad, general authority to contravene specific statutory provisions -- abrogated Kaelin v. Bassett -- which held that the bankruptcy court has the discretion to deny the amendment of exemptions if the amendment is proposed in bad faith or would prejudice creditors. Therefore, Law precluded the denial of an amendment to a schedule of claimed exemptions based on debtor's bad faith. View "Rucker v. Belew" on Justia Law

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel dismissed debtor's appeal of the bankruptcy court's order granting the trustee's motion to approve her proposed sale of certain assets to the bank. The panel held that the sale authorized by the bankruptcy court could not be undone and thus the appeal was moot. Furthermore, the panel held that debtor did not have a financial stake in the bankruptcy court's order and thus lacked standing to appeal the order. View "Belew v. Rucker" on Justia Law