SEXUAL HARASSMENT DAMAGES NOT DISCHARGEABLE IN BANKRUPTCY PART 2

After the debtor filed for bankruptcy protection, the plaintiff filed an adversary proceeding to challenge the discharge of her claim. The bankruptcy court found that the federal judgment established that the plaintiff’s claim was nondischargeable pursuant to Section 523(a)(6). The court was persuaded by the bankruptcy courts that have found that sexual harassment discrimination is inherently an intentional tort and allowed it to be excepted from discharge as willful and malicious injury. “The plaintiff, in this case, has met her burden by demonstrating that the debtor acted willfully. No one in the jury believed debtor’s defense his erect penis had negligently entered the wrong place because he was drunk. The District Court expressly charged the jury with a definition of willfulness that is almost identical to the one provided by the Supreme Court in GEIGER. In order to find the debtor liable, the jury was required to find that he “intentionally, as opposed to recklessly or negligently, created a hostile work environment on the basis of her gender. An action is intentional if it is done knowingly, that is, if it is done voluntarily and deliberately and not because of mistake, accident, negligence, or other innocent reason,’” the court said. By awarding damages, the jury found that the debtor’s actions were malicious. “Moreover, on appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court decision, determining that there was evidence of ‘detailed inappropriate behavior’ and hostile, severe, and abusive’ conduct by the debtor.”

Therefore, sexual harassment damages are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Lawrence Bautista Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has been in law practice for thirty years. He specializes in bankruptcy, business and civil litigation and has handled more than five thousand successful bankruptcy cases in California. He speaks Mandarin and Fujien and looks forward to discussing your case with you personally. Please call (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S Fremont Ave Bldg A-1 Suite 1125 Unit 58 Alhambra, CA 91803.