Banner Bank v. Robertson (In re Robertson)
Banner Bank v. Robertson (In re Robertson)
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM DECISION
Defendant Michael Lynn Robertson borrowed money from certain predecessors in interest to Banner Bank (Plaintiff or Bank). When he defaulted, the Bank foreclosed on real property securing the loans and obtained a deficiency judgment against the Defendant in state court. After he filed bankruptcy, the Bank filed a complaint to except that deficiency judgment from discharge pursuant to 11
I. JURISDICTION
The Court’s jurisdiction over this adversary proceeding is properly invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1334 and § 157(b)(1). This matter is a core proceeding within the definition of 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I), and the Court may enter a final order. Venue is appropriate under 28 U.S.C. § 1409.
II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The Court finds that there is no genuine dispute as to the following facts.
That same month, the Defendant applied for a $230,000 commercial loan from the Bank. In connection with that application, he provided a personal financial statement on an SBA form and what he claimed to be his 2005 tax return to the Bank. The financial statement listed the Defendant’s annual salary as $120,000.
Based in part on the purported tax return, the Bank approved the application, and the Defendant signed a promissory note for $230,000 on August 21, 2006. The note was secured by a deed of trust encumbering real property in Springville, Utah. Shortly thereafter, in October 2006, the Defendant applied to augment the loan by an additional $270,000. The Bank also granted that application.
In August 2007, the Defendant applied for an additional loan of $250,000 from the Bank. In connection with the loan application, the Defendant provided a new personal financial statement and what he held out as his 2006 tax return to the Bank. The financial statement represented that the Defendant’s net income was $120,000.
Pursuant to the Defendant’s ongoing credit relationship with the Bank, he provided- what he claimed to be his 2007 tax return to the Bank. Like the prior years’ tax returns, the purported 2007 return represented that the Defendant had signed it under penalty of perjury. It also represented that the Defendant’s income for the 2007 taxable year was $134,008, his adjusted gross income was $126,168, and that he had made an estimated tax payment of $20,000. That return was not the one that the Defendant filed with the IRS.’An IRS transcript for the Defendant’s 2007 taxable year shows taxable income of $17,112, adjusted gross income of $17,112, and taxes paid of $0, The Defendant also provided additional personal financial statements to the Bank on December 4, 2007, September 4, 2008, and January 14,2009, which represented that his salary was $150,000, $140,000, and $120,000, respectively. He signed the statements, certifying that they were true and accurate.
The two promissory notes matured and on April 23, 2009 they were consolidated into a single note in the principal amount of $669,726.32, which was secured by the two deeds of trust encumbering the Springville property. Subsequently, the Bank came into possession of a letter written by the Defendant to representatives of Utah Community Credit Union
On September 22, 2010, the Bank sent the Defendant a letter informing him that the ACH agreement between it and Insta-polypay would be terminated effective October 13, 2010. Thereafter, the Defendant defaulted on the consolidated note. The Bank foreclosed the trust deeds and sold the Springville property in June 2011 and commenced a deficiency action in Utah state court against the Defendant. The Defendant answered and asserted counterclaims for, among other things, breach of contract arising from the termination of the ACH agreement.
The following day the Defendant moved for a new trial, which the court denied. The Defendant then appealed the court’s judgment to the Utah Court of Appeals, where the appeal is currently pending. The Defendant filed a voluntary petition under chapter 7 on February 3,2014.
III. DISCUSSION
A. The Parties’ Motions to Strike
Before reaching the merits of the parties’ cross-motions, the Court must briefly address four motions to strike. The Plaintiff filed three of the motions; they request that the Court strike or disregard (1) the Defendant’s first declaration and certain related exhibits, (2) paragraphs 3-5 of the declaration of Jay Lynn Knight; and (3) portions of the Defendant’s second declaration and certain related exhibits. The Defendant’s motion seeks to strike the declaration of Wayne Wagstaff. All four motions have been thoroughly briefed.
The Court does not need to undertake a detailed analysis of the Plaintiff’s motions to strike because even if the Court denied them and considered the declarations and exhibits in question, the Court’s decision would remain unchanged, The declarations and exhibits that are the subjects of the Plaintiffs motions to strike do not raise genuine disputes as to any material fact so as to preclude entry of summary judgment in the Plaintiffs favor.
The Defendant’s motion to strike argues that the declaration of Wayne Wagstaff should be stricken because the Plaintiff never disclosed Mr. Wagstaff as a witness under Rule 26, the declaration is not admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence, and Mr. Wagstaff lacks personal knowledge of the Bank’s lending procedures.
The Court notes that the Defendant’s motion to strike Mr. Wagstaffs declaration was filed on October 20, 2016, five days before the hearing at which the parties announced the stipulation regarding the initial disclosure of Mr. Wagstaff. The Court considers the part of the Defendant’s motion that seeks to strike the declaration based on the Plaintiffs failure to disclose Mr. Wagstaff mooted by the stipulation. As for the Defendant’s evidentiary objections to the declaration, the Court has examined all of the paragraphs as to which
B. Legal Standard Under Rule 56
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(a), made applicable in adversary proceedings by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7056, the Court is required to “grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
The moving party bears the burden to show that it is entitled to summary judgment,
When considering a motion for summary judgment, the Court views the record and draws all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmov-ing party,
C. Legal Standard Under § 523(a)(2)(B)
Section 523(a)(2)(B) excepts from discharge any debt “for money, property, services, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by-
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(B) use of a statement in writing—
(i) that is materially false;
(ii) respecting the debtor’s or an insider’s financial condition;
(iii) on which the creditor to whom the debtor is liable for such money, property, services, or credit reasonably relied; and
(iv) that the debtor caused to be made or published with intent to deceive.”
To prevail on a claim under § 523(a)(2)(B), the creditor must prove each element by a preponderance of the evidence.
In order for a statement to be “in writing,” it must “have been written by the debtor, signed by the debtor, or written by someone else but adopted and used by the debtor.”
As for the next element, the Tenth Circuit has adopted the “strict interpretation” of the phrase “respecting the debtor’s ,.. financial condition”; written statements concerning the debtor’s financial condition “are those that purport to present a picture of the debtor’s overall financial health.”
Reliance under § 523(a)(2)(B)(iii) must be actual reliance.
As for the final element, a debtor’s intent to deceive will rarely exist in the form of direct evidence. Instead, “[i]ntent to deceive may be inferred from the totality of the circumstances, including a reckless disregard for the truth.”
D. The Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment
The Defendant’s motion does not attempt to show affirmative evidence negating an essential element of the Bank’s claims or the absence of sufficient evidence to establish those claims, a common approach for defendants at summary judgment.
The unclean hands doctrine—also called the clean-hands doctrine—stands for the general “principle that a party cannot seek equitable relief or assert an equitable defense if that party has violated an equitable principle, such as good faith.”
The Court does not need to decide whether the unclean hands doctrine applies in exception to discharge proceedings because the Bank does not have unclean hands. The scope of the unclean hands doctrine is limited; it “only applies when the claimant’s misconduct is directly related to the merits of the controversy between the parties, that is, when the tawdry acts in some measure affect the equitable relations between the parties in respect of something brought before the court.”
The problem for the Defendant is that the state court has already ruled on the propriety of the termination of the ACH agreement and the foreclosure sale. And that ruling was unequivocal: the Bank “fully complied with the termination terms of the ACH Agreement” and the “foreclosures of the Trust Deeds were lawfully conducted in compliance with the terms of the Trust Deeds and Utah law.”
Because the state court determined that the Bank properly terminated the ACH agreement and lawfully foreclosed the trust deeds, the doctrine of issue preclusion prevents the Defendant from arguing otherwise in this Court.
E. The Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment
At the outset, it is undisputed that the Bank loaned money to the Defendant. But the Defendant asserts that there is a genuine dispute over whether the Bank has a claim against him that can be excepted from discharge because the judgment entered against him in state court is on appeal. He argues that the judgment is invalid because the Bank improperly terminated the ACH agreement. For the reasons stated in section III.D, supra, the Court cannot revisit that judgment. As it currently stands, the judgment is valid and is entitled to full faith and credit. Therefore, the Court concludes that the Defendant owes a debt to the Bank based on that judgment.
In addition, the first and third elements of § 523(a)(2)(B) are established easily. Because the Defendant prepared . and signed the documents purporting to be tax returns that he submitted to the Bank, those returns qualify as statements “in writing.” And as established by case law, tax returns are statements respecting a debtor’s financial condition.
The remaining elements require more elaboration. Whether the purported tax returns the Defendant submitted to the Bank were materially false is the subject of significant contention. The Defendant admits that he provided the Bank with tax returns that were not the same as those he filed with the IRS, and he does not dispute that the income totals on the returns and personal financial statements given to the Bank are significantly larger than those on the returns filed with the IRS. Even so, he argues that the tax returns at issue in this case are not materially false because they reflected his true financial condition.
In support of this argument, the Defendant asserts that the income figures on the returns he submitted to the Bank are supported by Annual Charitable Cash Contributions Official Tax Summary Statements from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Church), which show the Defendant’s contributions to the Church from 2005-08.
The 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 statements show charitable contributions of $16,801, $16,420, $15,482, and $17,505, respectively. The Defendant asserts that they show his annual tithing and thus represent 10% of his income. But the statements do not, by themselves, have any
The Court concludes that the tax returns the Defendant submitted to the Bank were materially false for two reasons: They were not the ones he filed with the IRS and the income listed on the returns was significantly larger than that on the returns filed with the IRS. As for the first reason, the Defendant admitted to creating réturns with higher listed incomes because banks refused to loan him money when he showed them the returns with lower listed incomes, is., the ones filed with- the IRS. Even when he explained the methodology behind the returns to the banks and assured them he was making money, they still would not approve the loan applications. In this case, the Bank requested the Defendant’s tax returns as part of the loan application process. But the Defendant did not provide his tax returns; he only supplied documents that purported to be his tax returns. Because they were not the returns that he had filed with the IRS, they were not his tax returns by definition. Although the Defendant asserts that these purported returns reflected his true financial condition, the Court disagrees. A properly-completed tax return filed with the IRS should sufficiently reflect a debtor’s true financial condition. Were it otherwise, lending institutions would not request IRS-filed tax returns in connection with loan applications, but rather the secondary returns like those the Defendant gave to the Bank. But this is not reality. The world imagined in the Defendant’s argument—one in which entities keep two sets of returns, one for tax purposes, the other for lending purposes—borders on the absurd. The purported tax returns the Defendant provided to the Bank are materially false simply because they are not the ones he filed with the IRS and are therefore not his tax returns.
As for the second reason, loan application documents that represent that a debt- or’s income is substantially different from the debtor’s income as stated in tax returns filed with taxing authorities constitute materially false statements.
Accordingly, because banks in general would not loan money to the Defendant until he created the higher-income returns, and the Bank in particular would not have loaned money to him if he had provided it with the returns he filed with the IRS, the purported returns at issue in this case are materially false statements that objectively would, and subjectively did, affect the Bank’s decision to make the loans to the Defendant.
On the issue of reliance, the Defendant argues that the Bank’s reliance on the tax returns was not reasonable because it failed to perform a sufficient investigation. He notes that if the Bank-had immediately requested that he sign a request to obtain transcripts of his tax returns, as it did later, the Bank could have discovered the discrepancy in income before making the loans. In response, the Bank argues that it was entitled to assume that the tax returns were those that the Defendant had filed with the IRS and that requesting transcripts from the IRS would be above and beyond its duty to investigate the Defendant’s representations.
The Court agrees with the Bank. “Reasonable reliance was made an element in 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(B) to prevent unscrupulous creditors from inducing debtors to submit false statements so that they can be later used to object to the debtor’s discharge.”
Here, the Court has determined that the purported tax returns the Defendant submitted to the Bank were materially false. Therefore, the Bank was not required to undertake a searching investigation in order for its reliance to be reasonable. Under the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court concludes that the Bank’s reliance was reasonable. There were no red flags to alert the Bank that the income figures on the purported tax returns were erroneous. Instead, the income figures on a given year’s return approximated the income and salary figures the Defendant provided on the personal financial statement for that same year. And each subsequent year of submitted tax returns and financial statements corroborated the one before it; the Defendant’s asserted income remained relatively constant during the period in question. Reasonable lenders in these circumstances are not required to skeptically presume, without evidence, that borrowers’ tax returns are not the same as those they filed with the IRS. To impose a requirement on lenders that they obtain
The Court also concludes that the Bank’s reliance was actual. The Bank has established that it relied, at least in part, on the information provided in the Defendant’s purported tax returns in deciding whether to loan him money.
The Defendant’s intent to deceive is inferred from his history of tax return preparation. After banks repeatedly refused to offer him loans when given the lower-income tax returns, the Defendant created tax returns that purported to show higher income in order to induce banks to make loans that they otherwise would not have made. These higher-income tax returns were successful in getting banks to loan him money, and they were the ones that the Defendant provided to the Bank in order to obtain the loans at issue. The Defendant’s intent is clear: The higher-income returns were simply a means to an end. The Defendant knew that banks would not loan him money without the higher-income returns. So he showed the Bank the higher-income returns and withheld the lower-income returns, knowing, based on past experience, that the Bank would find the latter relevant and would likely turn him down if it saw those returns.
Accordingly, based on the undisputed facts the Court finds that the Plaintiff has proved each of the elements of its claim under § 523(a)(2)(B) by a preponderance of the evidence and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on that claim. Therefore, the Court does not need to address the Plaintiffs alternative claim for relief under § 523(a)(2)(A). As for the amount of the debt excepted from discharge—the Plaintiff had requested punitive damages in its complaint, but indicated at oral argument that it would be willing to withdraw that request if it were granted summary judgment excepting the state court judgment from the Defendant’s discharge. Because the Plaintiff has prevailed on summary judgment, the Court considers the punitive damages request withdrawn. The Court will except the debt owing under the state court judgment, with interest according to the judgment’s terms, from the Defendant’s discharge. As required by the judgment, such amount shall be augmented by the Plaintiffs reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs in enforcing the judgment, which the Plaintiff must prove by affidavit and to which the Defendant will have an opportunity to object.
IV. CONCLUSION
The Defendant’s claim that the Bank has unclean hands is precluded by the
. All subsequent statutory references are to title 11 of the United States Code unless otherwise indicated.
. Some of these facts are the subject of the Plaintiff's motions to strike. As noted in section III.A, infra, granting or denying those motions would not change the Court's decision. Therefore, the Court includes these facts here to better flesh out the history between the parties.
. Far West Bank was subsequently acquired by AmericanWest Bank, which later merged with Banner Bank. Docket No. 53, Declaration of Wayne Wagstaff, ¶¶ 6-7.
. The Defendant signed that financial statement, certifying that it was true and accurate and that he understood that false statements "may result in forfeiture of benefits and possible prosecution by the U.S, Attorney General.”
. The Defendant has always prepared the joint tax returns for himself and his wife for the past ten years and has not engaged anyone else to do so. Docket No. 52, Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment Against the Debtor Michael L. Robertson on Claims Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) and (B) and Supporting Memorandum, Ex. A, Defendant’s Deposition, at 12:7-25, 18:4-6.
. The Defendant signed this financial statement, affirming that the information therein was "true, complete and correct.”
. Utah Community Credit Union is another lending institution with which the Defendant did business. It is not related to the Plaintiff.
. Docket No. 52, Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment Against the Debtor Michael L. Robertson on Claims Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) and (B) and Supporting Memorandum, Ex. U.
. Id.
. The letter states that "we decided that a better method would be for us to do the complete return and then take the final figures and submit those on a simple form.... [W]e can show the exact amounts we did bring in, the deductions allowed by law we take, and for what purpose, and we end up with the exact same figures in the net results.” Id.
. Id.
. Id.
. The Defendant obtained a $148,800 loan from Utah Community Credit Union on May 28, 2009 using this method. Utah Community Credit Union discovered that the tax returns the Defendant had submitted in connection with the application for that loan were not the ones he had filed with the IRS when Wells Fargo perfprmed a spot audit on the application. At the1 time, Wells Fargo was considering buying the loan from Utah Community Credit Union. Id., Ex. V.
. The other counterclaims included claims for negligence, breach of the implied Covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and unjust enrichment. Id., Ex. T, ¶¶ 7-12.
. Id., Ex. E, ¶ 16; Ex. T.
. The declaration states that Mr. Wagstaff worked at the Bank from 2008 to 2013 and was employed as a vice president in the special assets division. The Defendant argues that since Mr. Wagstaff was not employed by the Bank when the 2006 and 2007 loans were made, he has no personal knowledge of the Bank's lending procedures during that time.
. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).
. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
. Id.
. Id. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505.
. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).
. See Murray v. City of Tahlequah, Okla., 312 F.3d 1196, 1200 (10th Cir. 2002).
. Reed v. Bennett, 312 F.3d 1190, 1194-95 (10th Cir. 2002).
. Concrete Worlds of Colo., Inc. v. City & County of Denver, 36 F.3d 1513, 1518 (10th Cir. 1994).
. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548.
. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
. E.g., City of Herriman v. Bell, 590 F.3d 1176, 1181 (10th Cir. 2010) (citation omitted).
. Nat'l Am. Ins. Co. v. Am. Re-Insurance Co., 358 F.3d 736, 742-43 (10th Cir. 2004) (citing Cone v. Longmont United Hosp. Ass'n, 14 F.3d 526, 533 (10th Cir. 1994)).
. Hofmann v. Drabner (In re Baldwin), 514 B.R. 646, 650 (Bankr. D. Utah 2014) (citing Rajala v. U.S. Bank (In re Christenson), 483 B.R. 743, 746 (Bankr. D. Kan. 2012)).
. First Nat’l Bank v. Cribbs (In re Cribbs), 327 B.R. 668, 673 (10th Cir. BAP 2005) (citing Grogan v. Garner, 498 U.S. 279, 291, 111 S.Ct. 654, 112 L.Ed.2d 755 (1991)).
. Bellco First Fed. Credit Union v. Kaspar (In re Kaspar), 125 F.3d 1358, 1361 (10th Cir. 1997) (citation omitted).
. Id. (quoting. 4 Collier on Bankruptcy, ¶ 523,08[2][a] (15th ed, 1997)).
. JD Invs. of Utah, LLC v. Hanson (In re Hanson), No. 12-2219, 2014 WL 2548100, at *6 (Bankr. D. Utah June 5, 2014) (collecting cases); see also Haney v. Copeland (In re Copeland), 291 B.R. 740, 782 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. 2003) ("[A] statement is materially false if it contains an important or substantial untruth. The measuring stick of material falsity is whether the creditor would have made the loan if the debtor's true financial condition had been known,”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
.Cadwell v. Joelson (In re Joelson), 427 F.3d 700, 714 (10th Cir. 2005). The formerly-prevailing "broad interpretation” held that "statements respecting financial condition are those written statements concerning the condition or quality of a single asset or liability impacting on the debtor’s financial picture." Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians v. Chivers (In re Chivers), 275 B.R. 606, 614 (Bankr. D. Utah 2002) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
. In re Joelson, 427 F.3d at 714.
. Renasant Bank v. Goodin (In re Goodin), No. 12-01115-JDW, 2016 WL 5874969, at *6 (Bankr. N.D. Miss. Oct. 7, 2016) (“[T]ax returns ... are exactly the type of documents contemplated by [§ 523(a)(2)(B)].”); Regions Bank v. Whisnant (In re Whisnant), 411 B.R. 559, 565 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. 2009) ("[TJax returns fall squarely within the scope of statements in writing respecting a debtor’s financial condition contemplated by § 523(a)(2)(B)."); Carson v. Chamberlain (In re Chamberlain), 330 B.R. 195, 203-04 (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 2005) (tax returns are sufficient for § 523(a)(2)(B)); In re Copeland, 291 B.R. at 783 ("Tax returns have also been considered financial documents for the purpose of [§ 523(a)(2)(B) ],”).
. In re Cribbs, 327 B.R. at 674.
. Colorado E. Bank & Trust v. McCarthy (In re McCarthy), 421 B.R. 550, 561 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2009) (citing Cent. Nat’l Bank & Trust Co. v. Liming (In re Liming), 797 F.2d 895, 897-98 (10th Cir. 1986)).
. Cyprus Credit Union v. Dehlin (In re Dehlin), No. 09-2176, 2011 WL 1261623, at *6 (Bankr. D. Utah Mar. 31, 2011).
. In re Hanson, 2014 WL 2548100, at *6 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
. Leadership Bank, N.A. v. Watson (In re Watson), 958 F.2d 977, 978 (10th Cir. 1992) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
. GDO Invs., Inc. v. Glasgow (In re Glasgow), 370 B.R. 362, 372 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2007).
. In re Watson, 958 F.2d at 978.
. In re Cribbs, 327 B.R. at 673.
. In re McCarthy, 421 B.R. at 563 (citation omitted).
. Id. at 564 (quoting In re Liming, 797 F.2d at 897).
. See Trainor v. Apollo Metal Specialties, Inc., 318 F.3d 976, 979 (10th Cir. 2002) (“The moving party may carry its initial burden either by producing affirmative evidence negating an essential element of the nonmoving party's claim, or by showing that the nonmov-ing party does not have enough evidence to carry its burden of persuasion at trial”).
. Clean-Hands Doctrine, Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2005); see also Precision Instrument Mfg. Co. v. Auto. Maint. Mach. Co., 324 U.S. 806, 814, 65 S.Ct. 993, 89 L.Ed. 1381 (1945) ("[The unclean hands doctrine] is a self-imposed ordinance that closes the doors of a court of equity to one tainted with inequi-tableness or bad faith relative to the matter in which he seeks relief, however improper may have been the behavior of the defendant.").
. Northbay Wellness Grp., Inc. v. Beyries, 789 F.3d 956, 959 (9th Cir. 2015) (citations omitted); see also Republic of Rwanda v. Uwimana (In re Uwimana), 274 F.3d 806, 810 (4th Cir. 2001) ("A plaintiff with unclean hands is not entitled to relief from a court of equity in the form of an order denying the dischargeability of a debt.”).
. See Bello Paradiso, LLC v. Hatch (In re Hatch), 465 B.R. 479, 494 (Bankr. W.D. Mich. 2012) ("[T]he court has qualms about applying the unclean hands doctrine in discharge-ability litigation because the relief that a plaintiff requests under 11 U.S.C. § 523 is statutory, not simply equitable.”).
. Greene v. Mullarkey (In re Mullarkey), 410 B.R. 338, 354 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2009) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Hopper v. Everett (In re Everett), 364
. Docket No. 52, Ex. T, at 3-4.
. Id. at 3.
. Id. at 4.
. See Fowler v. Teynor, 323 P.3d 594, 596 (Utah Ct. App. 2014) ("[I]ssue preclusion prevents the relitigation of facts and issues that have been previously determined.”). The Court concludes that the elements of issue preclusion under Utah law are satisfied here.
. The Defendant raised the claims of breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the state court litigation, and the state court ruled on them. Although the Defendant did not raise the claims of fraudulent inducement, promissory estoppel, and constructive fraud in state court, they could have and should have been raised there since they arise from the same operative facts as the claims he did raise. See Gillmor v. Family Link, LLC, 284 P.3d 622, 626-27 (Utah 2012) (stating the elements of claim preclusion under Utah law). The Court concludes that the elements of claim preclusion are satisfied here. The Court also concludes that the doctrines of claim and issue preclusion apply to the state court judgment even though it is currently pending on appeal. See Youren v. Tintic School Dist., 86 P.3d 771, 773 n.2 (Utah Ct. App. 2004) ("We recognize the split in Utah case law on the general issue of the finality of judgments pending appeal and conclude that the better approach is that taken by’ the more recent Utah cases, which hold that a rendered judgment is final for purposes of res judicata until reversed on appeal, modified by the rendering court, or set aside by the rendering court."). The state court judgment has not been reversed, modified, or set aside. Therefore, it is final for purposes of res judicata, and claim and issue preclusion apply to it.
.This case appears to present grounds for invoking the Rooker-Feldman doctrine as another basis to decline to revisit the state court’s judgment. But "Rooker-Feldman applies only to suits filed after state proceedings are final.” Guttman v. Khalsa, 446 F.3d 1027, 1032 (10th Cir. 2006). Because the state-court appeal remains unresolved, the Rooker-Feld-man doctrine is inapplicable. See D.A. Osguthorpe Family P’ship v. ASC Utah, Inc., 705 F.3d 1223, 1232 (10th Cir. 2013).
. See Docket No. 74, Ex. A.
. Argo v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kan., Inc., 452 F.3d 1193, 1199 (10th Cir. 2006) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505 ("[T]here is no issue for trial unless there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a [fact finder] to return a verdict for that party. If the evidence is merely colorable, or is not significantly probative, summary judgment may be granted.”) (citations omitted).
, See Fleming Cos. v. Eckert (In re Eckert), 221 B.R. 40, 44 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 1998) ("[T]he financial statement was materially false because it greatly overstated Dr. Eckert’s income.... This huge gap between the income tax returns and the income reflected on the financial statement constitutes a materially false statement.”); Frankford Bank v. Chryst (In re Chryst), 177 B.R. 486, 498-99 (Bankr. E.D. Pa. 1994) (concluding that personal financial statements that overstated the debtor’s income relative to her income tax returns were materially false).
. FDIC v. Reisman (In re Reisman), 149 B.R. 31, 39 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 1993).
. Gertsch v. Johnson & Johnson, Fin. Corp. (In re Gertsch), 237 B.R. 160, 170 (9th Cir. BAP 1999).
. Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. v. Bonnanzio (In re Bonnanzio), 91 F.3d 296, 305 (2d Cir. 1996) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also In re Gertsch, 237 B.R. at 170 ("[W]hen there is evidence of materially fraudulent statements, little investigation is required for a creditor to have reasonably relied on the representations.”).
.In re Bonnanzio, 91 F.3d at 305.
. The Bank also asserts that it relied on the Defendant's personal financial statements in making the loans. The Court does not need to address the Bank’s reliance on those statements, however, because it has determined that the Bank relied in part on the purported tax returns. That is sufficient to satisfy the reliance element of § 523(a)(2)(B). See supra note 38.
. The Defendant emphasizes that he discussed the details of his personal financial statements with Jay Knight, particularly with regard to ownership of the property he listed thereon. Tellingly, however, he concedes that he did not discuss the issue of his income with Mr. Knight.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN RE: Michael Lynn ROBERTSON, Debtor. Banner Bank, formerly doing business in Utah as AmericanWest Bank or Far West Bank v. Michael Lynn Robertson
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published