Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 598 U. S. ___ (United States Supreme Court 2/22/2023)
Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 598 U. S. ___ (United States Supreme Court 2/22/2023): On February 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous opinion in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 598 U. S. ___ (2023) (honest debtor/business partner/wife could not discharge claim arising from fraud of dishonest partner/husband under 11 U.S.C. §523(a)(2)(A), even though the debtor did now know of the partner’s fraud). In the opinion of The Bankruptcy Law Firm, PC, this decision is very surprising, and we think is wrong, because the more reasonable interpretation of 11 U.S.C. §523(a)(2)(A) is to interpret that section of the Bankruptcy Code as only holding a debt nondischargeable for fraud, where the bankruptcy debtor knew about, or participated in the fraud. The solution to this US Supreme Court decision would be to amend 11 U.S.C. §523(a)(2)(A) to state expressly that a debt can only held to be nondischargeable for fraud, where the bankruptcy debtor committed or was involved in committing the fraud, or whether the bankruptcy debtor had knowledge that a fraud was being committed, and did nothing to stop the fraud from being committed.