In re Fagan
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Klein, J.
OPINION REGARDING MILITARY DEBT DISCHARGE EXCEPTION
Inconspicuous exceptions to bankruptcy discharges lurking at 37 U.S.C. §§ 303a(e)(4) and 373(c) surprised the debtor who assumed that his debt to repay the unearned part of his Navy reenlistment bonus had been discharged. He urges that Bankruptcy Code § 727(b) (dis-charge “from all debts” not named in § 523) trumps statutes not named in Bankruptcy Code § 523, but Congress has said otherwise in a later-enacted statute. His motion for an order of contempt to enforce the discharge injunction is DE-NIED.
*719 These obscure discharge exceptions, en-acted in 2006 and 2008, warrant exegesis as a case of first impression. They anchor more than 60 repayment provisions scat-tered around Titles 10, 14, and 37 of the United States Code and have not been reviewed in reported bankruptcy decisions.
Facts
The debtor was involuntarily discharged from the Navy after serving fifteen months of a six-year reenlistment.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) billed him $5,945.09 to recoup the unearned portion (1735 days) of his'reenlistment bonus.
He filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy case on November 9, 2015, scheduling a $5,945.10 debt to…