The Set-Up Continues: Judge Ignores More Federal and State Law in Charlottesville Cases
The Charlottesville Legal Struggle Continues!
The Charlottesville Legal Struggle Continues!
The bankruptcy exception under 11 U.S. Code 523(6) states:
A discharge under… this title does not discharge an individual debtor for any debt for willful and malicious injury by the debtor to another entity or to the property of another entity.
The critical language is “for… injury by the debtor”
The so-called “injuries” in the Sines v Kessler case were all alleged to have been caused by the actions of other individuals. Not myself. In fact, I was not even present when a single one of these injuries occurred!
Despite my attorney pointing this out in his argument, Judge Ronald Sargis ignored the law and sided with the plaintiffs bizarre argument which conflates two legal concepts from entirely different jurisdictions and areas of law.
He observed that, in Virginia civil suits, an individual or business entity can, in some cases, be legally liable for the actions of another person via respondent superior (aka vicarious liability). An example of this is if an employee of a company negligently or wantonly injures a customer, the customer can sue the company itself, and it is legally responsible.
Then he applied that logic to federal bankruptcy law (which is an entirely independent area of law) and concluded that, because VA civil liability acknowledges vicarious liability, then the federal exception statute for bankruptcy (which states that “the debtor” must physically harm someone or some property) should also be subject to…