Lance Addison v. Randall Seaver U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 07-2064 and No: 07-2727

Appeal from the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit [PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Bye and Colloton, Circuit Judges] Civil case - bankruptcy. It was clear error for the bankruptcy court to find that debtor had the requisite intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor when he converted some nonexempt property into his homestead
on the day he filed bankruptcy; on the same analysis, the court erred in disallowing a Roth IRA exemption; on the same analysis, the court erred in denying debtor a discharge on the collateral estoppel effect of its earlier findings on disallowing the exemptions; Section 529 tuition savings accounts are nonexempt property of the bankruptcy estate.

Date of the opinion: 8/7/08

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Ditto v. McCurdy No. 02-16252

Janie Ditto won a judgment against her doctor, John McCurdy, for a botched surgery. McCurdy subsequently filed for bankruptcy, and received a discharge from the debt. Ditto lost her argument in the district court that the debt was non-dischargeable as a willful and malicious injury. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Ninth Circuit applied recent United States Supreme Court case law which interpreted the bankruptcy provision at issue to require an intent to cause injury.

Therefore even if Ditto had recovered under an intentional tort theory (Ditto argued that the doctor failed to give proper information prior to the surgery), the Ninth Circuit found that the medical malpractice judgment did not meet the willful and malicious definition in the bankruptcy code. AFFIRMED.

Date of decision: 12/14/07

Full opinion click here.