Lee Wendell Loder v. Icemakers, Inc.

Federal courts must protect its jurisdiction. Debtors who seek to mutually resolve claims of dischargeability should be permitted to at the same time liquidate the debt. The court of appeals held that the petitioner’s consent, money judgment liquidating said debt was not a judgment but, instead, only a determination deeming that said underlying debt was non-dischargeable. The appellate court determined that the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction to create a money judgment did not exist. The question presented is: Whether a bankruptcy court has the jurisdictional authority to render a liquidated money judgment at the same time that it determines a debt to be nondischargeable? All other circuits that have addressed this issue have answered in the affirmative and the Petitioner concurs. The Eleventh Circuit opinion creates a conflict among the circuits.