In Re Seth E. Sicroff, Debtor, Stephen C. Jett v. Seth E. Sicroff, and Office of the United States Trustee, Trustee

We must decide whether a debt was nondischargeable under the Bankruptcy Act as one for willful and malicious injury when it arose out of a published defamatory letter from a graduate student to the Chancellor of the University of California at Davis.

I

Stephen C. Jett and Seth E. Sicroff were, respectively, a tenured professor and a graduate student in the Geography Department of the University of California at Davis. When the university proposed closing the department, Sicroff sent a letter, dated April 17,1993, to the Chancellor and Deans of the university, with copies to the California Agge, Sacramento Bee and Davis Enterprise newspapers, in which he purported to reveal the “real motivation” for closing the department. Sicroff s letter stated, in part, that:

Based largely on the accusations against them contained in this letter, Professors Jett and Bahre filed two suits, which were later consolidated, against Sicroff and several other defendants alleging, among other injuries, slander, libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Before trial, the other defendants settled their claims with Jett and Bahre. Sicroff, however, refused to participate in the settlement…