Baltimore County Savings Bank v. Malinowski (In Re Malinowski)

MEMORANDUM OPINION GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO PLAINTIFF AND DETERMINING DEBT TO BE NONDISCHARGEABLE

JAMES F. SCHNEIDER, Bankruptcy Judge.

The issue raised on summary judgment in the instant complaint to determine non-dischargeability of debt for willful and malicious injury is not whether the debtor’s conduct in torching his own automobile in which the plaintiff held a security interest was willful and malicious. Rather, it is whether such willful and malicious conduct was satisfactorily proven at an earlier trial in a State court so as to bar relitigation of the issue in the present context.…