Debt Declared Nondischargeable due to Debtors Knowledge of Error

The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, in the case of Nawroz v. Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, in August, 2012, affirmed a bankruptcy court decision which held that a debtor cannot discharge in bankruptcy her obligation to repay a bank for the $28,029.99 that the bank mistakenly credited her IRA.

Wells Fargo, after mistakenly transferring the funds into the debtor’s IRA, then transferred the balance of debtor’s account, $56,043, to a checking account at another bank, and then closed the debtor’s account with Wells Fargo.

At trial, the debtor testified that during that time period, she was severely depressed, her home was in foreclose, she lost her business and she was not attending to her business affairs.  She also testified that she did not know the funds not belonging to her had been mistakenly transferred to her new checking account.  Shortly after the transfer of funds to the checking account, the debtor wrote a checking for $81,000 to Khalil Wadedi, allegedly to avert a family emergency arising from the kidnapping of a family member in Afghanistan.  At the time, the checking account held less than $84,000.

Wells Fargo won a default judgment against the debtor for $36,962.71, covering the funds mistakenly transferred, attorney’s fees, prejudgment interest and costs.

During the debtor’s subsequent bankruptcy proceedings the bankruptcy court said the debt to Wells Fargo was nondischargeable pursuant to Bankruptcy Code Section 523 (a)(6).  The debtor appealed this decision.

The District Court noted that the debtor knew that her CD account with Wells Fargo held no more than $28,032 in April 2008, and therefore the amount transferred from Wells Fargo to the different checking account should not have exceeded this amount.  The debtor subsequently used $81,000 from the checking account after the transfer of funds from Wells Fargo.  But for the mistaken credit by Wells Fargo of $28,029, the checking account would have been no more than $56,000 and therefore debtor’s $81,000 check would not have cleared.

The debtor admitted that she knew the balance of the CD account; therefore, the court reasoned that the debtor must have known that the amount transferred from Wells Fargo to the checking account should not have exceeded $28,032, regardless of what account held the funds prior to this transfer, and that the debtor was not the true owner of approximately $28,000 of the amount in her checking account in May, 2008.