Laws
Laws v. Goodwin
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
NOT FOR PUBLICATION 2 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 In re: Case No. 20-25031-A-
MATHEW DALE GOODWIN and SHANNON
MARIE GOODWIN,
9 Debtors.
11 JUSTIN LAWS and MARY LAWS, Adv. No. 21-2011-A 12 Plaintiffs, 13 V. 14 MATHEW DALE GOODWIN and SHANNON MARIE GOODWIN,
Defendants.
17 18 19 20 MEMORANDUM 22 23 24 25 26 27 Plaintiffs Justin Laws and Mary Laws seek to prove up a default judgment against Mathew Dale Goodwin, arguing that an unconfirmed California arbitrator’s award is issue preclusive with respect to an action for non-dischargeable fraud, 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A), pending before this court. The standards for applying issue preclusion are well known. “In federal courts, the preclusive effect of a state court judgment is decided by the law of the state in which the judgment was rendered. Gayden v. Nourbakhsh (In re Nourbakhsh), 67 F.3d 798, 800 (9th Cir. 1995).” In re Javahery, No. 2:14-BK-33249-DS, 2017 WL 971780, at *5 11 …