Geiger, In re, 95-3913
| Decision Date | 14 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-3913,95-3913 |
| Citation | 93 F.3d 443 |
| Parties | In re Paul W. GEIGER, Debtor. Paul W. GEIGER, Appellant, v. Margaret KAWAAUHAU and Solomon Kawaauhau, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Laura K. Grandy, Bellville, IL, argued (Kevin J. Stine, on the brief), for appellant.
Norman W. Pressman, St. Louis, MO, argued (Teresa A. Generous, on the brief), for appellee.
Before WOLLMAN, MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
Dr. Paul Geiger appeals the judgment of a district court affirming a bankruptcy court's order refusing to discharge his debt to Margaret and Solomon Kawaauhau. We reverse.
The parties do not contest the relevant facts. Mrs. Kawaauhau sought treatment from Dr. Geiger after she injured her foot. Her leg was swollen and pus was discharging from beneath her big toe. Dr. Geiger admitted her to the hospital for treatment for thrombophlebitis and prescribed oral tetracycline. Dr. Geiger ran tests that suggested the presence of an infection, and concluded that continuing the tetracycline would be an effective treatment. He eventually prescribed oral penicillin in place of the tetracycline. (Dr. Geiger testified that he knew that intravenous penicillin would have been more effective than the oral penicillin, but he prescribed oral penicillin because he understood that Mrs. Kawaauhau wanted to minimize the cost of her treatment.) Dr. Geiger then departed on a business trip and left Mrs. Kawaauhau in the care of other physicians, who began to administer intramuscular penicillin and decided to transfer her to an infectious disease specialist. When Dr. Geiger returned from his trip, however, he canceled the transfer and discontinued all antibiotics because he believed that the infection had run its course. A few days later Mrs. Kawaauhau's condition deteriorated and her leg had to be amputated.
When the Kawaauhaus won an action for malpractice against Dr. Geiger he petitioned for bankruptcy. The Kawaauhaus then filed a complaint requesting the bankruptcy court to deny discharge of the malpractice judgment on the ground that it was a debt "for willful and malicious injury by the debtor." 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(6). In the bankruptcy court's view, willful and malicious conduct included egregious behavior, utter incompetence, or a total disregard for medical standards. The bankruptcy court credited the opinion of the Kawaauhaus' expert witness, who testified that Mrs. Kawaauhau had received substandard care in the treatment of her leg. In the expert's opinion, moreover, Dr. Geiger's treatment permitted the infection to progress more rapidly than it would have if she had received proper treatment. The bankruptcy court concluded that Dr. Geiger's treatment was so far below the standard level of care as to be willful and malicious, and therefore refused to discharge the malpractice judgment. The district court affirmed the bankruptcy court's decision.
The parties express the belief that the outcome of this case ought to be influenced (indeed, might be controlled) by our holding in In re Hartley, 874 F.2d 1254 (8th Cir.1989) (en banc). But in Hartley, we simply left the result that the district court reached undisturbed because we were evenly divided on the merits...
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In re Slosberg, Bankruptcy No. 97-20908
...debtor's actions were undertaken without an intention to injure the creditor and, therefore, lacked malice. Geiger v. Kawaauhau (In re Geiger), 93 F.3d 443, 445 (8th Cir.1996). The panel spent no time illuminating the concept of § 523(a)(6) willfulness. However, the en banc court, of the sa......
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...to harm his patient, it was not possible to say that his actions were either willful or malicious, much less both. See In re Geiger, 93 F.3d 443 (8th Cir.1996). We granted the Kawaauhaus' subsequent suggestion for rehearing en banc, and we reverse the judgment of the district Mrs. Margaret ......
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...Court affirmed. App. to Pet. for Cert. A-18 to A-22. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed, 93 F.3d 443 (1996), and a divided en banc court adhered to the panel's position, 113 F.3d 848 (1997) (en banc). Section 523(a)(6)'s exemption from discharge, the......
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...consistently held that careless or negligent behavior does not rise (fall?) to the level of maliciousness. Geiger v. Kawaauhau (In re Geiger), 93 F.3d 443, 444 (8th Cir.1996) ("conduct that is merely reckless is not malicious within the statute"); Wheeler v. Laudani, 783 F.2d 610, 615 (6th ......
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Current Decisions.
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