Court Opinion

ID: 9462944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:53:53.412772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:51.418356
License: Public Domain

TRASK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I regret to announce that I must disagree with the views of my distinguished brothers on the bench. It is my view that under the constitution of the United States the Congress has the power to create, to limit, or enlarge the jurisdiction of the inferior courts, including the Bankruptcy Court, and, that they did in this case. I find that the language of Sections 17(c)(2) and 17(c)(3) of the 1970 Amendments to the Bankruptcy Act are mandatory in nature, and I can find no way to avoid the mandatory requirements of those statutes. In my view there are sound reasons of policy that would have prompted the Congress to adopt them. The view that I take in interpreting the statutes is that Congress could well have decided that it is good policy to permit the determination in one forum of the question of liability and of dischargeability in situations described in Sections 17(a)(2), (4), and (8) of the statute.
I further find that the appellees’ reliance upon Section 17(c)(4) as an escape from the mandatory language of Sections 17(c)(2) and 17(c)(3) is not persuasive and, therefore, I would reverse.