Posted by Todd Zywicki: Mike Nifong Bankruptcy: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_05_04-2008_05_10.shtml#1210298749
Speaking of the [1]the Duke Lacrosse case, this is a bit of old news, but back in January Mike Nifong [2]had to file bankruptcy to deal with the civil lawsuits that have been brought against him by the exonerated Duke lacrosse players. He lists assets of $243,000 and liabilities of $180 million (presumably contingent claims). On the other hand, it is far from clear that bankruptcy will help Nifong very much in the long run. Section 523(a)(6) of the Code makes nondischargeable debts incurred for "willful and malicious injury" to others. This traditionally has been defined as something like an intentional tort, as in [3]Kawaauhau v. Geiger. I'm not familiar with the details of the players' complaint against him (please flesh this out in the comments if any of you are familiar with it_ but I assume that it includes counts for claims such as defamation and libel and other intentional torts, so I would think 523(a)(6) has a good chance of applying. In the meantime, he does get some benefit from the automatic stay, however. According to [4]this website, Nifong lists about $5000 per month in "pension and retirement" income (which it appears that he is claiming as exempt from the tort claims of the lacrosse players), "and describes himself, charitably, as retired." His full bankruptcy schedules are [5]here. References 1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_05_04-2008_05_10.shtml#1210225198 2. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&refer=home&sid=aCZsc7aJFP5k 3. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-115.ZO.html 4. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0115084nifong1.html 5. http://www.wral.com/asset/news/local/2008/01/15/2307322/Nifong_Bankruptcy_3.pdf _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
