MarketGraphics Research Group Inc. v. Berge

Issues: (1) Whether the Bankruptcy Code’s “willful and malicious injury” exception — which exempts from discharge “any debts ... for willful and malicious injury by the debtor to another entity or to the property of another entity” — applies only when a debtor has a subjective intent to injure (as five circuits hold), or whether it may also be satisfied by conduct that objectively has a substantial certainty of causing injury (as three circuits hold); and (2) whether the “willful and malicious injury” exception establishes a unitary standard requiring only “actual intent to cause injury” (as five circuits hold), or whether it establishes a two-pronged test requiring both “actual intent to cause injury” and conduct “in conscious disregard of one’s duties or without just cause or excuse” (as six circuits hold).