The Supreme Court agreed on May 2 to take a case about whether a bankrupt debtor can escape liability for a debt arising out of someone else’s fraudulent act.
Kate Bartenwerfer, who filed for bankruptcy after an ill-fated real estate deal, appealed after the often-reversed U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled she cannot get away from a debt that is nondischargeable in bankruptcy, even though she maintains she had nothing to do with her husband’s fraudulent conduct in the sale of their San Francisco, California, home. The couple had purchased and renovated the house. They moved out, and the husband took care of the sale of the house with his wife’s permission but without any substantial involvement on her part. Without the wife’s knowledge, the husband allegedly made false representations to the buyer, the respondent Kieran Buckley.
…