Can My Ex Discharge Our Divorce Debts in Bankruptcy?
It depends entirely on which chapter they file, and the Bankruptcy Code gives opposite answers for the same obligation.
A property settlement obligation to a former spouse is excepted from a Chapter 7 discharge. It is not on the exception list for an ordinary Chapter 13 discharge. And it is excepted again from a Chapter 13 hardship discharge.
That is not a quirk of interpretation. It follows from which sections Congress put on which list, and the numbers are readable if somebody walks you through them. Nothing about how divorce debts in bankruptcy are treated is intuitive, and almost everything written about it collapses the three chapters into one answer.
Bardol Law Firm practices family law only. This page explains how a Missouri family law judgment behaves when it reaches bankruptcy court. It is not bankruptcy advice, and anybody facing an actual filing needs a bankruptcy attorney for the bankruptcy case and its deadlines.
What Does Section 523(a)(15) Cover?
Divorce obligations that are not support.
11 U.S.C. Section 523(a)(15) reaches a debt “to a spouse, former spouse, or child of the debtor and not of the kind described in paragraph (5) that is incurred by the debtor in the course of a divorce or separation or in connection with a separation agreement, divorce decree or other order of a court of record, or a determination made in accordance with State or territorial law by a governmental unit.”
Property settlements, equalization payments, obligations to pay a marital debt and hold harmless promises usually live here, and they are the divorce debts in bankruptcy people worry about most.
Support lives one paragraph earlier. Section 523(a)(5) covers a domestic support obligation, which 11 U.S.C. Section 101(14A) defines as a debt owed to or recoverable by a spouse, former spouse or child, that is “in the nature of alimony, maintenance, or support … without regard to whether such debt is expressly so designated.”
Note those last eight words. The label in the decree does not decide the paragraph. The function of the obligation does, and which paragraph applies is the question everything else on this page turns on.
Is a Property Settlement Dischargeable in Chapter 7?
No.
The opening line of Section 523(a) names the discharges it limits. “A discharge under section 727, 1141, 1192, 1228(a), 1228(b), or 1328(b) of this title does not discharge an individual debtor from any debt,” followed by the list of exceptions.
Section 727 is the Chapter 7 discharge. So divorce debts in bankruptcy that qualify under paragraph (15) survive a Chapter 7.
And there is no balancing test any more. Older versions of the statute let a court weigh ability to pay and relative benefit. The current text does not. The paragraph either reaches the obligation or it does not, which makes identifying what the obligation actually does the whole of the work.
What Happens in an Ordinary Chapter 13 Case?
The opposite answer, and it comes from two omissions rather than from any affirmative rule.
Read the opening line of Section 523(a) again and notice what is missing. It names 727, 1141, 1192, 1228(a), 1228(b) and 1328(b). It does not name 1328(a), which is the ordinary Chapter 13 discharge.
Then read the Chapter 13 discharge itself. 11 U.S.C. Section 1328(a) supplies its own exception list, and the relevant paragraph excepts a debt “of the kind specified in section 507(a)(8)(C) or in paragraph (1)(B), (1)(C), (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), or (9) of section 523(a).”
Paragraph (5) is on that list. Paragraph (15) is not.
So support survives an ordinary Chapter 13 discharge and a non support obligation may not. That single omission is why divorce debts in bankruptcy cannot be answered without knowing the chapter. Practitioners call this the Chapter 13 superdischarge, and it is the single most consequential fact on this page.
The Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel described the structure in In re Phegley, 443 B.R. 154 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2011), stating that if an obligation “is not a domestic support obligation, it would fall under 11 U.S.C. Section 523(a)(15), which obligations are not excepted from discharge in Chapter 13 cases, nor are they entitled to priority status.”
Two honest qualifications on that sentence. It is background exposition rather than a holding applied to the facts, and the panel adopted it from the bankruptcy court’s own memorandum. The obligations actually at issue in Phegley, monthly maintenance and attorney’s fees, were found to be domestic support obligations and were excepted on that basis. The paragraph (15) question was never litigated there.
Section 1328(a) also reaches only debts provided for by the plan or disallowed under Section 502, so how a claim was listed and treated still matters. That is a bankruptcy attorney’s question.
What About a Chapter 13 Hardship Discharge?
The answer flips back, and this is the trapdoor.
Section 1328(b) lets a court grant a discharge before plan payments are complete only where the failure to complete them “is due to circumstances for which the debtor should not justly be held accountable,” creditors have received at least what Chapter 7 liquidation would have paid, and modifying the plan is not practicable.
Then Section 1328(c)(2) provides that such a discharge covers all unsecured debts provided for by the plan “except any debt … of a kind specified in section 523(a) of this title.”
Of a kind specified in section 523(a), unqualified. Unlike the ordinary Chapter 13 list, that phrase does not pick particular paragraphs, so it reaches paragraph (15). And the opening line of Section 523(a) names 1328(b) directly, so both statutes say the same thing from opposite ends.
So the practical summary is short. A completed ordinary Chapter 13 may discharge a qualifying non support property settlement obligation. A hardship discharge brings Section 523(a)(15) back into the picture, and divorce debts in bankruptcy that looked discharged under one route are excepted under the other.
What Is the Difference Between Support and a Property Settlement?
Substance, not the label the decree uses.
Section 523(a)(15) applies only to a debt that is “not of the kind described in paragraph (5),” and Section 101(14A) defines a domestic support obligation by what it does rather than what it is called. It can be established by “a separation agreement, divorce decree, or property settlement agreement” or by an order of a court of record.
So calling something a property settlement does not make it one. A bankruptcy court can look at the purpose of the obligation, the circumstances when it was created, and how the decree structured the payment. That was the live dispute in Phegley.
Which is why the drafting of a Missouri judgment matters years before anybody files anything. A decree that identifies each debt, states why the payment is being made and names who must pay it gives a bankruptcy court something to work with. Section 452.325.5 RSMo makes those terms enforceable between the spouses “by all remedies available for the enforcement of a judgment.” Our page on the hold harmless clause in a divorce decree covers the drafting side.
What Happened in Henderson?
A Missouri case ran this exact route, and the useful part is a distinction most people would not predict.
In Henderson v. Henderson, 389 S.W.3d 260 (Mo. App. E.D. 2012), the decree awarded the wife the marital home and required her to remove the husband’s name from the mortgage. It assigned the husband an eighteen thousand four hundred dollar U.S. Bank line of credit, stated that neither spouse could discharge an assigned debt in bankruptcy without the other’s written consent, and included mutual indemnification language.
The husband filed Chapter 7 about five months after the decree, listed the line of credit and received a discharge. The bank then pursued the wife.
The Eastern District held the obligation was not dischargeable, and rejected the argument that it fell outside the paragraph because the money was owed to a bank rather than to the wife. “The fact that the obligation is payable to U.S. Bank and not Wife does not remove the debts from the scope of Section 523(a)(15).” The requirement that the debt be owed to a former spouse was met because the debts were payable for her benefit.
Be precise about what the court did next. It reversed the dischargeability ruling and remanded for reconsideration of contempt and attorney fees. It did not enter a contempt judgment itself.
Does a Clause Barring Bankruptcy Work?
Not the way people expect it to.
The Henderson decree contained exactly such a clause. The husband filed anyway, and the later dispute was never about whether the clause stopped him. It was about whether the obligation was excepted from discharge under a federal statute.
Dischargeability is a federal bankruptcy question. Whether a standalone clause purporting to bar a bankruptcy filing is enforceable on its own terms is not something we would describe as settled in every situation.
What actually protected the wife in Henderson was the statute plus clear indemnity language identifying the obligation. That is where drafting effort belongs.
What Does This Not Decide?
Whether to file, which chapter to choose, or what will happen in a particular case. Those are bankruptcy questions.
The Code also carries eligibility rules, timing requirements and claim procedures that sit outside a family law overview entirely.
What it does decide is that the family law side deserves attention long before anybody is thinking about divorce debts in bankruptcy. How an obligation is characterized, secured and described in a Missouri judgment can determine the answer years later.
And a Missouri judgment does not touch the lender. In Barth v. Barth, 372 S.W.3d 496 (Mo. App. W.D. 2012), the decree ordered the husband “to exercise his best efforts to secure Wife’s release from the debts” the parties had guaranteed, “and in any event to indemnify Wife for those debts,” which is the shape of the problem. In Wilson v. Wilson, decided 18 April 2023, the Western District quoted Wright v. Wright, 1 S.W.3d 52 (Mo. App. W.D. 1999) for the authority “to distribute marital debts in the sense that one spouse may be assigned the primary duty to pay off the debt and hold the other spouse harmless on the same.”
And the family law side does not reopen. Section 452.330.5 RSMo makes the property division “a final order not subject to modification,” so a bankruptcy filing by a former spouse is not a route back into it. Our FAQ on marital debt in Missouri covers the allocation, and our page on property and asset division covers the wider question.
Who Can Help When a Former Spouse Files?
When divorce debts in bankruptcy are in play, the family law questions and the bankruptcy questions are separate and both usually need attention.
Bardol Law Firm practices only family law and handles property and debt division and post judgment enforcement for families in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, St. Charles County and Jefferson County. You can read more about property and asset division, our work for business owners, and the rest of our family law questions and answers.
Every client here has a named paralegal on the file, and we generally return calls within one business day. We will tell you plainly when you need a bankruptcy attorney alongside us, which on this topic is most of the time.
Family Law, Simplified.
If a notice has arrived and nobody has told you which chapter it is, that is where the conversation starts. Contact Bardol Law Firm or call 314.918.0100.
This page is general information about Missouri family law and is not legal advice. It is not bankruptcy advice. Bardol Law Firm practices family law only. Anyone facing a bankruptcy filing should consult a bankruptcy attorney about the case, the available remedies and the applicable deadlines. Every case turns on its own facts. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.