Opinion ID: 152251
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Subjective Motive to Cause Harm

Text: Similarly, Guerra & Moore has not established “that [Cantu] had the subjective motive to cause harm.” Id. at 606. The state court jury declined to answer whether Cantu acted with “malice,” defined to mean “a specific intent by . . . Cantu to cause substantial injury to Guerra & Moore.” As such, the state court judgment, by itself, does not establish that Guerra & Moore acted with the “subjective motive to cause harm.” Cf. id. at 604 (“If the subjective standard alone were the standard, issue preclusion would give [the debtor] victory because the jury found that he did not act with ‘malice.’”). Because Guerra & Moore stipulated that the record of the state court judgment was its sole evidence concerning “willful and malicious injury,” we are compelled to conclude that Guerra & Moore has not “prove[n] by a preponderance of the evidence” that Cantu’s conduct met the subjective standard. See Walker, 142 F.3d at 824 (remanding for a factfinding to determine whether debtor met the subjective standard when the state court judgment did not establish the fact).