Desperate Housewife wronged in Bankruptcy court

Cyntia Stege stole Gail Osborne's man and lost in court for it, but she might still discharge that debt in bankruptcy court, says the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Gail Osborne v. Cynthia Marie Stage. Gail Osborne sued Cynthia for alienation of affections, a somewhat dated tort used to compensate spouses who enticers cuckold away from them. In 1999 a Missouri court awarded Gail $50,000. 5 years later Cynthia files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Gail seeks to hold her $50,000 judgment "non-dischargeable" under 11 USC section 523(a)(6), which excepts from discharge thos debts caused by "wilfull and malicious injury to another (or her property)." The eighth circuit premised that the debtor must have intended the injury to the creditor (willful) and intended the harm to the creditor (malicious) (page 9 of pdf file). For the (now repealed) intentional tort of alienation of affections, the plaintiff must prove, (a) the defendant’s (adulterous) conduct, (b) the (wife’s) loss of the affections or consortium of his or her spouse, and (c) the causal connection between such (adulterous) conduct the loss (of affections) (page 9 o pdf). It is not necessary however to prove that the seducer was motivated by ill will toward the other spouse. The Court concluded that winning the alienation of affection verdict alone did not mean the alienation verdict was outside the bankruptcy, because by "finding Stage liable for alienation of affections, the jury did not necessarily find that she acted maliciously by intending to harm Osborne." Gail will have to prove harm to the Bankruptcy judge and cannot win on summary judgment. For that we will have to tune into future Bankruptcy court episodes.