Hidy v. Bullard, No. 11-6009 (8th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, the creditor, appealed from the judgment of the bankruptcy court holding that a debt of defendant, the debtor, to creditor was not excepted from the debtor's discharge pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(6). At issue was whether collateral estoppel applied based on the criminal action or the civil action to bar relitigation of the issues of willfulness and maliciousness in the bankruptcy court. If collateral estoppel did not apply, the second issue was whether the bankruptcy court properly denied the creditor's request to except the debt owed to him from the debtor's discharge pursuant to section 523(a)(6) based on lack of finding of maliciousness. The court affirmed the bankruptcy court's decision that collateral estoppel was inapplicable and held that there was no error in the bankruptcy court's finding that the debtor did not act with maliciousness for the purposes of section 523(a)(6). Therefore, the debt owed by the debtor to creditor was not excepted from the debtor's discharge.
Court Description: Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Bankruptcy court did not err in finding that the collateral estoppel doctrine did not preclude it from deciding whether debtor's actions met the requirements of section 523(a)(6) of the Bankruptcy Code; nor did the court err in finding that debtor did not act with maliciousness for the purposes of Section 523(a)(6); as a result, the court did not err in finding the debt owed the creditor is not excepted from the discharge.
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