IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 18-20254

In re: Evan Brian Crocker, also known as Haas Legal, P.L.L.C.

 Debtor

EVAN BRIAN CROCKER, on behalf of themselves and all those similarly 

situated, also known as Haas Legal, P.L.L.C, formerly known as Evan Brian 

Haas: MICHAEL SHAHBAZI, on behalf of themselves and all those similarly 

situated, formerly known as Montana Shahbazi; WENDY L. LANDES, on 

behalf of themselves and all those similarly situated; RAEGENA SEITZMOULDS, on behalf of themselves and all those similarly situated,

Appellees

v.

NAVIENT SOLUTIONS, L.L.C.; NAVIENT CREDIT FINANCE 

CORPORATION,

 Appellants

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Texas

Before STEWART, SOUTHWICK and ENGELHARDT, Circuit Judges.

LESLIE H. SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judge:

An individual in Texas and another in Virginia separately obtained loans 

from the same lender to pay education expenses. Both later filed for 

bankruptcy in their respective states. In time, orders of discharge were 

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

October 21, 2019

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 1 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

2

entered. One of the discharged debtors then filed suit against the lender in the 

same Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas that had ordered the 

discharge of his debts. Later, the Virginia debtor joined the Texas suit. The 

suit seeks to certify a nationwide class of those who claim their education-loan 

debts were validly discharged but from whom this lender continues to demand 

payment. A declaratory judgment, injunction, and damages are sought.

The lender filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing bankruptcy 

courts cannot enforce the injunctions arising from discharge orders entered by 

courts in other judicial districts, and these private-education-loan debts are 

statutorily excepted from discharge. The bankruptcy court held the opposite 

as to both, then certified the two holdings for interlocutory appeal. 

We conclude that a bankruptcy court does not have authority to enforce 

the discharge injunctions entered in other districts. On the other hand, we

agree with the bankruptcy court that the particular education loans involved 

here are not statutorily excepted from discharge. The cause is REMANDED.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 2009, Evan Crocker1 obtained a $15,000 loan to fund his bar 

examination preparation. The lender was a subsidiary of SLM Corporation, 

d/b/a Sallie Mae, which is a for-profit, public corporation whose loans are not

part of any governmental loan program. The loan documents informed Crocker 

that his repayment obligation “may not be dischargeable in bankruptcy.” 

Crocker’s loan was transferred to SLM Education Credit Finance Corporation, 

which subsequently became Navient Credit Finance Corporation. In the 

complaint, Navient Solutions is said to be the entity pursuing collection. We 

will not differentiate among Navient entities in our discussion.

 

1 Evan Brian Haas changed his name to Evan Brian Crocker in 2017. We use his 

current name throughout this opinion.

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

3

In 2015, Crocker filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United 

States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. He scheduled his 

bar-study loan claim as an “Educational . . . Private loan” and did not dispute 

the debt. In February 2016, the court granted him a discharge under 11 U.S.C. 

§ 727, informed him that “[m]ost debts are covered by the discharge, but not 

all,” and closed his case.

Michael Shahbazi has a similar story. In 2002, Shahbazi obtained an

$11,658.99 loan from Sallie Mae for tuition and expenses while he attended a 

technical school. He was given notice that his loan was “an education loan that 

must be repaid.” Exactly how Navient obtained its interest is unclear to us, 

but it is servicing this loan. 

In 2011, Shahbazi filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the 

United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He 

scheduled his Sallie Mae loan as a “Student Loan” and did not dispute the debt. 

In December 2011, the court granted him a discharge and closed his 

bankruptcy proceeding. This discharge order specifically listed “Debts for most 

student loans” as not being discharged. 

It is alleged that after both discharges, Navient had both of these 

plaintiffs contacted frequently by telephone and email to demand repayment. 

In August 2016, Crocker filed an adversary proceeding against Navient in the 

Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the same court that had 

granted him a discharge. He sought (1) a declaratory judgment that his private 

education debt had been discharged; (2) entry of judgment holding Navient in 

contempt for violating the injunction arising from his discharge; and (3) a 

temporary injunction. The court entered an agreed preliminary injunction on 

August 18, 2016, barring Navient from pursuing collection until further order.

Crocker, with Shahbazi as an additional plaintiff, filed an amended 

complaint, seeking to certify a nationwide class of those who (1) obtained 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 3 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

4

prepetition private education loans from Navient or related companies to cover 

expenses at an institution not accredited under Title IV; (2) later filed for 

bankruptcy and were issued discharge orders; (3) have never reaffirmed their 

prepetition private education loan debt; and (4) are being induced to pay their 

allegedly discharged private education loans. Damages were now also sought.

Navient moved for summary judgment on these claims, arguing that a 

bankruptcy court has no jurisdiction to interpret and enforce discharge orders 

entered by courts in other judicial districts and that the plaintiffs’ education 

loans were nondischargeable. The bankruptcy court denied the motion in 

March 2018.2 It rejected that the general rule giving an issuing court sole 

authority to enforce its own injunctions applied to the automatic injunction 

created by statute when a bankruptcy court grants a discharge under 11 U.S.C. 

§ 727. The court also determined that the kind of loans for educational 

purposes relevant here, which the parties refer to as “private loans,” were not 

within the ambit of the Bankruptcy Code’s bar on the discharge of some 

student loans. See 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8).

In the same order, the bankruptcy court first authorized an interlocutory 

appeal, then certified the order for direct appeal to this court, eschewing the 

usual initial appellate review by a district court. A bankruptcy court may 

certify a ruling for direct review by a circuit court of appeals when, among other 

reasons, it “involves a question of law as to which there is no controlling 

decision” by that circuit court or the Supreme Court, or because an appeal at 

that stage in the proceedings “may materially advance the progress of the 

case.” 28 U.S.C. § 158(d)(2)(A)(i), (iii). If a bankruptcy court so certifies, the 

 

2 Wendy L. Landes and Raegena Seitz-Moulds were included without objection as 

additional putative class members in a Third Amended Complaint, filed after Navient’s 

motion for summary judgment but before the bankruptcy court ruled. No party argues that 

the issues before us are altered by their joinder. Accordingly, we do not separately discuss 

the facts of the bankruptcies of the two last-added parties. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 4 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

5

circuit court of appeals then exercises its discretion. § 158(d)(2)(A). A motions 

panel of this court granted the unopposed motion to authorize the appeal.

DISCUSSION

We review “grants and denials of summary judgment de novo. Summary 

judgment is appropriate when ‘there is no genuine dispute as to any material 

fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’” Lyda 

Swinterton Builders, Inc. v. Okla. Sur. Co., 903 F.3d 435, 444 (5th Cir. 2018) 

(quoting FED. R. CIV. P. 56). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 is incorporated 

into the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. FED. R. BANKR. P. 7056. 

Navient has two principal contentions on appeal. The first is that the 

bankruptcy court either has no jurisdiction to enforce the statutory injunctions 

arising from a bankruptcy discharge that another bankruptcy court ordered, 

or at least for prudential reasons may not do so. Second, Navient contends 

that the plaintiffs’ education loans are within the category of loans that under 

the Bankruptcy Code are nondischargeable.

There are no meaningful factual issues presented to us. Instead, we have 

legal issues of statutory interpretation. We now turn to those.

I. Authority to enforce a Section 524 discharge order entered by a bankruptcy 

court in another judicial district

In broad brush, these proceedings concern two closed Chapter 7

bankruptcies in which generic discharges, i.e., discharges not specifying the 

discharged debts, were issued at completion. A discharge “operates as an 

injunction” against an extensive list of actions that a creditor might take to 

collect on the discharged debt. 11 U.S.C. § 524(a)(2), (3). The discharge is a 

“substantive right,” and that right is “often enforced by a motion for contempt, 

but [it is] also enforceable through a declaratory judgment action.” Nat’l 

Gypsum Co. v. NGC Settlement Tr. & Asbestos Claims Mgmt. Corp. (In re Nat’l 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 5 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

6

Gypsum Co.), 118 F.3d 1056, 1063 (5th Cir. 1997) (citations omitted). The 

declaratory judgment was sought in National Gypsum by the opening of an 

adversary proceeding in the bankruptcy court that had granted the debtor’s 

discharge. Id. at 1060. Indeed, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7001(6) 

states that an adversary proceeding is, among other things, “a proceeding to 

determine the dischargeability of a debt.”

Thus, an available procedure under National Gypsum is a declaratory 

judgment action. A violation of the declaratory judgment will lead to its own 

remedies such as “damages or an injunction.” United Teacher Assocs. Ins. Co. 

v. Union Labor Life Ins. Co., 414 F.3d 558, 570 (5th Cir. 2005); see also 28 

U.S.C. § 2202. The issue for us is identifying the proper court or courts in 

which such an action can be brought. May a bankruptcy court other than the 

one that granted the discharge enforce the injunction? 

The closest this circuit has come to answering the question is to hold, in 

the class action context, that a bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of 

Texas may exercise ‘jurisdiction over claims that arise in other cases 

administered by other judges” in the same judicial district. Wilborn v. Wells 

Fargo Bank, N.A. (In re Wilborn), 609 F.3d 748, 753 (5th Cir. 2010). The 

Wilborn court only briefly discussed the issue of enforcing an injunction arising 

from the discharge order of a different bankruptcy court in the same district. 

In the present proceedings, the bankruptcy court’s understanding of its 

authority extended well beyond its home district. The question of a bankruptcy 

judge’s injunctive reach within its own district has not been answered.

The two plaintiff-debtors received general discharges in bankruptcy. 

Central to the dispute is that Congress has excepted from discharge, among 

other categories of debt, certain types of student-loan debt. 11 U.S.C. § 

523(a)(8). We will deal with the issue of dischargeability in the second part of 

our opinion and will wait to quote the relevant statute until then. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 6 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

7

We have already summarized that the bankruptcy court at this stage 

answered only two questions. The first answer we review is the “yes” the court 

gave to the question of whether a bankruptcy court in a judicial district other 

than the one in which the discharge was entered has authority to interpret the 

discharge and enforce the injunction. The court rejected Navient’s argument 

that the general rule should apply that the court issuing an injunction is the 

only one that can enforce it through contempt proceedings. The bankruptcy 

court first held that general rule was inapplicable because no discretion or 

individual judgment is exercised in creating the injunction.3 The form order 

used for the discharges for the initial two plaintiffs here does not even mention 

an injunction. The injunction instead arises from this statutory command: “A

discharge in a case under this title . . . operates as an injunction against the 

commencement or continuation of an action.” § 524(a). Because there is “no 

subjective thought process that requires deference nor is there any risk of 

misinterpretation of a particular judge’s reasoning,” the bankruptcy court 

concluded that the general limitation on enforcement of injunctions only by the 

issuing court was inapplicable. The court did not cite any case authority to 

support its analysis. The basic point was that the bankruptcy statutes 

themselves make clear that no purpose is served by requiring a return to the 

issuing court to interpret a discharge injunction.

Navient, of course, disagrees that discharge injunctions should be 

treated differently than others. A principal authority it cites is one of this 

court’s precedents dealing with non-bankruptcy injunctions. There, Chief 

Judge Charles Clark explained in the context of a claim of securities fraud that

 

3 There is at least one aspect of the bankruptcy discharge that requires individual 

judicial consideration. The applicable education loans are not discharged “unless excepting 

such debt from discharge under this paragraph would impose an undue hardship on the 

debtor and the debtor’s dependents.” § 523(a)(8). Different bankruptcy judges can look at 

the same facts and reach contrary decisions. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 7 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

8

“[e]nforcement of an injunction through a contempt proceeding must occur in 

the issuing jurisdiction because contempt is an affront to the court issuing the 

order.” Waffenschmidt v. MacKay, 763 F.2d 711, 716 (5th Cir. 1985). A

bankruptcy court does continue to have jurisdiction to enforce its orders, and 

that jurisdiction remains even after the bankruptcy case is closed. See, e.g., 

Galaz v. Katona, 841 F.3d 316, 322 (5th Cir. 2016). The issue for us arises 

because Galaz and other Fifth Circuit precedents do not hold that authority is 

exclusive in the original court. Navient also argues that regardless of 

jurisdiction, there are prudential reasons supporting its argument.

Navient’s appellate brief recounts the background for an injunction that 

arises from a discharge, drawing from a scholarly article. Charles Jordan 

Tabb, The Historical Evolution of the Bankruptcy Discharge, 65 AM. BANKR. L.

J. 325 (1991). We look at parts of the background in order to understand how 

a bankruptcy discharge was enforced before a statute was enacted that 

imposed an injunction. Importantly, we also consider whether another part of 

the same statutory enactment arguably created a right of enforcement of the 

injunction by “foreign” courts. If so, then its repeal in 1978 has some meaning. 

There was no statutory injunction arising from a discharge until 1970. 

Id. at 326 n.3. A House Report on 1970 bankruptcy legislation explained

problems with prior law, including the harassment of debtors:

The present discharge provisions of the Bankruptcy Act authorize 

the bankruptcy court to determine the right to a discharge, but do 

not give the bankruptcy court express jurisdiction to determine the 

effect of the discharge. . . . Under present practice, if a bankrupt is

sued in State court on a discharged debt, the State court may 

determine whether the debt in question was or was not discharged. 

In other words, the jurisdiction over the granting and the enforcing 

of a discharge is divided, with the result that debtors are 

frequently harassed and coerced by creditors into paying debts 

that may have been discharged.

H.R. REP. NO. 91-1502, at 3 (1970).

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 8 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

9

The 1970 legislation was adopted and provided for an injunction:

f. An order of discharge shall—

(1) declare that any judgment theretofore or thereafter obtained in 

any other court is null and void . . . ; and

(2) enjoin all creditors whose debts are discharged from thereafter

instituting or continuing any action or employing any process to 

collect such debts as personal liabilities of the bankrupt.

Act of Oct. 29, 1970, Pub. L. No. 91-467, § 3, 84 Stat. 990, 991 (amending 

Section 14 of the 1898 Bankruptcy Code, codified as 11 U.S.C. § 32(f)).

The statutory detailing of the injunction that results from a discharge 

has been revised, but the meaning for our purposes is the same: the discharge 

“operates as an injunction against the commencement or continuation of an 

action” to collect a relevant debt. 11 U.S.C. § 524(a)(2).

Nothing in the statute creating an injunction explains whether this form 

of injunction could be enforced only by the bankruptcy court in the issuing 

district. Another 1970 provision, though, which appeared immediately after 

the injunction section, did specifically refer to enforcement in other courts. It 

allowed the order of discharge to be registered in another district and to be 

“enforced in like manner” in the new district as in the issuing district:

g. An order of discharge which has become final may be registered 

in any other district by filing therein a certified copy of such order

and when so registered shall have the same effect as an order of 

the bankruptcy court of the district where registered and may be

enforced in like manner.

§ 3, 84 Stat. 990, 991 (codified as 11 U.S.C. § 32(g)).4 Bankruptcy Rule 404(g)

used almost this exact language. 11 U.S.C. app. at 283 (Supp. III 1974).

 

4 An explanation for what those promoting the 1970 legislation were at least trying to 

do was given by the National Conference of Referees in Bankruptcy:

When a bankrupt has moved out of the district where he obtained his 

discharge in bankruptcy and is sued by a creditor on a discharged debt in the 

state to which he moved, the bankrupt should be able to enforce the discharge 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 9 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

10

The 1970 subsection on registration was repealed with adoption of the 

Bankruptcy Code of 1978. 11 U.S.C. Tbl. I (showing that former Section 32(g) 

was repealed). Further, the Bankruptcy Rule that implemented Section 32(g) 

was revised after the 1978 Code was adopted by deleting “may be enforced in 

like manner.” FED. R. BANKR. P. 4004(f). Enacted revisions in the wording of 

statutes are part of “statutory history,” not “the sort of unenacted legislative 

history that often is neither truly legislative (having failed to survive 

bicameralism and presentment) nor truly historical (consisting of advocacy 

aimed at winning in future litigation what couldn’t be won in past statutes).” 

BNSF Ry. Co. v. Loos, 139 S. Ct. 893, 906 (2019) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting).

When Congress makes a significant change in language when it amends an 

existing statute, it “presumptively connotes a change in meaning.” ANTONIN 

SCALIA & BRYAN A. GARNER, READING LAW: THE INTERPRETATION OF LEGAL 

TEXTS 256 (2012). Congress’s decision to eliminate language that seemed to 

allow enforcement of the discharge injunction in a new district5 gives weight 

to the argument that after the 1978 Bankruptcy Code was adopted, 

enforcement in “like manner” in a different district was prohibited. 

We now turn to the law that exists today. Registering a judgment in a 

new court is not a creature primarily of bankruptcy law. Some quite learned 

professors described the adoption of a general statutory provision for 

registration in 1948, after an earlier Civil Rules version was rejected as 

 

and its injunctive provisions through the district court where he is currently 

residing. Section 14g [11 U.S.C. section 32(g)] is meant to permit the bankrupt 

access to his local United States court by registering therein a certified copy of 

the order granting the discharge.

H.R. REP. NO. 91-1502, at 11. 5 Learned commentators concluded that Section 32(g) authorized enforcement of a 

discharge injunction in a new district. One wrote that with “the 1970 Amendments to the 

1898 Act, Congress developed the portable and registerable discharge injunction.” Robert P. 

Wasson, Jr., Remedying Violations of the Discharge Injunction Under Bankruptcy Code 

524..., 20 BANKR. DEV. J. 77, 88 (2003).

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 10 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

11

arguably being beyond the rulemaking power of the Supreme Court. 11 

CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT, ARTHUR R. MILLER, & MARK KAY KANE, FEDERAL

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 2787 (2012). The current statute states:

A judgment in an action for the recovery of money or 

property entered in any court of appeals, district court, bankruptcy 

court, or in the Court of International Trade may be registered by 

filing a certified copy of the judgment in any other district or, with 

respect to the Court of International Trade, in any judicial district, 

when the judgment has become final by appeal or expiration of the 

time for appeal or when ordered by the court that entered the 

judgment for good cause shown. Such a judgment entered in favor 

of the United States may be so registered any time after judgment 

is entered. A judgment so registered shall have the same effect as 

a judgment of the district court of the district where registered and 

may be enforced in like manner.

28 U.S.C. § 1963. Bankruptcy courts were added to the statute in 1996. 

Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-317, § 203, 110 Stat. 

3847, 3849.

Section 1963 permits the clearing of jurisdictional hurdles when the 

prior judgment was entered in a suit in which federal question was the basis 

for jurisdiction. The hurdle arises because “an action solely to enforce the 

judgment would lack that federal question jurisdiction and therefore could not 

be maintained in federal court” absent some other jurisdictional basis. JAMES 

WILLIAM MOORE, ET AL., MOORE’S FEDERAL PRACTICE ¶ 130.33 (explaining that 

“a suit on a judgment does not involve a federal question, however important 

federal questions may have been to the resolution of the original controversy,” 

and citing Stiller v. Hardman, 324 F.2d 626, 628 (2d Cir. 1963)).6

 

6 An earlier version of MOORE’S has, since the adoption of Bankruptcy Rule 404(g) and 

then continuing with current Rule 4004(f), been cited by the Federal Rules Advisory 

Committee to explain each Rule. See Rule 404(g), Adv. Comm. Notes (1976); Rule 4004(f), 

Adv. Comm. Notes (1983), both citing JAMES WILLIAM MOORE ET AL., MOORE’S FEDERAL 

PRACTICE ¶ 1.04[2] (2d ed. 1967). We could not locate any archival record of the 1967 treatise 

section, but some if not all of that section was quoted in a district court opinion. See Dichter 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 11 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

12

The 1970 Bankruptcy Code amendment to permit registration was 

labeled “an adaptation of 28 U.S.C. section 1963,” as it clearly was. H.R. REP. 

NO. 91-1502, at 11. One significant difference, though, is that Section 1963 is 

limited to judgments that order the recovery of property or money, which 

orders discharging debts would not be. As importantly, Section 1963 “does not 

permit enforcement elsewhere of a decree for injunctive relief.” 11 WRIGHT,

MILLER, & KANE, FEDERAL PRACTICE § 2787.

In conclusion, the 1970 registration statute was by far the most direct 

support for allowing one bankruptcy court to enforce another’s discharge 

injunction. That statute, though, is no more, which supports that Congress 

abolished such enforcement. Current Bankruptcy Rule 4004(f) guides 

registration but does not authorize “like manner” enforcement as did its 

predecessor. The foregoing convinces us that registration does not alter the 

usual procedures for enforcing an injunction.

We return, then, to the bankruptcy court’s first basis for its ruling, which 

relied on, of all things, logic alone to support that because a discharge 

injunction needs no discretionary interpretation, there should not be any 

obligation to return to the issuing court for its enforcement. With respect for 

so venerable a basis for argument, i.e., straightforward logical reasoning, we 

conclude more is needed here to overcome the contrary authority. 

 

v. Disco Corp., 606 F. Supp. 721, 725 (S.D. Ohio 1984). The following excerpt likely is at least 

some of the reason for the reference to MOORE’S in the Advisory Committee Notes: 

It may be suggested that by authorizing the judgment-creditor to 

enforce his judgment through registration in other districts, as an alternative 

to an action on the judgment, substantive rights are conferred upon him, venue 

requirements are altered, and the jurisdiction of the district court is enlarged. 

But in purpose and effect the registration of judgments in other districts is only 

a more convenient and effective method of enforcing them according to their 

original terms.

Id. (quoting MOORE’S FEDERAL PRACTICE ¶ 1.04[2] at 223 (1967)). 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 12 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

13

The bankruptcy court gave as a second basis for its decision, not 

completely distinguishable from its first, that when enforcing a discharge, a 

court is simply enforcing a statute. Holding a creditor in contempt “goes to the 

very core of the bankruptcy process itself.” The court relied on a scholarly 

opinion by Bankruptcy Judge Isgur analyzing the fundamentals in Cano v. 

GMAC Mortg. Corp. (In re Cano), 410 B.R. 506 (Bankr. S.D. Tex. 2009). The

bankruptcy court here also cited both 28 U.S.C. § 157, which sets out many of 

the procedures for bankruptcy courts and the authority of the district courts 

over them, and 28 U.S.C. § 1334, which grants to district courts “original and 

exclusive jurisdiction of all cases under” the Bankruptcy Code, with some 

exceptions. 

We need not analyze today the complexities of Section 157 addressed by 

Cano, including the differences among cases and proceedings “arising under

title 11 or arising in or related to a case under title 11.’’ § 157(a) (emphasis 

added). We limit our analysis because our question is limited: may a different 

bankruptcy court than the one that issued the discharge that caused the 

injunction to arise, enforce that injunction regardless of whether the 

impediment is jurisdiction, venue, prudential considerations, or something 

else? The Cano court identified but did not resolve that issue: “[r]equiring 

Plaintiffs to seek civil contempt damages from their ‘home court’ may be the 

more appropriate remedy and the only remedy authorized.” Cano, 410 B.R. at 

543. The Cano opinion did not need to resolve the issue before us.

We next examine precedents concerning contempt authority. “Civil 

contempt is the normal sanction for violations of the discharge injunction.”

RICHARD LEVIN & HENRY J. SOMMER, COLLIER ON BANKRUPTCY ¶ 524.02(c) 

(2018). We have used absolute language, though not in a bankruptcy context, 

that “[i]t is elementary that the court against which a contempt is committed 

has exclusive jurisdiction to punish for such contempt.” United States v. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 13 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

14

Barnett, 330 F.2d 369, 385 (5th Cir. 1963) (citing In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564, 594–

95 (1895)). 

Other circuits have insisted on a return to the bankruptcy court whose 

discharge order created the injunction. The Eleventh Circuit has held that 

only the bankruptcy court issuing the discharge has jurisdiction to enforce the 

injunction through contempt. Alderwoods Grp., Inc. v. Garcia, 682 F.3d 958, 

961 (11th Cir. 2012).7 The Seventh Circuit has said the “responsibility for 

enforcing the discharge order [is] in the court that issued it.” Cox v. Zale 

Delaware, Inc., 239 F.3d 910, 916–17 (7th Cir. 2001) (citing FED. R. BANKR. P.

9020). The cited Bankruptcy Rule 9020 simply says Rule 9014 on “Contested 

Matters” is what “governs a motion for an order of contempt.” The Ninth 

Circuit has held that both Section 524 and the Bankruptcy Rules require a 

contempt action in the bankruptcy court that issued the discharge order. See

Barrientos v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 633 F.3d 1186, 1189 (9th Cir. 2011).

The Second Circuit has limited enforcement of discharge injunctions 

through contempt proceedings to the originating court: “the bankruptcy court 

retains a unique expertise in interpreting its own injunctions and determining 

when they have been violated.” Anderson v. Credit One Bank, N.A., (In re 

Anderson), 884 F.3d 382, 390–91 (2d Cir. 2018). Without labeling the reason 

as one of jurisdiction, the court explained:

The power to enforce an injunction is complementary to the 

duty to obey the injunction, which the Supreme Court has 

described as a duty borne out of “respect for judicial process.” GTE 

Sylvania, Inc. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 445 U.S. 375, 387, 

100 S.Ct. 1194, 63 L.Ed.2d 467 (1980) (internal quotation marks 

omitted). That same respect for judicial process requires us to hold 

 

7 Without intimating that it has derivative precedential effect in this circuit, we note 

as a matter of collegial respect that the opinion is from the circuit with which we until 1981 

were joined, and authoring Judge Tjoflat’s notable judicial service began on the Fifth Circuit.

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 14 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

15

that the bankruptcy court alone has the power to enforce the 

discharge injunction in Section 524. 

Id. at 391.

Though the Eleventh Circuit in Alderwoods concluded that the bar to 

seeking enforcement in a foreign court was jurisdictional, we pretermit so 

foundational a holding. We start with the reality that a violation of the 

injunction is an affront to the issuing court. Yes, the injunction arises from 

statute and not from judicial discretion. Indeed, as here, the injunction may 

not even be mentioned in the court’s order. Nonetheless, a central 

consideration for us is that there is not a sufficiently clear path for deviating 

from the usual rule. Instead, what is clear are various obstacles we have 

identified to taking that path. We now discuss a final one. 

A recent Supreme Court decision placed the civil contempt that results 

from violating a bankruptcy discharge injunction under the general principles 

for contempt. It richly phrased its analysis: “When a statutory term is 

‘obviously transplanted from another legal source,’ it ‘brings the old soil with 

it.’” Taggart v. Lorenzen, 139 S. Ct. 1795, 1801 (2019) (quoting Hall v. Hall, 

138 S. Ct. 1118, 1128 (2018)). Rooted in the soil are “the traditional standards 

in equity practice for determining when a party may be held in civil contempt 

for violating an injunction.” Id.

We do not see a holding in Taggart that all the rules for civil contempt 

were transplanted into bankruptcy, but we do see an imperative that any 

deviation from those rules have a substantial justification. Beginning in 1970,

there was a statutory argument from Section 32(g) of the 1898 Bankruptcy 

Code that there was no need to return to the original bankruptcy court, but 

that argument was repealed in 1978 along with the section. The remainder of 

what has been argued to us does not suffice to show that we should allow an 

exception from the usual enforcement rules for injunctions. Though Taggart 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 15 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

16

did not lock the gate to any deviations from traditional contempt rules in 

bankruptcy, very little opportunity to open it was provided.

We adopt the language of the Second Circuit that returning to the 

issuing bankruptcy court to enforce an injunction is required at least in order 

to uphold “respect for judicial process.” Anderson, 884 F.3d at 391. The 

bankruptcy court erred in holding that it could address contempt for violations 

of injunctions arising from discharges by bankruptcy courts in other districts.

Therefore, as to Shahbazi and at least those debtors whose discharges were

entered by courts in other districts, the bankruptcy court in these proceedings 

has no authority to enforce the resulting injunction. 

Though the bankruptcy court did not reach the issue of certification of a 

class, we point out that because of the limitation on enforcement we have just 

identified, and indeed because we are aware of no prior certification of a class 

that includes debtors whose discharges were entered by bankruptcy courts in 

other districts, certifying such a class would be highly dubious. We also leave 

for the court on remand the separate issue, if it becomes relevant, of whether 

that court has authority to enforce the injunctions arising from discharges 

entered by any bankruptcy court in the same judicial district.

II. Dischargeability of private student loans 

The bankruptcy court also answered the question of whether the loans 

that the plaintiffs received were subject to the statutory prohibition of 

discharge of certain education loans. The court’s answer to that question was 

“no.” Though the ruling will impact only the discharges of loans by that court

or perhaps in that judicial district, it remains an answer we must review.

Congress has excepted certain categories of debt from discharge, 

including much student-loan debt. All exceptions to discharge are to be 

interpreted narrowly in favor of the debtor to preserve the “fresh start” the 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 16 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

17

Bankruptcy Code provides for debtors. Hickman v. Texas (In re Hickman), 260 

F.3d 400, 404–05 (5th Cir. 2001).8 The current articulation of the exception is 

that “the discharge under section 727 [and other sections] does not discharge 

an individual debtor from any debt –”

. . . 

(8) unless excepting such debt from discharge under this 

paragraph would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the 

debtor’s dependents, for--

(A)(i) an educational benefit overpayment or loan made, 

insured or guaranteed by a governmental unit, or made under 

any program funded in whole or in part by a governmental unit 

or nonprofit institution; or

(ii) an obligation to repay funds received as an educational 

benefit, scholarship, or stipend; or

(B) any other educational loan that is a qualified education 

loan, as defined in section 221(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue 

Code of 1986, incurred by a debtor who is an individual.

11 U.S.C. § 523(a). In summary, Subsection (A)(i) applies to loans, etc. in which 

a governmental unit or a nonprofit institution had a defined role. Subsection

(B) requires a journey through multiple statutes to understand its meaning. 

A partial explanation is that the referenced Internal Revenue Code section 

defines a “qualified education loan” as, among other things, “any indebtedness 

incurred by the taxpayer solely to pay qualified higher education expenses,” 

along with other conditions. 26 U.S.C. § 221(d). The qualified expenses are 

“the cost of attendance” at the eligible education institution, reduced by 

scholarships and other payments. Id. An eligible institution is defined, with 

exceptions, in Internal Revenue Code Section 25A(f)(2), as one “which is 

 

8 We quote what might seem to be authority that the opposite presumption applies to 

education loans. Though referring to a party’s argument, the Supreme Court could be seen 

as agreeing that Congress made “student loan debt presumptively nondischargeable.” Tenn. 

Student Assistance Corp. v. Hood, 541 U.S. 440, 450 (2004). In context, though, the Court is 

referring only to education loans from states. Id. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 17 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

18

eligible to participate in a program under Title IV” of the Higher Education 

Act. There is no claim that Subsection (B) applies. 

Subsection (A)(ii) is Navient’s target, which deals clearly with 

scholarships and stipends. Less clear, but definable, is what else it deals with. 

We restate the statutory language: there must be “an obligation to repay funds 

received as an educational benefit, scholarship, or stipend.” § 523(a)(8)(A)(ii). 

Navient argues this language plainly includes private student loans, and that 

Fifth Circuit precedent supports this argument. Navient also contends that 

lower court cases that disagree had misapplied canons of statutory 

interpretation to reach their conclusions. Finally, Section 523(a)(8)’s 

legislative history supports including private student loans.

The plaintiffs, though, argue that Subsection (8)(A)(ii)’s text and the 

Bankruptcy Code’s purpose to give debtors a fresh start require reading the 

subsection narrowly. Further, reading the subsection through the canons of 

statutory interpretation affirms this narrow reading, as do the drafters’ 

language and grammar choices. Finally, the legislative history does not show 

Congress intended to exempt private education loans from discharge.9

The bankruptcy court here determined Subsection (8)(A)(ii) was 

unambiguous. The court considered the absence of the word “loan” and the 

inclusion of the concepts of stipends and scholarships to narrow the meaning 

of receiving an educational benefit to include only such funding as “tuition 

advances by an employer that must be repaid if the employee leaves her 

employment within a certain period of time.” The court also focused on the 

Congressional use of the word “as” to precede “educational benefit.” To the 

 

9 Navient does not argue there is relevance to the fact that both Crocker and Shahbazi 

classified the relevant debts as “educational” on Schedule F of their bankruptcy filings. 

Importantly, we do not see on the forms in the record or in the instructions for completing 

such forms any guidance on labeling a debt as “educational” or a statement that it should not 

be so labeled unless it is nondischargeable under Section 523(a)(8). 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 18 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

19

court, that meant that what was received was the educational benefit, akin to 

scholarships and stipends, not that what was received could be used to pay for 

educational benefits. These private education loans were thus dischargeable.

There are some general interpretive rules to apply. Discharge exceptions 

are to be construed “narrowly” and “in favor of the debtor” in order to further 

the Bankruptcy Code’s purpose of giving debtor’s a “fresh start.” Miller v. J.D. 

Abrams Inc. (In re Miller), 156 F.3d 598, 602 (5th Cir. 1998). Exceptions to 

discharge “should be confined to those plainly expressed.” Kawaauhau v. 

Geiger, 523 U.S. 57, 62 (1998). Regardless, we may not ignore plain textual 

language, and as we discuss, Congressional action generally has enlarged the 

category of education loans that are not dischargeable.

We start with text and context, then discuss some of the prior statutory 

language that the current statute has replaced or supplemented. An initial 

read of Subsection (A)(ii) does not suggest that Congress used the phrase 

“obligation to repay funds received as an educational benefit” in order to 

include private student loans. The immediately preceding Subsection (A)(i) 

exempts “educational . . . loan[s].” Subsection (B) exempts “education loan[s].” 

Subsection (A)(ii) makes no reference to loans, its focus seemingly elsewhere. 

Navient argues that an “obligation to repay funds received” is expansive 

and includes loans, citing to other statutes and federal regulations that use 

“obligation to repay” in reference to loans. The fact that an obligation to repay 

is one way to refer to loans is correct, but we are trying to discern the meaning 

in the context of a particular enactment. If “‘Congress includes particular 

language in one section of a statute but omits it in another’ — let alone in the

very next provision” — courts presume “Congress intended a different 

meaning.” Loughrin v. United States, 573 U.S. 351, 358 (2014) (quoting 

Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23 (1983)). Congress sandwiched 

Subsection (A)(ii), which does not mention loans at least by name, between two 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 19 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

20

subsections that explicitly do. That structure is at least a start to saying 

educational benefits are not loans.

We now look more closely at Subsection (A)(ii)’s text. The subsection

applies to the “obligation to repay” funds received as “an educational benefit,” 

“scholarship,” or “stipend.” The prefatory language, i.e, that there is “an 

obligation to repay,” appears only in this subsection. The phrase is superfluous 

when referring to loans, but it is quite relevant to payments with contingent 

obligations. Next, a stipend is a “fixed and regular payment, such as a salary.” 

AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLEGE DICTIONARY, 1220 (3d ed. 1997). A scholarship 

is a “grant of financial aid to a student.” Id. The key phrase, “educational 

benefit,” is the broadest. We consider unnecessary a dictionary definition of 

“educational,” but “benefit” needs one. Because the term is so broad, the 

limiting principle of noscitur a sociis potentially should be used — over

Navient’s objection, though — to understand the phrase in context. In a recent 

application, the Supreme Court said there are times we should “look to noscitur 

a sociis, the well-worn Latin phrase that tells us that statutory words are often 

known by the company they keep.” Lagos v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1684, 

1688–89 (2018). The “common quality” in a list that is the focus of the noscitur

a sociis inquiry “should be its most general quality — the least common 

denominator, so to speak — relevant to the context.” SCALIA & GARNER,

READING LAW, 196. 

One general quality in the relevant phrase is that stipends and 

scholarships “signify granting, not borrowing.” McDaniel v. Navient Sols., LLC

(In re McDaniel), 590 B.R. 537, 549 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2018). Those grants may 

be conditional, but satisfaction of the conditions leaves them as grants. The 

common quality is that scholarships and stipends may not need to be repaid.

Navient argues that noscitur a sociis should not apply because the 

statutory list is too brief. The Supreme Court recently used the doctrine in a 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 20 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

21

four-item list: “lost income and necessary child care, transportation, and other 

expenses.” Lagos, 138 S. Ct. at 1688 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3663A(b)(4)); but see 

Graham Cnty. Soil & Water Conservation Dist. v. United States ex rel. Wilson, 

559 U.S. 280, 288 (2010) (“A list of three items . . . is too short to be particularly 

illuminating.”). Lagos used three specific items to give meaning to a catchall. 

Id. at 1688–89. Authors Scalia and Garner did use a three-item list to explain 

proper use of this doctrine. SCALIA & GARNER, READING LAW, at 196–97. The 

example was a state statute criminalizing the carrying of a firearm in a motor 

vehicle unless, among other conditions, it was “contained in a closed and 

fastened case, gunbox, or securely tied package.” Id. (discussing State v. 

Taylor, 594 N.W. 2d 533, 535–36 (Minn. Ct. App. 1999)). The Minnesota court 

held that a purse was not a proper “case” — despite that it was “closed and 

fastened” — because the commonality of the other two items was that they 

were containers that kept a firearm from being readily accessible. Id.

The brevity of the list in the text we must review does not compel 

ignoring the relevant term’s neighbors. 

We offer one definition of “benefit,” namely, a “payment made or an 

entitlement available in accordance with a wage agreement, an insurance 

policy, or a public assistance program.” AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLEGE

DICTIONARY, at 127. Whatever definition is used, we begin our analysis with 

a tentative acceptance that the benefit generally does not need to be repaid. 

Our analysis continues, though.

Navient claims that a different definition of “benefit” is best: “an 

advantage or profit gained from something.” OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (3d 

ed. 1997). That definition is limitless, invoking the very reason for the noscitur 

a sociis doctrine. Navient’s offering does not capture the essentials of “stipend”

and “scholarship,” which identify narrow categories of benefits. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 21 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

22

Indeed, we see a lack of common sense in interpreting the list as 

containing two specific and quite limited kinds of payments that, among other 

things, do not usually require repayment, and a third item preceding the two 

that was meant to be a catchall for loans and most everything else financially 

benefitting a student. Such an understanding of what Congress did with those 

words creates a superfluity of words in the other parts of Section 523(a)(8). If 

an “obligation to repay funds including educational benefits” includes repaying 

private student loans, that requires defining “educational benefit” to include 

loans, which then means it also covers the public loans that are the focus of 

Subsection 523(a)(8)(A)(i). See In re Essangui, 573 B.R. 614, 624 (Bankr. D. 

Md. 2017). Under Navient’s interpretation, government loans covered by 

Subsection (A)(i) and qualified education loans covered by Subsection (B) 

would also be covered by Subsection (A)(ii), rendering the other subsections

serving little purpose. Courts have a “duty to give effect, if possible, to every 

clause and word of a statute.” Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 173 (1997). 

Concomitantly, “the canon against surplusage is strongest when an 

interpretation would render superfluous another part of the same statutory 

scheme.” Marx v. Gen. Rev. Corp., 568 U.S. 371, 386 (2013).

Navient calls this analysis “hyperbolic,” reframing the surplusage as 

simply “some overlap” between the subsections. Navient, though, fails to 

explain how the other subsections serve much purpose if the broad reading of 

Subsection (A)(ii) applies. Navient argues that Subsection (A)(ii)’s receipt of 

funds requirement leaves Subsection (B) with work to do. For example, a loan 

obtained by a grandfather for his grandson to attend a Title IV college would 

not be covered by Subsection (A)(ii) because the grandfather did not receive the 

benefit, but it was covered by Subsection (B). See Wills v. Sallie Mae Servicing 

(In re Wills), No. 08-80404-FJO-07, 2010 WL 1688221, at *7 (S.D. Ind. Apr. 23, 

2010). Maybe so, but because every exemption in these provisions is a type of 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 22 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

23

fund used by recipients to advance their education, Congress could have just 

exempted from discharge any “obligation to repay funds received as an 

educational benefit” and left it at that. The redundancies created by Navient’s 

interpretation of Subsection (A)(ii) create more than a modest overlap and can 

be avoided by adopting the narrower interpretation of that subsection. 

Navient seeks to block any interpretive effort by this court by arguing 

that one of our precedents makes the sole issue for us “whether Plaintiffs’ loans 

expressed an educational purpose at the time of application, origination, and 

disbursement.” See Murphy v. Penn. Higher Educ. Assistance Agency (In re 

Murphy), 282 F.3d 868, 870–72 (5th Cir. 2002).10 Pretty bold analysis of 

Murphy, and errant in our view. Murphy applied the 1990 language applicable 

to loans insured by the federal government. Id. at 870. The question was 

whether such a federally-insured loan was “educational” even as to proceeds 

spent on living expenses. Id. at 870, 873. The court held that the educational 

purpose of such a loan was defined by its purpose upon disbursement by the 

lender and not by the way it was spent by the borrower. Id. at 873. Murphy 

did not analyze our issue, and we must conduct our own evaluation. 

An argument by plaintiffs about grammar, to which we give less weight 

than the foregoing because it relies on such a minor word-choice, is that when 

Congress exempted funds “received as an educational benefit” rather than “for 

an educational benefit,” the natural reading is that it describes what the giver 

 

10 The Murphy court discussed the added difficulties the debtor’s strained reading of 

“educational benefit” in the 1990 statute’s reference to federally-insured loans would create 

for the second use of the phrase in Section 523(a)(8), which the court twice quoted as 

“education benefit scholarship or stipend,” i.e, without commas. See Murphy, 282 F.3d at 

870, 871. That made the first two words adjectival, not a separate category, and the court’s 

analysis focused on whether the two words modified both “scholarship” and “stipend.” Id. at 

871–72. It appears to us, though, that Congress in 1990 adopted this language: “obligation 

to repay funds received as an educational benefit, scholarship or stipend.” Crime Control Act 

of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-647, § 3621, 104 Stat. 4789, 4964–65. Regardless, the statute as it 

exists today does make “educational benefit” a third category in Section 523(a)(8)(A)(ii).

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 23 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

24

was giving and not what the receiver could make of the gift. The phrase “as 

an educational benefit” indicates that the funds themselves are the educational 

benefit (like tuition payments), whereas the phrase “for an educational benefit” 

might well encompass funds conveyed for educational purposes, including 

private student loans. Essangui, 573 B.R. at 621. At least it can be said the 

drafters’ word choice does not support inclusion of private student loans.

We also examine the statutory history for Subsection (a)(8), i.e., the 

history of enacted revisions.11 Since 1970, Congress has expanded the scope of 

non-dischargeable student loans. See, e.g., Cazenovia Coll. v. Renshaw (In re 

Renshaw), 222 F.3d 82, 86–88 (2d Cir. 2000) (surveying the history of 

Subsection (a)(8)). We find that the phrase “educational benefit” first appeared 

in Subsection (a)(8) in 1990, which excepted from discharge a debt 

for an educational benefit overpayment or loan made, insured or 

guaranteed by a governmental unit, or made under any program 

funded in whole or in part by a governmental unit or nonprofit 

institution, or for an obligation to repay funds received as an 

educational benefit, scholarship or stipend.

Crime Control Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-647, § 3621, 104 Stat. 4789, 4964-

65 (codified as 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8)) (emphasis added). 

 

11 Plaintiffs also urge us to examine legislative history. Various court decisions assert 

that in 1990, the nondischargeability of “an obligation to repay funds received as an 

educational benefit, scholarship, or stipend,” was added to confirm an Eighth Circuit 

interpretation holding that certain conditional payments were loans covered by Section (a)(8). 

See, e.g., Essangui, 573 B.R. at 618 (citing U.S. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs. v. Smith, 

807 F.2d 122 (8th Cir. 1986)). A House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill revealed that 

the amendment was drafted by a committee of United States Attorneys. Fed. Debt Collection 

Procedures: Hearing before the Subcomm. on Econ. & Commercial Law of the Comm. on the 

Judiciary, H.R., 101st Cong., 2, 3 (1990) (statements by Rep. Brooks and U.S. Att’y Bob 

Wortham). In answers to written questions, the chair of the outside drafting committee wrote 

that VA benefits were an example of a relevant “education benefit.” Id. at 74–75 (answers of 

Bob Wortham). We acknowledge this history but do not rely on it. Meaning to a statute

comes from its text, analyzed by employing appropriate tools of statutory interpretation

which we conclude do not include legislative history. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 24 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

25

Before explaining the latest change, made in 2005, we remark on the 

near-unanimity of courts’ understanding of the 1990 change. One court, after 

surveying the caselaw, stated that the language we italicized above was 

“generally interpreted . . . to create a new category of nondischargeable debt 

that excluded for-profit loans.” Essangui, 573 B.R. at 619. Navient agrees that 

was the trend, but it argues that by the amendments to Subsection (a)(8) in 

2005 which we discuss next, Congress brought private student loans within 

the exceptions to discharge. The parties do not agree about the post-2005 

caselaw. Navient calculates the majority as holding that any funds received 

for an educational purpose, including private student loans, were covered by 

the new language.12 See, e.g., Brown v. CitiBank, N.A. (In re Brown), 539 B.R. 

853, 858–59 (Bankr. S.D. Cal. 2015). The plaintiffs count the cases differently. 

They both agree that since about 2015, there has been increasing caselaw that 

holds private student loans are not exempt from discharge. See, e.g., Nypaver 

v. Nypaver (In re Nypaver), 581 B.R. 431, 435–37 (W.D. Pa. 2018). 

In 2005, Congress replaced the entirety of Subsection (a)(8) with a new 

subsection with subparts. We italicize the only significant new language:

(8) unless excepting such debt from discharge under this 

paragraph would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the 

debtor's dependents, for —

(A)(i) an educational benefit overpayment or loan made, 

insured, or guaranteed by a governmental unit, or made under any 

 

12 The only circuit court opinion cited to us on this issue is unpublished. Desormes v. 

Infilaw Corp. (In re Desormes), 569 F. App’x 42 (2d Cir. 2014). Thus, no matter what we 

decide, there will not be a split in precedential circuit authority. The opinion was quite brief, 

with the only description of the debt being that it came from a “student loan” and “was 

excepted from discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8)(A)(ii).” Id. at 43. There was no analysis 

of how to interpret the three-item statutory list. The debtor’s argument centered on the 

supposed necessity for “a transfer of funds directly to the debtor” before a loan would “be 

received within the meaning of the statute.” Id. The bankruptcy court’s opinion indicates the 

loan was from the school to pay the student’s tuition. Desormes v. Charlotte School of Law, 

Inc. (In re Desormes), 2012 WL 4106765 at *1 (Bankr. D. Conn. 2012). 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 25 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

26

program funded in whole or in part by a governmental unit or 

nonprofit institution; or

(ii) an obligation to repay funds received as an educational 

benefit, scholarship, or stipend; or

(B) any other educational loan that is a qualified education 

loan, as defined in section 221(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code 

of 1986, incurred by a debtor who is an individual.

Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, Pub. L. 

No. 109-8, Title II, § 220, 119 Stat. 23, 59 (emphasis added) (codified as 11 

U.S.C. § 523(a)).

The significant change was to make nondischargeable “any other . . . 

qualified educational loan,” which Navient concedes the loans here are not, by 

adding Subsection (B). Most importantly for us, Congress barely tweaked the

1990 language of “obligation to repay funds received as an educational benefit,

scholarship or stipend” — it inserted a comma after “scholarship.” Navient 

acknowledges that from 1990 to 2005, the interpretation of stipends, 

scholarships, and educational benefits had excluded for-profit loans. We see 

what did not happen to this language in 2005 as invoking this principle: “If a 

word or phrase has been . . . given a uniform interpretation by inferior courts..., 

a later version of that act perpetuating the wording is presumed to carry 

forward that interpretation.” Texas Dep’t of Hous. & Cmty. Affairs v. Inclusive 

Cmtys. Project, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 2507, 2520 (2015) (quoting SCALIA & GARNER,

READING LAW 322). Navient argues that severing Subsection (A)(ii) from (A)(i) 

allowed (A)(ii) to cover a broader scope of education financing, including 

private education loans. All we see is a change to the structure of the overall 

statute but no real change to the language that controls the case before us.

Navient’s assertion that the 2005 amendment made all private student 

loans nondischargeable is not only unsupported by the text, it is unsupported 

by some of Navient’s authorities. Among them is Corletta v. Tex. Higher Educ. 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 26 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

27

Coordinating Bd. (In re Pappas), 517 B.R. 708, 716–17 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 

2014). That case says no more than that Congress amended Subsection (a)(8) 

in 2005 “to apply to private loans as well” without identifying Subsection 

(a)(8)(A)(ii) as the mechanism for this change. Id. at 717. What brought a new 

category of private loans into the discharge arena was the language of 

Subsection (a)(8)(B), the only meaningful 2005 addition.

This court has recently discussed the 2005 change to the statute. See 

Thomas v. Dep’t of Educ. (In re Thomas), 931 F.3d 449 (5th Cir. 2019). The 

case concerned the “undue hardship” test that allows the discharge of an 

education loan. Id. at 451–55. The loans at issue were from the United States 

Department of Education. Id. at 450. That made them nondischargeable 

under Subsection 523(a)(8)(A)(i) as being “insured or guaranteed by a 

governmental unit, or made under any program funded in whole or in part by 

a governmental unit or nonprofit institution.” 

The 2005 revision was “in response to the growing trend of commercial 

lending,” and the amendment’s purpose was to “make qualified private student 

loans harder to discharge, prohibiting discharge in all cases, unless repayment 

would create ‘undue hardship’ for the debtor.” Id. at 453. That is a description 

of the new Subsection (a)(8)(B). The definition of a “qualified education loan” 

is in Section 221(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and, as stated 

before, Navient accepts that Subsection (a)(8)(B) does not apply here. 

In a supplementary letter to this court on Thomas, Navient implicitly 

recognized that much of the new opinion was not on point, but it quoted the 

court’s language that “Section 523(a)(8) as it stands today excepts virtually all 

student loans from discharge” with the caveat about undue hardship. Thomas, 

931 F.3d at 453. That statement is a fair summary of the reach of 

nondischargeability, but before us is a category of loan that has not (yet) been 

reached by Subsection 523(a)(8). 

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 27 Date Filed: 10/21/2019
No. 18-20254

28

We find nothing in the 2005 revisions to alter our interpretation that 

Subsection 523(a)(8)(A)(ii) applies only to educational payments that are not 

initially loans but whose terms will create a reimbursement obligation upon 

the failure of conditions of the payments.

In conclusion, the only possibly applicable part of the relevant statute is 

Subsection 523(a)(8)(A)(ii). In interpreting that provision, we rely on the 

noscitur a sociis doctrine, the need to avoid surplusage, Congressional 

ratification in 2005 of prior interpretations, and the command that discharge 

exceptions are interpreted narrowly in favor of debtors. We conclude that 

“education benefit” is limited to conditional payments with similarities to 

scholarships and stipends. The loans at issue here, though obtained in order 

to pay expenses of education, do not qualify as “an obligation to repay funds 

received as an educational benefit, scholarship, or stipend” because their 

repayment was unconditional. They therefore are dischargeable.

* * *

We REVERSE the bankruptcy court’s determination that it has 

authority to enforce a discharge injunction entered by a different district’s 

bankruptcy court. Any debtors seeking injunctions due to discharges entered 

in other districts should have their proceedings dismissed or transferred. We 

AFFIRM the determination that loans such as those in issue here are 

dischargeable. We REMAND to the bankruptcy court.

 Case: 18-20254 Document: 00515167087 Page: 28 Date Filed: 10/21/2019