Swenby v. Swenby (In re Swenby)

525 B.R. 89
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedDecember 22, 2014
DocketCase No. 13-15958; Adv. No. 14-00048
StatusPublished

This text of 525 B.R. 89 (Swenby v. Swenby (In re Swenby)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swenby v. Swenby (In re Swenby), 525 B.R. 89 (Wis. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

ROBERT D. MARTIN, UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGE

Defendant Kevin Swenby filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy on December 18, 2014. The case was later converted to chapter 7. Plaintiff, Kendall Swenby, is the defendant’s brother and personal representative for their deceased mother’s estate (Opal Meicher). Kendall Swenby and the Estate of Opal Meicher filed this adversary proceeding to determine the dischargeability of two state court judgments: One for $32,813.80 in favor of Kendall on an unjust enrichment claim, the other, in favor of the Estate for a breach of fiduciary duty to Opal Meicher and wrongful conversion of funds in the amount of $88,000.00.

Plaintiffs argue the state court judgments should be non-dischargeable in bankruptcy pursuant to § 523(a)(2), (a)(4), and (a)(6). They have not pursued a claim under § 727(a)(3) which was stated in their complaint.

Prior to trial, Plaintiffs filed a summary judgment motion, arguing issue preclusion (“collateral estoppel”) by virtue of the state courts’ rulings. I denied the motion noting the state court rulings generally made only conclusions of law and did not include findings of fact. Thus, the rulings would not be preclusive, as it was not possible to determine if the factual issues sought to be precluded had been necessarily litigated and determined.

The standards to applying collateral estoppel are well established. “Indeed, though the federal courts may look to the common law or to the policies supporting res judicata and collateral estoppel in assessing the preclusive effect of decisions of other federal courts, Congress has specifically required all federal courts to give preclusive effect to state-court judgments whenever the courts of the State from which the judgments emerged would do so ...” Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 96, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980).

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has adopted a five-factor “test” for deciding whether to give a finding collateral estoppel effect. DeGuelle v. Camilli, 724 F.3d 933, 937 (7th Cir.2013) (citing In re Estate of Rille ex rel. Rille, 300 Wis.2d 1, 728 N.W.2d 693, 707 (2007)). “No weight is assigned to any factor; the weighting is in the discretion of the trial court.” Id. The factors are:

1) Could the party against whom preclusion is sought have obtained review of the judgment as a matter of law;
2) Is the question one of law that involves two distinct claims or intervening contextual shifts in the law;
3) Do significant differences in the quality or extensiveness of proceedings be[92]*92tween the two courts warrant relitigation of the issue;
4) Have the burdens of persuasion shifted such that the party seeking preclusion had a lower burden of persuasion in the first trial than in the second; and
5) Are matters of public policy and individual circumstances involved that would render the application of collateral es-toppel to be fundamentally unfair, including inadequate opportunity or incentive to obtain a full and fair adjudication in the initial action?

Id.

That clear standard is to be applied to judgments in which the findings which preclude later evidence are clearly articulated or reasonably discernable. See generally Id. In this case, the state courts did not make specific findings of fact which would preclude retrying the issues. The doctrine of collateral estoppel requires specific findings of fact to determine if a fact relied on was essential to the judgment. See Kearney v. Milwaukee County, 2006 WL 3147408, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79527 (E.D.Wis. Oct. 30, 2006) (“The state circuit court merely concluded without any analysis that Kearney’s discharge was not discriminatory. This conclusion of discrimination is not a factual determination to which issue preclusion attaches. See, e.g., U.S. Gypsum Co. v. Indiana Gas Co., Inc., 350 F.3d 623, 629 (7th Cir.2003)(finding that issue preclusion applies to “concrete issues,” not “lofty ... levelfs] of generality”).”). However, plaintiffs continued to argue for use of the trial transcript and the doctrine of collateral estoppel to find the debt non-dischargeable.

At the outset of trial, all exhibits identified by the parties were admitted into evidence on consent. The exhibits included transcripts of the state court trials. Plaintiffs argued, contrary to my recommendation, they did not need to submit any additional evidence because all of the necessary information was in the state court transcripts and the testimony in the transcript was exactly what would have been presented at trial. Furthermore, they argued for collateral estoppel (“issue preclusion”) despite the fact I had already determined that I could not infer disposi-tive facts from the state court judgments. Counsel for Plaintiffs, read portions of the transcript he believed supported the non-dischargeability claims, then rested. Debtor moved for judgment at the close of plaintiffs’ case. I made preliminary findings that no trust was established as required under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(4) and that the debtor did not stipulate to using the state trial transcripts in lieu of presentation of evidence. I also denied any § 727 claims for want of prosecution.

In their post-trial brief, Plaintiffs contested my determination that the state court trial transcript would not suffice because Defendant had not stipulated to its use. The transcripts were admitted into evidence without specific limitation on their use. However, that did not preclude limitations on substituting the testimony of witnesses recorded therein when offered for the truth of what was said. Nor did it overcome the defendant’s right to confront the witnesses in this (as opposed to a prior) case. So, without the consent of the debtor’s counsel to those uses of the transcript, I limited the purposes for which they were admitted and so stated on the record.

Plaintiffs also argued Grogan v. Garner allows the bankruptcy court to use evidence presented in a previous trial to estop an opponent from litigating even if there was no specific finding of facts. It does not.

In Grogan v. Garner creditors filed an adversary complaint against a chapter 11 [93]*93debtor seeking a non-dischargeability determination. Grogan v. Garner, 498 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 654, 112 L.Ed.2d 755 (1991). Plaintiffs assert the bankruptcy court in Grogan found all of the required elements had been proved by the portions of the record submitted, implying that portions of the record meant parts of the trial transcript. They rely on the following passage:

Petitioners then filed a complaint in the bankruptcy proceeding requesting a determination that their claim based on the fraud judgment should be exempted from discharge pursuant to § 523. App. 3-4. In support of their complaint, they introduced portions of the record in the fraud case.

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

Related

Davis v. Aetna Acceptance Co.
293 U.S. 328 (Supreme Court, 1934)
Allen v. McCurry
449 U.S. 90 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Grogan v. Garner
498 U.S. 279 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Estate of Rille Ex Rel. Rille v. Physicians Insurance Co.
2007 WI 36 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2007)
Mumm v. Adametz (In Re Adametz)
53 B.R. 299 (W.D. Wisconsin, 1985)
Henson v. Garner (In Re Garner)
73 B.R. 26 (W.D. Missouri, 1987)
Amundson v. Slaton (In Re Slaton)
469 B.R. 814 (W.D. Wisconsin, 2012)
DeGuelle v. Camilli
724 F.3d 933 (Seventh Circuit, 2013)
Vieth v. Williams (In re Williams)
478 B.R. 362 (E.D. Wisconsin, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
525 B.R. 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swenby-v-swenby-in-re-swenby-wiwb-2014.