211856P.pdf   04/22/2022  Lund-Ross Constructors, Inc.  v.  Jay Buchanan
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  21-1856
   The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit   
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Chief Judge Smith and Kobes, Circuit 
   Judges] 
   Bankruptcy Case - Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. - nondischargeability. 
   Lund-Ross appeals the determination that its claim alleged a corporate 
   debt to Signature Electric and not to a personal debt of the debtors. The 
   bankruptcy court and bankruptcy appellate panel agreed that Lund-Ross had 
   not proved a valid claim against the debtors personally. Under state law, 
   Lund-Ross may have a valid claim if it can show the elements of a Nebraska 
   tort and the debtors did not argue there are no genuine disputed facts 
   about whether Lund-Ross can prove a tort. Thus the bankruptcy court 
   improperly granted summary judgment on that claim. We decline to affirm on 
   an alternate basis of claim preclusion: the debtors were not parties to 
   the proof-of-claim proceeding and it is unclear whether debtors were a 
   party-in-interest in that proceeding, and claim preclusion was not 
   previously addressed. Summary judgment is reversed and remanded for 
   further proceedings.