In the bankruptcy case of Robison, Christopher D.; In re (Robison v. Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp., et al.), the bankruptcy court ruled that the debtor’s student loan was nondischargeable and that the debtor’s mental illness was not enough to qualify as a hardship.
The details of the bankruptcy case:
The Chapter 7 bankruptcy debtor is a 35 year old, married man with two children, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder . His wife was employed as a bank office manager earning $42,000 per year. The debtor was not employed and had not worked since 2006. In 2005 the debtor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hospitalized twice for suicidal thoughts. The debtor told the bankruptcy court that he did not believe he could work because his mood swings might cause him to harm someone and requested that he be allowed to discharge student loans of $112,655 and $148,219 in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy court found that his mental illness did not prevent the debtor from working and noted that the debtor had refused to work jobs that he deemed beneath him. The bankruptcy court found that his refusal to work seemingly “menial” jobs to be contrary to the second prong of the Brunner test and further noted that the debtor did not establish a “certainty of hopelessness.” Finally the bankruptcy court found that repayment of the student loan debt were not an undue burden because of the availability of the income contingent repayment plan.