Graber v. Fuqua

in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON, Justice HECHT, Justice O’NEILL, and Justice JOHNSON joined.

The question in this case is whether a state malicious prosecution claim is *610preempted by the federal bankruptcy regime simply because the claim arose out of the filing of an adversary action in a bankruptcy proceeding. We hold that under the facts of this case, Congress did not intend for such a claim to be preempted.

In a Texas trial court, Richard Fuqua alleged that Thomas Graber and Hopkins & Sutter had committed the common law tort of malicious prosecution by initiating an adversary proceeding in…