IFG Leasing Co v. Vavra (In Re Harms)

53 B.R. 134, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 6581
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedMarch 6, 1985
Docket19-04012
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 53 B.R. 134 (IFG Leasing Co v. Vavra (In Re Harms)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
IFG Leasing Co v. Vavra (In Re Harms), 53 B.R. 134, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 6581 (Minn. 1985).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

GREGORY F. KISHEL, Bankruptcy Judge.

The above-captioned matter came on before the undersigned United States Bankruptcy Judge on November 7 and 8, 1984, for trial. Plaintiff appeared by its attorney, Kenneth G. Schivone. Defendants Samuel Darryl Harms, Jr. and Judith Heil-ig Harms appeared personally and by their attorney, Robert L. Kalenda. Upon the evidence adduced at trial, and upon all of the other files, records, and proceedings herein, the Court makes the following as its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order for Judgment.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Defendants-Debtors Samuel Darryl Harms, Jr. and Judith Heilig Harms filed their Petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code in this Court on November 19, 1981. Included among their scheduled unsecured debts was one to Plaintiff IFG Leasing Company (hereinafter “IFG”) in the scheduled amount of $211,259.00. This debt is the subject of these adversary proceedings for determination of discharge-ability; IFG claims that it was incurred on the basis of a false financial statement, in violation of 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(B). 1 It appears that both Samuel Darryl Harms and Judith Heilig Harms executed all documents relating to the transactions between IFG and them, but that Mr. Harms was the only one of the two Debtors to participate in the application and negotiation process with IFG. Therefore, all references in this opinion to “Debtor” shall be references to Mr. Harms as an individual, and all references to “Debtors” shall be to both Mr. and Ms. Harms.

In 1977 and 1978, Debtor engaged in a variety of agriculture-related business activities in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area, including farming operations, irrigation, and the purchase and re-sale of bulk storage tanks. Debtor targeted some of his grain crop production toward the market for distillation into alcohol, for ultimate use in “gasahol”. To expand his farming operations, Debtor decided to purchase additional farmland and equipment and actively sought financing for these purchases. In the late summer or early fall of 1978, Debt- or prepared a personal financial statement for use in applications for credit. This financial statement set forth the values, as of October 1, 1978, for parcels of real estate which Debtor had acquired over the preceding nine years; it also listed the balance due on encumbrances against each *137 parcel. In this proceeding, IFG challenges the values assigned to real estate parcels which shall be referred to as “the Becker farm”, “the Frerich farm”, “the Rice farm”, “the Sufka farm”, and “the 55-acre river parcel”. Debtor had acquired all of these parcels over the preceding nine years. He had acquired the 55-acre river parcel as part of a 60-acre parcel purchased in May, 1975, from which he split off a 254-acre lot for his homestead and a 2'/2-acre parcel for later sale as a residential lot.

As support for the values assigned to the Becker, Frerich, and Rice farms, and the 55-acre river parcel, Debtor used four letters from Calhoun Realty area representative Michael J. Schmitt. (Debtor had entered into a purchase agreement for the Sufka farm before he first prepared the financial statement but had not closed on the sale as of April 26,1978.) These letters set forth Mr. Schmitt’s opinion of the estimated market values of these parcels as of April 26, 1978, “for the purpose of a possible sale”. Mr. Schmitt is a licensed real estate broker. As of April, 1978, he had had seven years of full-time work experience as a real estate salesman and broker in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area, and had primarily handled commercial real estate transactions. He was not licensed or certified as a real estate appraiser and had taken no formal course work in real estate appraisal. In reaching his opinions of the market value of the four parcels in dispute in this proceeding, Mr. Schmitt did a cursory physical inspection of each parcel, tried to find similar parcels of land in the area which had been sold in the recent past, and determined the prices which these similar parcels of land were obtaining in actual sales from other brokers and agents in the area. In rendering his opinion, he was trying to determine a “fair asking price”, which in his opinion was “not necessarily different from the sale price” which would be obtained in an arms-length sale transaction. Mr. Schmitt based his opinion of the 1978 value of the 55-acre river parcel on his prediction that the property would be subdivided and sold as residential lots. He concluded that such development was inev-¡table because of the attractive location of the property and the strong market in riverfront residential property then obtaining in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area. However, he did not consider the effect of county zoning ordinances on the possible developmental uses of the property; specifically, he did not determine whether the county flood plain zoning ordinance would prohibit intensive residential subdivision of the sort assumed by him in his determination of value.

Debtor submitted his financial statement to several prospective lenders, as part of applications for credit. All of these prospective lenders apparently relied on the financial statement and one, Aetna Life Insurance Company (hereinafter “Aetna”), made a loan to Debtor in the amount of $100,000.00, which was secured by a junior mortgage on several of Debtor’s parcels of real estate. Debtor’s loan application with Aetna was pending when he applied for financing from IFG, as was an application for equipment leasing from Dial Leasing Company. The Dial application was for a lease with a total of payments of approximately $180,000.00.

In 1978, IFG was in the business of leasing agricultural equipment to farmers and farm-related businesses, as a form of extension of credit. As a part of his planned expansion, Debtor hoped to obtain grain handling equipment and a grain storage tank and to build a commercial office building on one of his parcels of land. Debtor first learned of IFG’s leasing program through a salesman at a trade show and made the first contact with IFG by making an appointment with Warren Jef-fers, then credit manager in IFG’s Minneapolis office. Debtor applied for credit through IFG and dealt with Mr. Jeffers and Paul Thulin, then IFG’s Minneapolis office manager. In support of his application for credit Debtor submitted his financial statement, his personal income tax returns for several previous years, and credit references from lenders and trade suppliers. IFG also ordered a Dun & Bradstreet report on Mr. Harms’ business operations, *138 which Mr. Jeffers received prior to the final decision on Mr. Harms’ credit-worthiness. During the course of conversations between Debtor and Mr. Thulin, they discussed Debtor’s pending application for mortgage financing with Aetna. Debtor had not listed this application on his financial statement; nor, at any time or in any form, did he reveal his pending application with Dial Leasing Company.

After IFG obtained the Dun & Bradstreet report and credit report, Mr. Jeffers evaluated Debtor’s application. Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Sharp
357 B.R. 760 (N.D. Ohio, 2007)
Midwest Comm. Fed. Cr. Union v. Sharp
357 B.R. 760 (N.D. Ohio, 2007)
Lease Corp. of America v. Harloff (In Re Harloff)
272 B.R. 496 (M.D. Florida, 2001)
Fifth Third Bank v. Collier (In Re Collier)
231 B.R. 618 (N.D. Ohio, 1999)
Groth v. Masegian (In Re Masegian)
134 B.R. 402 (E.D. California, 1991)
Standard Federal Bank v. Compton (In Re Compton)
97 B.R. 970 (N.D. Indiana, 1989)
Commercial Credit Plan v. Carter (In Re Carter)
101 B.R. 702 (E.D. Oklahoma, 1989)
Panuska v. Johnson (In Re Johnson)
80 B.R. 953 (D. Minnesota, 1987)
Lesman v. Mitchell (In Re Mitchell)
70 B.R. 524 (N.D. Illinois, 1987)
Household Finance Corp. v. Howard (In Re Howard)
73 B.R. 694 (N.D. Indiana, 1987)
In Re Crescenzi
69 B.R. 64 (S.D. New York, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 B.R. 134, 1985 Bankr. LEXIS 6581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ifg-leasing-co-v-vavra-in-re-harms-mnb-1985.