In Re John Houtman and Gladys Irene Houtman, Bankrupts. John Houtman and Gladys Irene Houtman v. Edgar F. Mann and Edna M. Mann, Creditors-Appellees

This is an appeal from an order of the district court affirming a decision of the bankruptcy judge that a 1971 state court judgment for $55,000 against the appellants was nondischargeable in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy judge found that the judgment rested on a transaction “so tainted by fraud as to render it [the judgment] a nondischargeable obligation.” Presumably this meant that the judgment represented a “liability for obtaining money or property by false pretenses or false representations” and was therefore nondischargeable under § 17(a)(2) of the Bankruptcy Act. 11 U.S.C. § 35(a)(2). We…