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Frazier v. U.S. Dep't of Education (In re Frazier) (Case No. 04-74946; A.P. No. 05-07015) 1/10/2006

Debtor sought discharge of educational loan debt on grounds of undue hardship. Court denied the Department of Education's motion to dismiss under F.R.C.P. 12(b)(1) asserting the debtor's failure to exhaust available administrative remedies. Given the absence of a statutory provision requiring the debtor to exhaust administrative rememdies before seeking discharge and the specific inclusion in the Code of a provision allowing for bankruptcy discharge in limited circumstances, Court had jurisdiction to determine whether payment of student loan debt would constitute an undue hardship on the debtor under section 523(a)(8) even when the debtor has not exhausted all possible administrative options for the deferral or discharge of the obligation.  Any such failure to pursue administrative remedies must be considered in the context of applying the Brunner test.

Date: 
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Category: 
Discharge
Student Loan
Chapter: 
7