In re Diers

320 B.R. 166, 2004 WL 3105940
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedDecember 21, 2004
DocketNo. BK04-82146
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 320 B.R. 166 (In re Diers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Diers, 320 B.R. 166, 2004 WL 3105940 (Neb. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

TIMOTHY J. MAHONEY, Chief Judge.

Hearing was held in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 12, 2004, regarding Filing No. 22, Objection to Exemptions, filed by Trustee Thomas D. Stalnaker and Filing No. 30, Resistance, filed by the debtors. Joseph Badami appeared for the debtors and Thomas Stalnaker appeared as Chapter 7 trustee. This memorandum contains findings of fact and conclusions of law required by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7052 and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52. This is a core proceeding as defined by 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(B).

The daughter of the debtors was killed in an automobile accident. The debtors employed the services of an attorney to prosecute a cause of action against the driver of the vehicle. Prior to filing suit, the matter was settled. Sheryl A. Diers, one of the debtors herein and mother of the decedent, was appointed as personal representative of the estate of the decedent and applied to the County Court of Dodge County, Nebraska, for “Leave to Settle Claim for the Wrongful Death” of her daughter. A court order provided that two insurance companies had agreed to make lump-sum settlements to the estate of the decedent as a “full satisfaction of the [168]*168wrongful death claims that the Personal Representative of the estate ... ha[d]” against either of the companies.

The funds were received by Mr. and Mrs. Diers.

In June 2004, the debtors filed this voluntary petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. They included in Schedule C the remaining $9,500 of the wrongful death settlement payment and claimed that amount as exempt under the Nebraska statutes.

The Chapter 7 trustee has filed an objection to the claimed exemption on the grounds that the debtors are not “dependents” under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1563.02 as construed by In re Borgmann, 176 B.R. 172 (Bankr.D.Neb.1994). The debtors have resisted the objection.

Counsel for the debtors and counsel for the trustee have each filed well-written briefs, and counsel for the debtors has attached the court order approving the settlement and an affidavit of the attorney who represented Mrs. Diers in her capacity as personal representative. The court order and the affidavit are admitted into evidence.

The statutory provision in question with regard to the exemption of the funds is Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1563.02, which provides in relevant part as follows:

(1) ... [A]ll proceeds and benefits, including interest ..., which are paid either in a lump sum or are accruing under any structured settlement ... which lump-sum settlement or periodic payments are made as compensation for personal injuries or death, shall be exempt ... from all claims of creditors of the beneficiary or the beneficiary’s surviving dependents ....

As pointed out by the debtors, the language of this subsection provides that a debtor may take an exemption in the wrongful death payment only if: (1) his or her right to receive a payment is on account of the death of an individual; (2) he or she was a beneficiary of the settlement; or (3) he or she is the beneficiary’s surviving dependent. There is no question that the payment was received on account of the death of the decedent. There is also no question that the debtors are not surviving dependents of the decedent. The question then becomes whether the debtors are beneficiaries of the settlement.

In Nebraska, there are two types of causes of action which vest in and can be brought only by the personal representative of a decedent’s estate. One is governed by Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1401 et seq.1 and Neb. Rev. Stat § 25-3222. Those two statutory provisions allow a cause of action held by a person who is fatally injured to be prosecuted by the personal representative of the decedent. The cause of action is referred to as a “survival action.” See [169]*169Rhein v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 210 Neb. 321, 314 N.W.2d 19 (1982); Murray v. Omaha Transfer Co., 95 Neb. 175, 145 N.W. 360 (1914). In other words, when a person is injured by the negligent act of another, a cause of action accrues to the injured person and his or her death does not extinguish that cause of action. Eli’s, Inc. v. Lemen, 256 Neb. 515, 591 N.W.2d 543 (1999). A survival action is not a new cause of action but is a continuation in the deceased’s personal representative of the cause of action which accrued to the deceased under the common law. Webster v. City of Hastings, 59 Neb. 563, 81 N.W. 510 (1900). The purpose of the survival action is to recover the loss to the decedent’s estate resulting from the tort. See Murray, supra (when plaintiff dies from injuries for which he brought suit, administrator is entitled to recover for benefit of estate what plaintiff would have been entitled to if he had survived).

In contrast, Neb.Rev.Stat. §§ 30-809 & -810 provide a cause of action, not to the decedent and the decedent’s estate, but to a personal representative of the decedent for the exclusive benefit of the widow or widower and next of kin.3

Under the law of Nebraska, an action brought under Sections 30-809 and 30-810 is referred to as a wrongful death action. See Stevenson v. Richardson County, 9 F.R.D. 437 (D.Neb.1949) (this section was created not as an administrable asset of the decedent’s estate generally, but rather for the direct and exclusive benefit of the widow or widower and next of kin); Mabe v. Gross, 167 Neb. 593, 94 N.W.2d 12 (1959) (“next of kin” means the class of persons nearest in degree of blood surviving the deceased).

Returning now to the issue of whether the lump-sum settlement received by the parents of the decedent is exempt under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1563.02, we have guidance from an opinion by Judge Minahan in the matter of In re Borgmann, 176 B.R. 172 (Bankr.D.Neb.1994). In that case, the debtors, parents of a decedent killed in an automobile collision, received a lump-sum settlement paid after the personal representative of the daughter’s estate filed an action against the other driver involved in the automobile accident. Before the bankruptcy case was filed, the personal representative distributed the net proceeds of the litigation to the debtors. At the time the bankruptcy case of the debtors was filed, there remained $15,000 of the settlement proceeds.

[170]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
320 B.R. 166, 2004 WL 3105940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-diers-nebraskab-2004.